ELEMENTS OF GOOD LEADERSHIP
Good leadership cares about the
future as much as it does about the present.
This is not just in the sense of
legacy building. I'm referring to one ensuring thoughtful, conscientious and
deliberate protection of the future, to the extent that one invests in evolving
achievable goals and structures, that will help to keep the organization alive
and thriving long after one is are gone.
Part of the reason why leaders
everywhere, but much more often in Africa, take unbelievable decisions and
enact policies that are often highly appalling is because, in many cases, they
do not have to live with the consequences of their actions.
Many of them are close to the
grave anyway, and those who are not have stolen enough money to make them live
like kings in other lands far from the hell they have helped to create. There
are many more who lack the will; political, economic or the moral vertitude to
do what they should, in most cases tied to the desire for self-preservation.
In many organizations where
leadership is tenure based or time bound, leaders often make the mistake of
counting the number of years, months, weeks or days they have left on the
position instead of the level and quality of impact they have had on the people
they have been privileged to work with. At the end of the day, it is the
quality of your impact on your subordinates that ensures the growth or demise
of the organization.
The assertion that a good name is
better than wealth or that the memory of the just is blessed has been proven to
be true many times over. Every historical figure we hear about today has a
story tied to them, whether good or bad.
You know history can either celebrate
you, vindicate you, embarrass you or repudiate you forever.
Ultimately the
consequences of your actions will be felt by you or your children. I am sure
you can remember a few people whose names evoke negative emotions from you or
others around you today. Some of those people died long before you were born.
Let us do a quick exercise:
For a moment, pick a pen and
sheet of paper and write down three names each of bad and good leaders at
organizational or national levels. Which of these groups would you love to
belong?
Most African and Caribbean
Nations are being recolonized by China because of wrong economic policies over
the many years they have been independent. Jamaica seems to be leading the pack
from the Caribbean; South Africa in the southern hemisphere of the continent;
Kenya, Nigeria and the list goes on.
In South Africa for example,
Mandarin is an official school language now, meanwhile local languages like
Zulu, Xhosa and others are not. How absurd!!
And to imagine that the the
homeland of Bob Marley and Marcus Garvey will probably be the first Chinese
colony is almost unthinkable. With the rate and level African leaders are conceding
economic infrastructures to the Chinese, one will not be shocked if they decide
to sell their citizens someday. The unfortunate part is, most of the monies
they take as loans end in private pockets.
I am not trying to cast aspersion
on all leaders, and certainly not on our founding fathers. Most of the men and
women who fought for the independence of Africa from the grip of colonialism
had good plans for the continent. Unfortunately many of those who came after
them did not understand the vision or simply chose to pursue personal
ideologies. Consequently, the gains and victory Africa won between the 1950's
and 1960's have become Pyrrhic in a sense.
It is this same demon that
bedevils our national life that haunts many of our organizations too. Primarily
because they all exist in the same space and time. And so it is foolish to
complain about how bad or lacking in vision African leaders are when the least
of us do worse in other positions albeit a smaller one and with less
responsibility.
The degree and import of faults
may be different but underlying principles are the same; a fault is a fault
irrespective of the person committing it. The name you call taking what does
not belong to you may differ across board, but at the end of the day it is
"stealing" and you are a thief, that is all that matters.
Successes that do not outlive the
leader is not good success. I am not referring to successes that are by design
momentary in nature. I am talking about structural and institutional progress
that is expected to be handed down to coming generations. What is the use of
starting a business, company, school, ministry etc that the next generation
would not inherit?
Most businesses in this clime
very rarely outlive their founder or owner. If you take a good look at them,
they were not designed to live beyond the first generation as there is rarely a
well laid out succession plan.
As a leader, take a moment to ask
yourself; can I bequeath what I am doing now to the coming generation and
expect it to last? If your answer is 'NO' then you need to make some changes.
I will outline five (5) things I
believe every great leader must do to ensure continuity and preservation of
purpose. This is not an exclusive list so you may add yours as we go along.
1. Express your convictions about your vision for the future
Write the vision and make it
plain (understandable) upon tables that he may run that reads it. That was a
directive given to the Prophet Habbakuk (2:2), emphasizing the importance of
expressing ideas and visions.
What is not expressed cannot be
impressed on the mind and impossible to convince others to see or achieve.
The reason why Habbakuk was asked
to write the vision plainly on tables is so that people can understand it when
they stop to read it. It will be useless if they stop to read yet do not
understand what is written.
The practice of figuring out what
to do as you go along is not good for any organization. There must be a clearly
defined plan; a well-articulated vision and attainable goals for any
organization to make progress.
Any organization and leadership
that fails to plan has ultimately decided to fail. The vision and mission
statement of any organization is so that it gives direction and guidance to
efforts and inputs. You cannot afford to waste energy as one beating the air.
The leader must be able to
communicate his convictions about the vision of the organization unambiguously.
He cannot afford to leave people in doubt as to where he stands as far the
future of the organization is concerned. The targets, trainings, business
direction must align with the vision of the organization. A Petroleum
exploration company would not be purchasing land for the farming of cassava as
a core business area; neither will an electrical engineering firm send her
engineers to a snail farming training when they have both not decided to
diversify business operations. That would amount to waste of resources and
misplaced priorities, and worst of all it leaves people in doubt as to the
direction of the organization.
2. The leader must walk the talk.
Every message is believable so
long as the carrier acts it out. It is said that, no matter how loud your
message, it is your example that will be followed.
Most leaders fail to understand
that beyond their lofty words, people watch their actions more, and as soon as your
actions is not in sync with your words people will desert you some day, it is
just a matter of time.
Immediately after graduating
secondary school, I took a job in 1999 in a Print and Arts studio. My salary
was Four Hundred Naira only back then.
My boss was acclaimed the best
Lithographer in Benue State at the time and was very popular. He laid his rules
and regulations before I and my colleague, and shared with us his grand plans
for the company. He was high on integrity and commitment to duty. The
unfortunate thing was; he was hardly ever available, largely because he was
always running away from people who gave him jobs but he could not deliver
owing to the fact that he had spent their monies on things other than the job
they paid for. He owed me salary for the first three months of my working with
him, so I resigned.
The company folded up eventually.
He didn’t walk the talk.
3. A good leader is relevant and in tune with the time and season.
One of the banes of leadership in
many organizations today is the stubborn refusal to step up, update thought
patterns and modes of operation. The old ways may be good but for heaven's sake
if the new ways have proven to be better, why not adopt them? What harm can
such change possibly do? It has rather proven to be better and keeps you
abreast with novel developments and more efficient ways of getting things done.
I once had a secretary in my old
Department who was employed as a pool typist many years before I got there as a
youth corps member. When computers replaced the typing machine he was converted
to a secretary. Unfortunately, he did not improve his skills to match the
times.
Though he was an excellent
typist, he was a very poor computer operator, and he was almost irrelevant as
far as the many other aspects of his position were concerned. No matter how skillful you
are, if you cannot solve the current problems in your organization, you are a
burden and not an asset, and no organization wants a liability in its flanks.
In the wake of the Corona virus
pandemic, many organizations have resorted to e-documentation and
tele-conferencing platforms and apps for exchange of information and meetings in
order to avoid community transmission of the virus. It is surprising that in
this 21st century, there are senior officers in some government parastatals who
cannot use the Microsoft teams or the zoom app. These kinds of people will not
last in more robust and business driven environments. Imagine someone like that
managing a group of hot headed and passionate millennials. That would be a mix multitude
and most likely an immiscible one.
One thing is sure; the leader may
never earn the respect of his or her subordinates, consequently no control.
4. Good leaders delegate Authority.
This is one place that
distinguishes between good and bad leaders. Delegation of authority does not
only entail the transferring of responsibility for a task but also the
distribution or release of authority or the amount of authority needed to
effectively carry out the delegated task.
In other words, when a President
delegates his vice or an Ambassador to represent anywhere in the world and for
whatever purpose, the representative is allowed to exercise the authority
necessary for the task at hand.
A good leader understands the
import and power of delegation. He or she knows it offers him the opportunity
to increase influence and build prodigies and committed followership.
Delegation is a good platform for
training and correction. How else do you monitor the effectiveness of your
training if you do not give your subordinates the opportunity to showcase what
you have been teaching them? This is where delegation comes in.
Delegation is also a good
opportunity to see what kind of leader you are and kind of leadership you have
been providing. Your subordinates in most cases will display what they have
learnt from you when they are given the opportunity to lead or act in your stead,
with a dash of their personal styles of course. Sitting back and watching them
gives you an idea as to whether you are doing well or not; It is a good chance
at self-appraisal.
The multiplier effect of
delegation cannot be over emphasized. In the Holy Book, after Jesus Christ was
sure he had trained His disciples enough to send them forth; He commissioned
them in twos and sent them to the world around them. Their testimonies when
they returned showed they did what they had learnt from Him and did what would
have taken him many weeks and a lot of travel time to do. One can chase a
thousand, two will chase ten thousand. That is how far reaching the impact of
delegation can go.
Leaders, who are afraid of
delegation never grow beyond their immediate sphere and will eventually die
small.
One downside to such failure is that it breeds disgruntled subordinates
and eventual fall outs. Leaders must learn to delegate real power and not just
responsibility.
5. A good leader must learn to service loyalty and celebrate others.
Leaders must understand that
"Loyalty is a consequence of good leadership, and leadership is a
touchdown of competence". This is an absolute and irrefutable truth.
Loyalty, like trust should be earned, and not demanded from subordinates else
you would be standing on slippery slope. Any loyalty that can be bought is
always available for the highest bidder and cannot be trusted. Good leaders
should never 'buy' loyalty; they should rather earn it by consistency of
character, competence, faithfulness and trustworthiness.
When a leader understands and is
empathetic, people will follow him.
You really do not need to have it
all. When a leader shows genuine love and concern for those looking up to him,
people will gravitate towards him or her sincerely. Leaders should learn to
live worthy of the title they bear.
When people are loyal to you, be
quick to celebrate them. Do not hesitate to tell the world of their strengths
and capabilities. Do not castigate them in public and celebrate them privately,
as a matter of fact, to the best of your ability, celebrate them publicly and
correct them privately. That is how you show that you genuinely respect them.
As a leader, you must also learn
to share victuals with the people you are leading, as much as you are fast to
share instructions. Be visible in their lives; do not only be available for the
good days you need to be there in the bad ones too. Good leaders are North
stars in the darkest nights; a leader who refuses to know your days of pains should
not know your days of gains, he is not worth it.
Leaders must learn to appreciate
the efforts of their subordinates, and give them credit whenever they perform
well. There are leaders who are stingy with appreciation and some do not do it
often or well enough.
Celebrating loyalty can be some
form of material reward or a promotion and as a leader when you feel a
subordinate deserve some form of reward, give it to him or her as soon as
possible. This is because of the tendency for intentions of goodwill to change
for many variant reasons ranging from future misdemeanor on the part of the
subordinate to unavailability of the action party or some change in
organizational policies. When you feel like it, do it.
