RUDIMENTS OF LEADERSHIP

My Thoughts on Leadership Part 1

On this series, the goal is to share with you the various lessons I have learnt from serving others either from the rear as a follower or the head of the pack. The goal is to inspire you to become a better leader, or at the very least push you on to becoming one.

The strength of leadership rests very squarely on service. No one can become a good or great leader without the heart of service, and have not served another. Serving others does not only afford you the platform to meet the needs of people, it is a verifiable school and training institute that helps to build and hone skills necessary in leadership.

In my experience, many of the people who came into leadership via the highway of privilege almost always mess things up; this is the definite repercussion of the lack of training. And it is true that you cannot give what you do not have. The unfortunate and erroneous consequence of coming into leadership because of personal or family wealth, educational background, political connections etc. is that such people see it as a position that affords them authority over people and not as an avenue to serve others. Trust me, enlightened leadership is about service, not position.

From the beginning of time, positions of leadership are natural offspring of necessity in a group. Leaders are not elected or selected because it sounds good to do so; they are because there is a need for someone or some people to provide inspiration, education, correction, and direction etc. for the rest of the group. In the many instances where good leadership is sacrificed on the altar of mediocrity it is because this cardinal doctrine is missed. And the downside is that everyone suffers as a result.

Very often you see somewhat successful leaders get caught up in their pride and ego, because they need or want to portray a persona that is not necessary. They want to be seen as intelligent, clever, strong, powerful, as the boss or because they want to take all the glory for everything to themselves. These kinds of leaders will fail in the long run; they are in leadership for the wrong reasons. The motivating factor for them is always SELF. Good leaders do not struggle with others for the spotlight, because the center stage is not the reason they are in positions of authority. Great leaders are luminous; they give light to others to shine. In the place of service they are too busy fashioning out other great leaders than to struggle for a place at the table. As a matter of fact, they are the table in a sense.

A positional and ego driven leader is not huge on people skills, and they are poor listeners. They lack the ability to relate well with people and are very poor in understanding people even though they listen. People like this often listen to respond, not to know or learn. Consequently they are also locking in the ability to empathize. Sympathy is good, but empathy is what is more needed in a leader. The ability to sincerely put yourself in the shoes of others and to experience their pains sets leaders apart and connects people in ways you cannot imagine. There are few things that evoke complete loyalty like empathy.

Look around, do you have leaders who are egoistic and position driven? Then you need to evaluate yourself because you may already be picking up attributes that will do you more harm than good. As a leader, which of these categories of leader are you? If you need to make some changes, please do; a lot of people are looking up to you, probably many more people than you know.

I will stop here for now. Watch out for the other parts of this series. This is an introduction on a series on leadership and I implore you to take this journey with me. I am hoping that we will learn some things together. Kindly leave your comments below and we shall respond to them. Thank you.

RUDIMENTS OF LEADERSHIP PART 2

 

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.

THE CHARACTER OF LEADERSHIP

 "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character."   - Martin Luther King, Jr.

To Martin Luther King, Jr. that was a dream at some point in time. To the rest of us however, the judgment of character is an everyday expectation in leadership. The importance of character in leadership cannot be overemphasized; as a matter of fact, there is no leadership without character.

Character forms the crux of the matter and is the real foundation of all worthwhile successes. The leader is nothing without the cardinal description of his personality which ultimately is his character. 

Every action a leader takes is a pointer to his or her character, whether he is aware of this or not. We must understand that while knowledge may give power, it is character that gives respect and loyalty. 

The definition of a man’s character is not hinged on periodic behaviours and goodwill but on the daily patterns of action, words and the retinue of nuances and attributes vague or obvious that are peculiar to him or her. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “Character, in the long run is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike." One of the biggest challenges nations face today; especially African nations, is the lack of character. 

The obvious inconsistency and disharmony between the things we say and do show the obvious paucity of character in the society. There was a time when character mattered; today we focus on wealth irrespective of how it is gotten. And this is not restricted to the elites and politicians alone; the same applies to teachers, civil and public servants, religious leaders etc. The average man on the street is as bereft of character as the man sitting in the office of the governor, minister, chairman, manager, director etc. Do not forget, that they all come from the same society anyway.

It was Booker T. Washington who once said; "Character is power”. Think about that for a moment. We do not often think about this but the standing, confidence, authority and control a good character gives is amazing if you know how to wield it and positively too. “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character, but if you must be without one, be without strategy”  - Norman Shwarzkorpf.

I hope you see where the emphasis lies. That is a beautiful summary of our entire discourse I believe.

In my opinion, there are several components or traits that illustrate the character of a leader. For now, I will briefly examine six of them:

1. TRUSTWORTHINESS

Leadership must be trusted and seen to be able to make the best decisions and do the right thing, especially in difficult situations. Trust is achieved by demonstrating competence through strong character. The ability of leadership to maintain confidentiality in their relationship with those they are leading is also very important in developing trust. A trustworthy leader cannot be the one who spills what he has been told in secret. He cannot afford to be the ‘prating fool’. 

The leader must not be the one to also judge people based on what he has heard without confirmation or without finding out the reason at the very least. Trust is earned! You do not demand for it or command it into existence; it is a result of consistent show of stable good attitude and confidentiality. 

Trust is very difficult to build but easy to lose, that is why leaders must be very careful how they treat people. Once a leader’s character is proven untrustworthy, his or her influence and ability to lead is severely diminished.

 2. RELIABILITY

Closely related to trustworthiness is Reliability. It is one thing to trust a leader because he can keep secrets or that he can chart a course of direction for the group, organization or church. It is another thing that he is reliable. A reliable leader is someone to whom whatever is committed to his or her hand is safely kept. He is well founded and grounded in what he is doing. Words such as; unwavering, unswerving, solid, steady, devoted, responsible, fail-safe and honest describe a reliable person.

Leaders cannot afford to be reliable only when it is convenient. The desire for greatness and excellence should drive us towards being reliable at all times, as leaders. Let it be said of you that ‘whatever is committed into your hands, you will keep’ until it is requested. 

My former boss told a story of about a colleague of his who had retired at the time. He said no matter the amount of money you give to the man even in marked notes, you will receive those same notes anytime you request for your money. The man eventually became a mini bank for his colleagues, since it was in the early 90’s when banks were not this common in Warri. We all want that kind of person right? I hope we are that person too.

 3. HONESTY AND TRUTHFULNESS

Being honest with ones-self, others and speaking truth no matter whose ox is gored is sacrosanct to leadership. You do not necessarily have to be *‘brutal’* with being truthful or honest but a leader should be comfortable with himself and herself and should be ready to stand for what he or she believes. 

Being honest and truthful requires courage, because this virtue is a two-edged sword. An honest man very easily makes enemies even though they admire his truth, they often hate his courage.

According to the 14th Dalai Lama “the real source of inner joy is to remain truthful and honest." This still holds and especially for leaders, whenever you are dishonest with yourself, you are disconnected from reality and you will make poor decisions with potentially far reaching effects.

Those in the positions of authority must understand that telling the truth even when it is uncomfortable is better than lying because it feels good or serves a momentary gain. When you face a choice between being polite and honest, err on the side of the truth. It is better to be disliked but respected than to be liked but disrespected. In the long run, the people we trust the most are those who have the courage to be sincere (Adam Grant).

 4. SELF DISCIPLINE AND MORALITY

Self-discipline is the real secret to success in every sphere of life. It is the real delineating factor between the rich and the poor. Every great leader you know or have heard about is a very disciplined person. 

The sacrifices made by men of great resolve while their peers slept can only be done by disciplined hands. To do what is right, even if you do not feel like it; to practice self-control is to balance your own desires with the need of others and the courage also to face the fears, risks and dangers of standing up for what is right should be characteristics of every great leader. 

According to Leonardo da Vinci “You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself…the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others”.

 5. INTEGRITY

Leaders should be men and women of integrity. People whose words and actions matter to them and are synchronized. The things they say do not differ from what they do; as a matter of fact they do not treat their claims with levity. 

I am not saying leaders should be perfect, because none of us is perfect. And I am not sure many of us will trust anyone claiming to be ‘perfect’ anyway. However, a man who seeks to lead others should stand head over shoulders in the things that matters the most.

Your sense of ethics and morality should not be questionable. How do you provide direction for others when your moral compass has no bearing?

Integrity entails having a clear sense of values that guide your behavior every day. I understand that often times we find ourselves at crossroads in life and we are forced to choose a path. Choose the right path; the one paved with principles that leads to character. A man of integrity practices to align his actions, feelings and thoughts with his values. Try practicing this; it will not bite you I promise.

 6. GENUINE COMPASSION AND EMPATHY

From the foregoing you should have deduced by now that ‘fake’ is not in the character of good leaders. They sincerely care about those who look up to them. They may not be able to take care of everybody’s problem but they are sincere in their sympathy and empathy. 

Genuine concern and care are important for leadership at all levels. On a general note, people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. Did you get that? Think about it for a moment.

This is one of the reasons why emotionally disconnected geniuses never make good leaders. 

People with high emotional and social quotients even if they have low intelligence quotient, will always make better leaders than those high on intelligence but low on the former two. The simple reason is because good leaders know how to connect with people and can relate to their situations, good or bad.

WHO IS THE "SNITCH" AT YOUR WORKPLACE?

 

In every workplace, there's often a person who is commonly referred to as a "snitch." Sometimes, there may even be two or three individuals who seem to have a knack for gathering information and reporting on the activities of their coworkers. You know those colleagues of yours that are good at taking sides with the “oga” even when the boss is wrong, and the wheels are about to fall off? They are also good at writing minority reports to undermine the rest of the team. Sometimes we call them “rat”, or “sabo” (short for saboteur) in local slang. Aha! They are the ones I am referring to.

BUT WHAT DEFINES A "SNITCH"?

These individuals typically portray themselves as outgoing and friendly, making it easy for them to strike up conversations and probe into the personal lives of others. They often ask a multitude of questions, delving into topics like future plans and family matters. However, beneath their friendly façade lies a hidden agenda—they aim to extract sensitive information from their colleagues.

What sets a "snitch" apart is their ability to uncover confidential details and then betray the trust of their coworkers by reporting this information to management or other parties. To safeguard oneself from potential harm, it's crucial to exercise caution when sharing personal information with individuals who exhibit "snitch" behavior or with anyone at all for that matter. Protecting one's privacy can prevent the exploitation of sensitive information.

You also need to understand that a “snitch” does not care about the harm he or she is causing to their subject of target. The multiplier effect of their actions to the emotion, integrity, or career etc. of their target means very little or nothing to them, and they can go any length to achieve their five minutes orgasmic satisfaction from causing pain. The depth of scheming employed is pretty much in the borderline between diabolism and pathology.

The presence of a "snitch" in the workplace can have detrimental effects, leading to an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion among colleagues. Therefore, it's imperative for individual, groups or leaders (in any capacity) to foster an environment where confidentiality and trust are valued, discouraging the prevalence of such behavior. To those who enjoy hearing the dirty secrets of others, remember that “he who tells you about others will one day tell others about you too”.

By recognizing the characteristics and actions associated with a "snitch," individuals can navigate workplace dynamics more effectively, maintaining a sense of trust and confidentiality in their professional interactions.