For a week or so in December 2013, one of Uganda’s dailies reported a lot about the then new cabinet list that had been released by the president. With hindsight now, I’ve been reflecting on the rush with which many people in our world scramble to grab leadership positions – don’t ask me their intentions! It’s like the political Gold Rush or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire TV game! Others physically fight, like what has been witnessed in several regions.
Here then is the ignored truth: Not just any leader will solve the problems of a company or nation. Nations need leaders who both understand those nations’ problems, and will sincerely employ compassionate leadership capability to solve them. John C. Maxwell says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” And clearly, it’s shortage of true leaders – or abundance of fake ones – that is responsible for the utter misery of many companies and nations. This is why I now join Dr. John W. Stanko to equally wonder why we have “So Many Leaders” yet “So Little Leadership!”
Undoubtedly, with competent and transformed leadership, institutions and nations would leap from the profundity of hopelessness to the peak of all-round prosperity. So, nations need truly patriotic and highly productive leaders – not just any leader. Secondly, these must also be appropriately deployed. It’s not true that a leader will perform well in any office, at any level of leadership, despite the context or situation so long as the leader possesses the general leadership qualities and glitzy track record. We must make distinction between various contexts of leadership mainly in terms of effectiveness or ability to deliver.
This aside, we need leaders who understand people’s predicament and can apply their personal attributes and professional skills to solve them. They don’t have to belong to a certain tribe, religion, political party or region, because human problems don’t respond to sheer ethnic or tribal bars. Particularly, the leaders we need – the leader we should aspire to become – should have the following five attributes:
- Vision. This must not be hidden or an exclusive province of a certain one individual seemingly from Venus or Mars! It must be one shared by all citizens, for mutual progress in one direction as a country or institution, lest we mistake egocentric sight for collective vision!
- Integrity: We need to be and have honest and morally upright leaders, doing right because it is right; doing right irrespective of the price!
- Track Record: A clean one is important, not one stained by a string of character blemishes such as money laundering, corruption, sex scandals, chronic lying and other moral misdemeanours. A charismatic leader without character is a mere entertainer.
- People Skills. This is not the same as people-manipulative skills! This is about the ability to communicate, motivate, delegate, and interact with others. No leader is good enough to lead people without their consent. Skills in being and working with people is the path to that end.
- Trust. The leader must be trusted, one who has earned Trust through openness, truth, and taking responsibility for his mistakes.
Whosoever has these qualities can step out and tell our nations and institutions: “Please, follow me.” He or she is the leader we need. Even if some people may not want him, he’s needed. He is the leader we need to become.
With this in mind, therefore, I expect some of the appointees to various positions of leadership to honestly stand and say, “Mr. Appointing Authority, thanks for the offer. But I am not fit for this position, given my record of corruption” or fraud, arrogance, or any other character flaw that discredits them as leaders. While we are not looking for angelic leaders, remember, it’s not just any leader that will cause the needed impact. It’s the prepared, visionary, trusted, informed, and transformed leader. Every leader everywhere should stand warned: leadership will destroy a man whose character is not prepared for it!
What do YOU think?
#YouWillManage
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