(Modest Thoughts with Ayuba Yilgak'ha, July 20, 2022)
Leadership is a critical function in development. The rise and fall of nations start and end with leadership. When an organisation collapses, check its leadership quotient; when it blossom give credit to leadership. A bad system can be reversed and transformed into a great one with good and credible leadership. However, a great and formidable enterprise is sure to crumble in time when there is bad leadership. This means that leadership is a catalyst for holistic development.
The historical evidence of the role or absence of leadership can be sourced from history itself. The glaring distintegration of political system like socialism which reigned in the days of Fredrick Hegel and Lenin can be attributed to the rise and fall of these leaders. Today, socialism is such an unpopular Ideological system after the end of the cold war and the expansion of capitalism across the world.
The process of sustaining the capitalist system is dependent on the sincerity of the global managers and leaders of the system. A system that is supported by functional policy trusts and legal frameworks which are largely dependent on the world view of its proponents is, likely to default in responding to emerging contradictions requiring prompt attention.
In every generation, the birth of new challenges bring compelling need for elites to brace up and develop a strong leadership response to stabile and make the system work, even if not perfectly, as there are no perfect systems in a falling world. By the way, what is leadership? and what makes a credible leader in any social ecosystem?
The desire for organised social systems make the desire for leadership germane. Leadership means status of being a leader. The leader is first amongst equals who has the capacity to make others follow willingly. In 1990, Croft Pentz wrote that, a good leader does not only know where he is going but can influence people to come along; he does not place himself above others except in carrying out responsibilities. In other words, leader are surposed to be responsible, influential with a clear vision of the distant horizon he craves the people practically reach.
Leadership is a platform for showcasing relative and superior capability humans to create, manage, organised and reorganised their ecosystem for sustainable growth and development. Because human societies evolve, their leadership models are dictated by rational thinking. That is, humans can think and, therefore, they are at liberty to order and reorder their ecosystem through the instrumentality of public policies, laws and even cultural changes. In other words, human beings and their leaders have the leverage to reorder their civilisation either materially (structurally) or non- materially (rules, policies and mores).
Unlike humans, the ecosystem of plants and other animals (other living things) is shaped by the dictates of nature and the inherent activities of man. For example, animals cannot reorder the ecosystem, say forest, by way of afforestation or deforestation. Therefore, their kingdoms are static except otherwise invaded by the activities of man.
A man can invade and reorder the use of land so that where used to be forest can be made into a housing estate, road and or other infrastructures. It then follows that while animal's leadership emerges through natural selection, human leadership comes through certain processes and consideration and can be shaped by the instrumentality of formal or informal education and even experience. This discourse, therefore, hypothesises that leadership capabilities are acquired not inherited as insinuated in some quarters.
If this hypothesis is anything to go by, then, it is imperative to understand the fundamentals of credible and quality leadership. A leader must be Consistent, Competent and Courageous (CCC) to fix problems in a system. He must also operate based on shared Vision, Virtues and Values (VVV) to enjoy massive followership amongst people. In addition, a leader has to cultivate Empathy, Empowerment and Emancipation (EEE) of the people as prime drive or passion before he becomes a celebrated legend. Anything to the contrary in respect of these shared strands of leadership features is a misnomer and, so, constitute a breach of performance quotient in functional (transformational and transgenerational) leadership
*The CCC Strand*
Consistency is the conscious ability to believe in something and stand by it, especially, when such stand point has been publicly communicated to the public either in words or actions. It is important to note that when a consistent person gains new information which requires a change in previously held and shared stand point(s), the honourable thing to do is to be humble enough to publicly apologise to publics that might have been communicated such positions. The humility and integrity to do this qualifies one to be seen as honourably consistent. A leader who makes responsible adjustment is not inconsistent but pragmatic.
Competence is the cognitive and practical ability to be successful in solving challenging problems in a system. It involves possessing practical and applicable knowledge and skills to create a functional system or fix a broken one; sustain and make the system work even better. Competence is a practical concept not a theoretical one. It is determined after an activity has been delivered successfully and the feedback duly reported. This means that success or failure in one function, does not automatically guarantee success or failure respectively, in other functions. Even if the activities are the same, times, geographies and situations (internal and external) might have significantly changed. Therefore, new competencies are required for geographic and time changing activities. For instance, successful leaders in analogue democracies might not make successful leaders in digital ones because of changes and variations in technology. A slow and analogue leader who cannot be prompt and responsive to the speedily changing dynamics of the present time is sure to fail no matter how intelligent he or she has been.
Courage is the virtue of being bold and pushy in a fearful and challenging situation. It is a strategic ability to stay on and pursue solutions in a seemingly or practically difficult condition. Courage is the attribute of not being a coward but showing of bravery in any given circumstance. Stoicists believe that courage is 'the virtue that can champion the course of right.' Therefore, a leader should have a full dose of it encourage his subjects, especially, when things get tough.
*The VVV Strand*
The vision of a leader matters a lot, especially, when it is a shared one. Vision can be described as the capacity to see ahead to enable the visioner plans ahead so that the future cannot take him unawares. It is not a snappy glance but a product of constructive venturing into future possibilities which can be attained through shared discipline and dedication. A leader got to have vision for his followers and to ensure that the actualisation of it translates into the overall well-being of the led. The beauty of a leader's vision lies in sharing it with the people it is meant to transform, going forward. There's no leadership when there is no shared vision initiated by a leader to guide the subjects. It was shared vision which drive the process of transforming Singapore from a Third World to a First Word country under Lee Kuan Yu.
Value is percieved as the worth of something. It is important that leaders create something worthy to advance the lives of the citizenry. The value a leader attaches to his followers determines the amount of commitment he will cultivate in serving them. A leader who places low premium on his people will serve them carelessly but when high premium is placed on the well-being and progress of the people, adequate and extra attention is placed on their welfare. It is value attachment which sustains or changes the direction of civilisation of a people: Way of life, methods of production and the nature of social relations, whether, at individual, family and community levels. Values can be created, added or placed on something: Value creation is about being innovative; value addition is also about innovativeness or transformed packaging while value placement is about price naming after due assessment.
Virtue has to do with the act or status of maintaining high moral or maternal standard. It is about integrity and the attribute of being resourceful, useful and excellent in all dealings with self and the environment around someone. A leader must strive to cultivate and manifest cherished attributes of integrity, hardwork, cordial relationships, sympathy, etc. in his daily life with the people. A leader is supposed to serve as a status symbol and his visible character manifestations should serve as a huge source of inspiration to his subjects. The behaviour of a leader is surposed to alter the behaviour of his subjects in positive ways which results in optimal productivity and enhanced social welfare. There is no virtue in fear, excessive anger, waywardness, laziness greed, etc.
*The EEE Strand*
Empathy is a very critical element in leadership. Empathy is described as the strategic sense of feeling what others feel. For instance, it is empathy when a leader mentally and emotionally feels the hunger his subjects are feeling; feels the physical pain others are feeling; feels the sense of lack others are feeling; feels the sense of loss or lost others are feeling; feels the fear others are entertaining. Empathy is also about celebrating when others are celebrating; rejoicing with those that are rejoicing. Great leaders are not saddists but personalities who guaged the mood of others and intervened to provide succour as much as they can. They are not insensitive and their peace is unsettled when the peace of others is at stake. It is not myth: A story was to told of President of a small Island country who cultivates the habit of going to bed without food when his subjects are found to have slept without food. He denies himself luxury because his subjects were peasant who cannot afford luxurious life. There can be no credible leadership without empathy. A leader that empathises, sympathises; he who sympathises is empathic as well because the two are two sides of the same coin!
Empowerment is another mandate of leaders. Empowerment is the process of increasing the capacity of people to produce (create or add value) and be highly self-independent. It can be effected through the provision of cognitive knowledge, skills and vocational capabilities to produce. Empowerment could also mean material support like finances and other factors of production to encourage economic or social agents to participate and contribute to wealth creation. It discourages free ridding and expels laziness in the society. The aim of empowerment is always to promote freedom from lack and undue control by others. An intellectually powerless person or someone who is bereft of ideas and economic power is a perpetual slave and is in dare need of emancipation.
Emancipation is the process of being free from want and undue control. The Maslow Hierarchy of need outlined the stages of need of man from cradle to the zenith where wants becomes drives. The scholar postulated that at the lowest level, man's needs are, basically, those of food, clothing and shelter; the second stage is that of self recognition and love; the next is pursuit of power and self actualisation. Nobody wants to be controlled but to be in charge. That is the sense of freedom people crave. Even though there is no absolute freedom, it is the responsibility and desire of credible leaders to ensure their people are free: Free from lack and free from tyranny. In democracy and capitalism which are the drivers of contemporary global system (globalisation), citizens are entitled to free choice of enterprise, association and their leadership, provided those engagements are done within the confine of law. Emancipation does not mean trampling on the freedom of others but promoting it. It is work done zero when a people are emancipated at the expense of the freedom of others. There has to be a balance to ensure mutual benefit for the total population.
*References*
Croft, M. P. (1990). _The complete book of zingers_ . Illinois: Tyndale house Publishing, Inc.
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