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By Muideen Adebayo Ibrahim
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” Warren Bennis
I sincerely welcome you all to the maiden edition of this column and by His grace it will be a weekly affair going forward. I just had a brainwave to embark on this journey simply because I observed with dismay that there is serious dearth of leadership in our dear Nation as we speak and it cuts across all strata.
It is indeed sad and disheartening that things are no longer going on as expected simply because we lack good leadership that can deliver effectively and efficiently to the people. In summary, there is no ‘Servant Leadership’ again. Unfortunately, our leaders are enmeshed in What is in it for me (WIIFM) syndrome. Why? What went wrong? What can be done to ameliorate the dearth of leadership? These are some of the issues that I will be looking at in this column and also proffer solutions on how we can get good leadership so that we can have a virile society in particular and a better nation in general.
All the great nations became very great due to the fact that they had and are still having good leaders/leadership. This is the 21st Century but I can’t just phantom why we still have dearth of leadership in our dear country. But the reasons are not farfetched and I will be looking at the reasons as we go along.
The importance of good leadership cannot be over emphasized and, on that note, you will enjoy every bit of this column.
There are two key words in my write up “Transformational and Leadership.” What is Transformational and what is Leadership?
Transformational was defined by Collins English Dictionary as “a change or alteration, especially a radical one.” It is a truism that we need a radical change in this country so that things can be better for all and sundry.
It should be noted that transformational leaders know how to encourage, inspire and motivate people to perform in ways that create meaningful meaning. This is because transformational Leaders focus on making decisions or establishing strategic plans that can drive vision to a logical conclusion.
What then is the meaning of Leadership? Oxford Dictionary defined Leadership as “the action of leading a group of people or an organization.” On the other hand, Nick Barney defined Leadership as “the ability of an individual or a group of people to influence and guide followers or members of an organization, society or team. That leadership is often an attribute tied to a person’s title, seniority or ranking in a hierarchy. However, it is an attribute anyone can have or attain, even those without leadership positions. It is a developable skill that can be improved over time.”
Leadership is the ability of an individual or group of individuals to influence and guide followers or other members of an organization or political group. Leadership involves making sound and sometimes difficult decisions, creating and articulating a clear vision, establishing achievable goals and providing followers with the knowledge as well as tools necessary to achieve those goals.
Leaders are found and required in most aspects of society, from business to politics to region to community-based organizations.
An effective leader must possess the following characteristics: self-confidence, strong communication and management skills, creative and innovative thinking, perseverance in the face of failure, willingness to take risks, openness to change and level headedness and reactiveness in times of crisis.
Great leaders know how to both inspire people and get followers to complete the tasks in order to achieve the leader’s goal.
Brain Tracy in his book entitled; Leadership posited that “There is a need for leadership in our society. There is a need for leadership in our homes, in our business organizations, in our private and public associations, and in our government. We need leadership to take us into the future. We need people who have vision and courage, people with the ability to chart new seas and break new ground. We need two types of leaders, transactional leader and transformational leader.”
Dave Cornell and Chris Drew stated in their work; 35 Transformational Examples that “Transformational Leaders are usually energetic and passionate, have excellent communication skills and are able to see the big-picture.”
One of the greatest challenges of our leaders in Nigeria is that, they don’t usually hone their skills or better still go for refresher courses in line with modern trend. Whereas, the world has moved far and beyond what they do now in this 21st century, be that as it may, we can still catch up with dedicated leaders. This is because development is all about leadership.
Some of the examples of transformational leaders according to Dave Cornell and Chris Drew are; Mahatma Gandhi; the leader of Indian independence movement. He was a transformational leader. Through his inspirational vision of nonviolent resistance, Gandhi motivated and mobilized millions of people to fight for freedom and social justice. His transformative leadership style empowered individuals to believe in their own ability to effect change.
Oprah Winfrey; The ‘Media Queen’ started out as a radio host in Chicago, and then made her fame and fortune by hosting her own TV show called Oprah Winfrey Show. It eventually become the highest rated TV Show in history. She was the first African America billionaire in North America and named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Her leadership has been characterized as being focused on inspiring her team to execute her vision, while at the same time acknowledging the role of predecessors, the power of community, and responsibility of helping others.
Richard Branson; When expert in leadership want to provide an example of charismatic leadership, Richard Branson tops the list. His warm and friendly personality makes everyone around him feel welcomed and appreciated. He founded the Virgin Group in 1989 and today it is a multinational company with over 400 businesses and 50, 000 employees around the world. In one of his quotes, he said that “From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.”
Others are, Jeff Bezos; Amazon Owner, John F. Kennedy; Former President of America Nelson Mandela; The former President of South Africa. Steve Job; The Apple Founder. Barak Obama; The First Black President of America and Elon Musk; Owner of X (Formerly Twitter) and Tesla, Jesus Christ, Moses and the Holy Prophet Muhammed (SWA) amongst others.
The aforementioned, inspired, motivated, influenced, idealized and empathized with the people hence they command large followers in a cult like manner.
I believe we can still get it right in this country with good and pragmatic strategy on transformational Leadership.
See You at the TOP!!! It is well!
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