By Bayo Ogunmupe
Leaders must be able to light the flame. And the followers keep the flame alive. During our lifetimes, we experience various kinds of hierarchy. From our first experiences in our family, to our nursery years, school days, friendships and sports teams; these experiences prepare us for adulthood and its diverse hierarchical structures. Within such structures, we face all kinds of formal and informal leadership situations. From these variegated experiences, we learn powerful lessons.
Our most enduring experience of leadership isn't in our professional environment, but in our social lives. here, informal but no less powerful- and sometimes difficult exchanges of leadership take place. Examples include family structures, circles of friends and even the dynamic between a pet and its owner. In many cases, leadership and follower roles alternate over time. Leadership is a constant exchange between leader and follower. It is both verbal and non-verbal. The strength of the relationship depends on each party's capacity to support the other.
Being a good leader involves knowing one's own strengths and weaknesses. It requires being able to listen and follow a subordinate, should his unique expertise afford him a temporary leadership role. A new leader must resonate with all those above and below him. They have to fit into a complex architecture of formal and informal leadership, while also performing in their own field. Followers expect leaders to be exemplary personalities with charisma, empathy and social skills. Leaders say leadership involves giving clear directives, aiming for success and developing and motivating a team.
The ideal leader should fulfill both followers' and leaders' expectations. Creating a profile to attract such leaders is a two-fold task. First, how can we assess experienced leaders against these criteria? Second, how can we identify those who have strong leadership traits but who somehow have never fulfilled it? In every organization, there may be outstanding leader personalities that have never believed themselves to be so, or who have never had the opportunity to realize their potential. We should go and find them in view of the leadership vacuum in Nigeria today.
Success as a leader depends on the effective combination of many factors. Chief among those factors is character. This is a key ingredient for creating long-lasting positive synergy between a leader and his team. Positive synergy is the ability to optimize a team's strengths and skills, generating a powerful joint effort in a shared direction. The leader's character should combine all the soft skills that enable the emotional dynamic in a leadership exchange.
Historically, followers have clear opinions about an ideal leader's attributes. These attributes include integrity, empathy, communication skills, humility, authenticity, strength and determination. It is believed that the ultimate attribute of a leader is the capacity to listen, to understand and to feel the needs, fears and expectations of his followers. Without this, there is no reciprocal trust and it isn't possible to bring a team or political party together for success. A leader with a powerful cocktail of empathy, emotional intelligence and strong values is more likely to be followed than an intellectual hotshot who is unable to find a common language with his team.
In terms of potential, a leader's creativity and his readiness to explore uncharted territory is paramount. A leader looks for an answer without being asked. He identifies the right question and chooses the path his team should follow to seek the answer. Creativity is a state of mind. It depends largely on the capacity for self motivation. It is the backbone of a proactive and solution oriented leadership. A natural born leader is full of ideas, suggestions and solutions. In order to find the right questions to ask, a leader needs expertise on the topic, so as to be able to address the unknown parts of a specific problem.
Leaders also need expertise in leading the process, enabling their team to participate in the solution, rather than be overwhelmed by the problem. Expertise is indispensable in a good leader, but it will support and enhance leadership only if combined with other attributes. That experts are essential ingredients of effective governance is shown by the failure and ineffectiveness of the present Muhammadu Buhari administration whose functionaries are round pegs in square holes in education, employment, power supply and the economy.
The force multiplier for creativity is logical thinking. Visions and ideas are valueless if they are too abstract to be implemented. Logical thinking makes ideas consistent and structured, so that they can be understood and carried by the team. Logical thinking simplifies a concept as far as possible, facilitating understanding without losing the bigger picture. A leader must be ready to leave his comfort zone. He must be ready for new challenges; be able to self-motivate without any external influence; be ready for self-assessment and be ready to have his approaches challenged.
A leader practices self-discipline; takes a positive can-do attitude towards everything he does. Anyone can steer the ship but only the leader charts the course. Results require action. An ounce of practice is worth tons of preaching. A leader's day starts early in the morning with making his own bed or jogging unperturbed by bad weather. There is no contradiction between creativity and self discipline. Self discipline means being well organized in managing your daily routine without losing time in thinking about it.
Self discipline organizes your day, helping you to find time to think and be creative. Being punctual and having a healthy, clean and well-groomed appearance are signs of a leader that has a respectful and self-respecting attitude. For a follower, it is easier to respect and follow a person who respects himself. The sensitivity to integrate into an existing framework of relationships is the hallmark of a great leader. Assuming a leadership role in an organization means creating constructive relationships with superiors and subordinates.
Good manners, kindness and being caring are valuable attributes in a leader, for they help avoid, contain or reduce potential friction in a team. A passion for action provides the emotion in a leadership exchange. Showing passion exponentially raises a team's strength, it enhances the power of its can-do attitude. It increases the team's resilience in facing competition. Passion is the poetry of leadership. As a poet appeals to the people's hearts, a leader speaks to his team by his passion for action.
If you are searching for a great leader, look for a person who can do this. Any leadership exchange involving such a man will achieve exponential results. Every organization, nation state or political party needs its leadership principles and values. Leadership isn't about individuals. Once a new leader is found, leading the party remains a shared responsibility within the entire community of its leaders, as well as its followers. His failure to share power with his party leaders is the cause of Buhari's failure as president.
A good leader shares the responsibility to lead consistently, at every level and according to the party's manifesto. Success depends on how a party defines its core values and principles of leadership. It must select leaders who have a good level of innovation and personality deviation, but who can also understand and implement the party's principles. When you define your leadership values, every things seems achievable.
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