I remember learning how to ride a bicycle when I was younger. At least three people specifically took on the task of teaching me. I was hesitating, not too confident that the two wheels would cooperate if I lifted my feet off the ground to the pedals. I watched my teachers ride, guide the bike as I attempted, and encourage me in my efforts. It was an experience; and from time to time I almost gave up in my frustration that I couldn’t seem to figure it out. But get it I did, and I never have forgotten how to ride since. Same thing happened with learning to play the keyboard – that fired up yet hesitating feeling, a number of teachers or models – and styles to boot, the hand-holding and encouragement, that urge to give up that ended up not being obeyed. I finally got going on that too, and I have never looked back. There is still much to learn in these areas; dare devil stunts on BMX bikes, learning how to ride a motorcycle, becoming a finessed blues keyboard player, producing music… not that I will do all of these but it’s exciting to know how much more there is, and comforting that I know how to go about learning if I desire to.
Not so when it came to leadership though. There was no structure to my learning leadership the way I know it today. I lacked good models that I could look up to. The models I did find, I struggled to nail down just what their method was and why it was ideal – most of it depended a lot on the personality of the person I sought to model. In some cases I despaired because I knew that my personality would never produce what my model was doing because we were different that way. I read a lot of books on the topic, listened to a lot of speakers and kind of applied this and that as I went along. And I got lucky too! Whatever I had seemed to work. But it did not explain why I could do a number of things as well as I could; it did not relieve my confusion around which particular ‘talent’ I should build a life around. Until recently, I was unaware that I could use the full roster of my talents (things I am comfortably good at) towards one unified purpose. Until recently I had no one to walk me through a method that would result in my discovering my purpose.
I see my experience a lot in my environment today. I observe it in the way we are led and choose our leaders; in the quality of output we are content to receive from them, in the ill-advised manner in which we tend to glorify them into men above men – and in the way they actively perform for this glorification; in the way we attach value to things – processes, systems, money, influence – over people, in the way we choose to narrate the story of our history and how its crippled us today. I have seen colleagues newly promoted from clerical staff to team leaders, supervisors and managers flounder – good on the technics but messy on communication, people management, seeing the big picture, selling a vision. I have seen teams with low morale, little sense of direction and no cohesion or loyalty to each other on account of the team leader’s approach to leading. I have been worn weary by the number of times when rather than take responsibility and solve problems, those in positions of authority have punted – kicked the can down the road, made it somebody else’s fault, spun some intelligible gabble to make it look like there’s no problem. I have seen this manifest not just among employed colleagues but also in my community as I observe the local kiosks that have been around for ages since I was a child and are still managed pretty much the same way, with the same scale; and hear the same song about how ‘we are poor’, ‘money is scarce’, ‘that’s the government’s fault’, ‘we cannot do anything to solve this and that’.
I spent the last year studying and thinking deeply about this. How can we get from being victims to being the captains of our own fate? How can we change the character of our economy from one predominated by trade (I bear no prejudice towards trade) to higher value occupations in manufacturing, finance, transport, mining? How can we become a more self-reliant people? How can we solve the puzzle of employment so that everyone going through our education system will emerge with the realistic expectation of being immediately hired with a reasonable remuneration? How can we become creators as a predominant characteristic? How can we set up businesses that will grow in scale and outlive 50 years? How can we have government that has the devotion of the people because it’s known to serve and keep its promises rather than peddle in rhetoric that claims this with no enduring proofs on the ground? Is there a method? Can we find mentors? To respond to these questions is my mission. Because I believe it is my life’s purpose to develop people to their best possible use. I believe this is important to lift up heads, to encourage hope, to affirm to our people that they are loved, they are not God’s afterthought, the excess of creation; they are intended, they are useful, they are valuable and the world needs them shining. Because I am convinced of these things concerning my countrymen.
I believe I have one answer to this – teach men how leadership works so they can lead and teach others to lead as well. I have even developed a method to do this, drawing on the work done by researchers and leadership teachers like Jim Collins (Good to Great), Patrick M. Lencioni (Five Dysfunctions of a Team), Steven R. Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People), Andrew Mawson (The Social Entrepreneur)… the list continues. I have begun working with an amazing team of people, business owners and an aspiring business owner to test this method. I have also started this blog – partly as a means to document my learnings as this journey progresses and to invite others into the journey as well. I will share insights from books I am reading – reviews, from meaningful engagements with individuals engaged in the task of leadership, progress from our own execution of this method I have designed. I hope you pick something you can use from what I shall share.
Leadership or greatness is not a chance or luck event. If we want to excel we are going to have to deliberately choose to. Excellence is not that hard; we are just not as practiced in it as some in the world we live in are. I invite you to share this journey with me; let’s get proficient in excellence.
Paideia 