By Jonas Odocha
The village setting exudes an ambience which is rather difficult to describe. But one thing remains obvious, which you cannot take away from the village: its freshness and innocence. This is quite understandable as there are no major industries or factories located in the villages churning out billows of polluting smoke which render fresh air in the urban cities hazardous to health.
The serenity associated with night life in my village commences as early as 7pm when most households have finished dinner and are ready to go to bed. How many people can still recall those moonlight nights when children were allowed to play around, especially the hide-and-seek game, before retiring to the family square for the folklore session prior to going to bed?
My wife never tires of recollecting those beautiful moonlight nights and the associated kid-fun. Folklore of the wisdom of the tortoise and the bravery of the lion would be rendered to the children, in effect preparing them for the challenges they would be facing later in life and the applicable ways and means to navigate through them. This is indeed the background to the acquisition of native intelligence or preparedness to being street wise.
Exposure to formal education helps us to add value to whatever we must have garnered as we were growing up in the village family circle. Unfortunately it is the wider society that introduces some other factors that force us to derail from those cherished value systems which we began to grow up with. This is simply because we begin to come into contact with others who have different backgrounds and upbringing from us. This is the challenge. To overcome this, one must fall back to one’s conscience, which is that intangible human asset imbued in all of us to guide us in distinguishing right from wrong, good from evil, and the acceptable from the unacceptable. Again, that conscience of ours must be nourished from time to time through the imbibing of the teachings of the holy books. It is that ability to constantly live by these teachings that distinguishes the good from the bad in our human society.
Every society has both the good and the bad, with the former doing good deeds to promote the message of the Messiah here on earth and the latter busy carrying out all the anti-social activities to degrade the value of humanity. It is for this reason that there are laws of the land to rein in those who are evil minded and to protect the weak and law abiding. To accomplish this the human society must have a hierarchy and form to sustain an organisational structure. This is the essence of leadership and followership in the human society, and indeed in some other forms of the animal kingdom.
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Leadership is indeed about directing and organising, in order to actualise the common good for all concerned. It is about service delivery through accountable and transparent words and deeds which the followership will acknowledge and aspire to emulate. Yes, accountability is more meaningful when it is demonstrated Top Down but not when it is rather expected Bottoms Up. Unfortunately some people see leadership as a means for the acquisition of power, prestige and perks of office. This should not be, since at the end of the day, we can only be remembered for our deeds and not our physical assets or acquisitions.
Therefore as we aspire to lead what should be our guiding principles and beacons, so that our followership will continually look up to us for that direction and guidance?
SINCERITY
Being truthful or sincere is a veritable tool for effective leadership. In every circumstance no matter your audience or whatever you are discussing, there is no excuse for Dishonesty. A genuine leader must not hide behind lies or resort to making excuses. It is this hallmark of integrity that bonds you with your followership. Therefore, avoid lying altogether because every lie has an expiry date and when you are caught in a lie, that asset called RESPECT vanishes from all that are around you.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING
A good leader shares knowledge with the followership by giving them the opportunity to be heard from time to time. This also enhances a genuine sense of belonging. But when you display the Know-it-all tendency, they simply help you pull the rug from under your feet.
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TRUST
As you aspire to lead you must endeavour to trust your followership because trust per se is a mutual responsibility or obligation. But when you are seen to be constantly looking over the shoulders of your followership, they sooner rather than later become frustrated with you and your leadership style.
FIRMNESS
A good leader must be Fair but Firm. Yes it is important for you to be friends with your followership but you must have it at the back of your mind that you are still their Leader. This means that you must be prepared to make Tough Decisions irrespective of who might be affected.
REWARD
Good efforts of any of your followership should be recognised, acknowledged and rewarded because such will motivate your followership to do more and better. Where there are obvious gaps and below par performance these must be pointed out and corrective and mentoring measures introduced in order to help sharpen knowledge, skills and attributes so as to develop people, the key assets, and thereby increase overall productivity.
LAST LINE
Remember that a Leader is akin to a dust bin. People will always try to throw all sorts of rubbish in. But it is the way and manner you focus on and deal with the substance rather than lavishing attention on the shadow that will determine the quality of your leadership.