Leadership is obviously the greatest need of our time; It is the difference between the growth and the failure of nations, companies and individuals. Hence there’s a great need to understand what leadership is. Any individual, business or nation can really do much more with the right leadership. Every leader can also do much greater with the right understanding of what leadership is. As a leader, you should endeavor to continuously grow in your understanding of leadership and expand your capacity of it. We have heard of several organizations that were failing and what a failing organization needs is reorganization and not necessarily to shut down; The first step in any reorganization process is getting the right leadership. The right leader will always get the right vision for the organization and lead the people through what to do because one of the traits of great leaders is the ability to know what to do even when the times are dark.
Leadership is first a journey from a state of ineffectiveness and inefficiency to a state of effectiveness and efficiency. Every individual, business or a nation is always in the search for this. That’s the reason elections will continue to be done in every democratic nation because every nation will always need leadership to set the way forward. Every nation or business that has attained the height of success or growth will always be in need of leadership. It must be said that there are sometimes when what the organization needs is management and not leadership because every organization goes through seasons and phases of it’s journey. These seasons and phases are towards growth and always forward looking. Leadership never takes you backward. if a leadership experience takes you backward, then it’s not leadership, it’s not even management. What we should call it should not be imagined. When an organization comes to the knowledge when it knows there’s a need to move to another phase or season of growth having stayed enough in the current level because business is dynamic, there will always be change and every business must know when to move towards the next phase or season. Then it needs leadership to envision the new phase and move the people into it. Same applies to individuals and nations; Once this new season of growth has been attained through effective and authentic leadership; then there is a need to sustain that growth that the business or nation has achieved; it’s at this point that management is needed. The real work of management is to ensure that the phase of growth achieved is sustained and the results and by-products of that growth is achieved. I understand clearly that management is basically about organizing, directing, controlling and planning but if you take a thought at it, you’ll discover what the managers basically do in the organizing, planning etc is sustaining what the leader has achieved. It’s the leaders that chart a new course and brings the people into it. So there are times that who we have elected into positions of business or national leadership are managers and not leaders. We can know this by checking through their results at the end of their leadership experience.
During the rise of the business dynamics of the phone industry, Apple led the industry towards the introduction of the game changing smartphone. At this point, Nokia was obviously the market leader in the phone industry; when this happened, Nokia ignored the rise of the smartphone and never saw it as a major competitor that could make them lose their market position in the phone industry and for many years held on to their way of phone production and doing things. Soon Apple took over as industry leader of the phone industry because of their pioneering and envisioning of the future of how customers use phones. The decision by Nokia not to adapt to the business trend obviously cost them a lot of fortune. Every business or nation must know that the one that will lead the industry will be the one that has taken the decision upon itself to serve that industry ‘helping the industry through research to search out the next wave of change and bringing the customers into it’ In doing this, the company or organization should see this responsibility as a service and not necessarily to attain market leadership. It is this attitude that hands industry leadership to any organization. The leader serves the people same way the market leader serves their industries.
Having stated that leadership is a journey from ineffectiveness and inefficiency to a state of effectiveness and efficiency. The leader must know that leadership is first about results but then the life in which the said results were achieved is really what makes leadership authentic. In achieving a state of effectiveness and efficiency, how you achieve those results matter. Was it done through courage, respect and love for the people, was it done through integrity, diligence and dedication? The life in which the results are achieved is what really defines leadership and this life can be felt by the people. The right leadership can be discerned by the people. Leadership is the way of life of leaders, It is the culture of leaders. Leadership is the responsibility of leaders. All of leadership has to do with people. The essence of leadership is so people can move from ineffectiveness to a state of effectiveness. Hence, leadership is the way of life that one must possess to get people to the place of effectiveness and efficiency.
