BEING A LEADER

A Month ago I had a discussion with a “friend” about a certain theatre institution on what’s going wrong. And i was blaming the lack of leadership which results in things going wrong and my “friend” felt its more complex than blaming top management, well we were civil enough to agree to disagree. At that moment I realised how we as society have ignored the importance and what it means to be a leader to its true essence, are we appointing people in such vital position solely based on academic achievement or their connections? There are various reasons why one would occupy such a position, and that is not the reason for writing this blog. I have been meaning to write about this leadership issue for some time while it was still “fresh in my mind” but I took my time in trying to process and sort of find out people’s perception of leadership. Finally! I had the courage to blog it out of my system, well I’m trying to lead by example I know it’s quite ironic. Let’s start with the Oxford’s definition of leadership; it says “Ability to be a leader” so lest say an x company employs me (Evans Rakgole Mathibe) as the Chief Executive Officer because of my academic achievement and experience, and I’m given all the support and control so to the company can be more successful than where it is. But I the x company have not made any profit and the management is not efficient, so in this instance who do we actually blame? Where does it go wrong huh? Okay let’s say it’s the management, either they were not competent enough or lacked commitment, or maybe it’s more complex than that? shares were down and etc. That’s one way of looking at it, maybe I to be blamed as CEO? Dear readers! There’s numerous good books written about Leadership, and they will tell you there’s more than just being in that position that makes you a leader, your assignment is to find out about such books and read them, they will help you in giving you more clarity. For me it’s about leadership qualities that someone can bare testimony to them, I mean being in a leadership position doesn’t mean you have qualities that come with it. A leader must have the ability to make those who follow him/her their vision, have those who want to follow them; it’s not about what you know (academic achievement & experience) and who you know (connections), is how much you care that makes you an even better leader. Yes! Care about those who follow you (management), I’m talking about making sure they know their importance in the success of an organization and how much you value their contribution. When something wrong a leader identifies the problem and provides a solution. So going back to the example I used, the CEO should replace the management with a new one if they are the issue and use powers given to him to rectify why the company is not making a profit with no hesitation or he should simply resign as the last solution. Remember, the oxford definition says “Ability to be a leader”, key word is ability! Lastly a good leader can ask for help because they don’t know what to do. So what’s your definition of a good leader?