Good leaders aren’t found behind every bushel of daisies and though it might be true that we have born leaders, it is equally true that leaders have to be equipped.
The world does not need efficient leaders, we need effective leaders. Efficient leaders may have all the leadership qualities needed but effective leaders have the qualities and the qualifications.
Flowing from the theme question and as an integrity check I ask – “How important is it for any leader to know when to lead and when not to? Do you have the integrity to walk away from an opportunity regardless of your own dire need?
Based in South Africa I experienced the entire political transformation and although I’m very positive about the future, I remain concerned about our leaders and the competency of our leadership. Since the abolishment of the dreaded ‘apartheid’ regime and everything that related to that, we had a situation where people were put in positions of leadership, positions of authority whilst in most cases they weren’t qualified for the job.
The whole political arena here turned into a power play which I understood but then it digressed into power grabbing. Greed more than anything else drove ‘leaders’ into a feeding frenzy. Billion of rands and vital resources were wasted on personal ‘missions’ a situation that led to a total collapse of our health services, education and our economy.
Corruption is a trademark of our leadership; the people’s money is blown on lifestyles and not invested in the development of our country. Leaders were leading from their position instead of leading from ‘who’ they are… a situation that led to the wholesale abuse of authority.
Now, this didn’t happen because the people that were put in leadership positions didn’t have leadership qualities. No, in most cases they had all the qualities but not the qualification. They have potential to develop into great competent leaders but they were never given the opportunity to acquire skills, knowledge and sometimes even education.
Leaders need to be literate, competent and equipped for the task at hand!
Leaders cannot be chosen as such based on character traits or their popularity. In your world and compared to the rest of the world, South Africa may be an extreme example but nevertheless a reality.
Many times even in more sophisticated cultures we’ll find leaders lobbying and or being put into leadership positions because they have potential, good personalities, potential etc. They may get the job done… but at what cost?
What I’m trying to convey here is that we have a personal responsibility to our team, to the ‘project’ and its proponents. As some of the above comments rightly said, we must be honest about our own ability or competency because failure may teach us but someone else will pay the price…
Let’s strive to learn from what we see here and commit to ensuring the proper development of our leaders with all the means at our disposal. For future’s sake, just do it! J
Steve Petzer