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leadership&management
Tuesday, 26 April, 2016
Nigerian Tribune
TOPE POPOOLA is a Human Capital developement Consultant and Pastor. Please feel free to send questions, feedback comments on this column to
topheritage@yahoo.com or visit http//turbochargedforsuccess.blogspot.com
THE ongoing trial of the Senate President at the CCT continues to generate interest but, to my mind, for the wrong reasons. I believe strongly in the legal dialectic that it is better for a guilty man to go free than for one innocent man to be unjustly punished. It also presumes an accused innocent until the course of justice decides otherwise. However, I am very uncomfortable with the various antics of Senator Saraki to either stop or frustrate his trial by unending injunctions, the latest being an attempt to rubbish the integrity of the Tribunal’s Chairman. This is in addition to various attempts to discredit the entire process by positing as a demagogue who is being persecuted for doing Nigeria a world of good. As Nigeria’s number one lawmaker, he should allow the tribunal give its verdict and if he feels that the cause of justice has not been served by it, proceed to appellate courts instead of the endless grandstanding that seems to prove that he does have a skeleton in his cupboard. His reaction to a recent piece by Dele Momodu leaves a sour taste in the mouth. In it, he claims to give the “real” reason behind his “travails”. Senator Saraki will be my hero, and I believe I speak the minds of many Nigerians, if he quietly faces his trial and comes out clean and smelling like a rose! Until then, he should just let the law take its course! Back to our discourse. In this series, I plan to examine the mind of the innovator as agent of change and relate it to the resolution of our current national dilemma. Each of the innovations highlighted last week, indeed any innovation, begins as disruptive thinking that interrogates norm or perceived order represented by status quo. Disruptive thinkers look at what is, examines its current limits and limitations as well as relevance to future challenges. Sometimes those challenges are perceived only in the mind of the innovative thinker while others are totally oblivious of it. Sometimes, others simply submit to the challenges and develop a coping mechanism. Those stuck in a rut are hardly able to see that there can be an alternative. What is a problem for the establishment mindset therefore becomes an opportunity for the disruptive thinker to make his mark. The innovator does not believe that there is an end of the road. He simply takes what others call the end of the road and stretches it to the end of his dreams.
Innovate or... (II)
The four favorite questions in the mouth of the innovative thinker are “Why?” “Why not.....?” “Who says...? and “What if...? The motivation for innovation is never material gain. It just happens that material gains become the consequence of successful innovations. Innovative thinkers hardly think of what they lose in the process of trying new things. They are motivated by the problem they seek to solve. They do not work from the problem to the answer. They work from the answer to the problem, even if the answer only exists in their imagination! Constantly envisaging a better or at least different world, their latest innovation only becomes a launch pad for another. They start their thinking from the fringes of the status quo idea or technology. Restless and usually withdrawn, innovative thinkers prefer their own company to anyone else’s unless such company is of value to their next pursuit. They have cultivated the art of being alone without being lonely. Isolation is a price that they are willing to pay for the change they desire. Alone moments are the harbingers of great inspiration. When innovative thinkers are in the world that they have envisaged or are envisaging, only the company of those who intend to inhabit it with them is welcome! Jesus was a change agent. The greatest that ever lived. Over two thousand years after He left the earth, his philosophy still rules the hearts of men and women all over the world. His life on earth was punctuated by chapters of taking time to be alone. His alone times birthed great miracles and inspired utterances and a lifestyle that continue to be an unassailable model in great leadership. The innovator is comfortable with people and material things but is never ruled by them and can, by implication walk away from them if need be. He often separates himself from people in order to be better placed to help people. He is constantly conscious of the fact that the thinking that produced any status quo cannot be expected to change that status quo. To the innovator, impossible is only a perception, not reality. He reads that word differently. “I’m possible”! Impossible is the self-placating limit that the human mind applies to itself when it has stopped thinking of the possibility of an alternative reality. While
most people are ruled by their environment and take their bearing from it, the innovative thinker actually dominates his environment and gives it direction! For this reason, innovative thinkers can sometimes come across to others as brash, snobbish or even proud. They ‘see’ something and wonder why no one else is seeing it! They are willing to bankrupt themselves until they actually bring what they have seen into the realm of experience. At a stage in his enterprise of inventions, Thomas Edison’s financiers pulled the plug on his finances. He was not deterred. His laboratory once went up in flames and was completely razed to the ground. None of these was enough to stop him. His passion gave the world over 1,000 patented inventions! Martin Luther King Jr. and his colleagues in the Civil Rights Movement were regarded as rebels by the establishment. Many of them were arrested and hounded to jail. Many lost their lives. But King had seen the vision of a better America and was not prepared to settle for anything less even if it would cost him his life. His famous I have a Dream speech shook the nation to its foundations and till today, is regarded as a magnum opus in speech making. He lost his life in the battle for the actualization of that dream. But the dream came to pass. Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi, have all become heroes from the lens of history but from the lens of their era, the establishment thinkers saw them as villains. It is common to be common. No genius is required to identify or analyze problems. No Harvard degree is required to complain and criticize. Society however builds no memorials or monuments to those who merely recount how much they are stuck in the rut. Our country today needs innovative thinkers with a disruptive paradigm, strong enough to shock the rest of us out of our lethargic resignation to the crippling status quo foisted on us by several years of parasitic consumerism. Every situation around us is an opportunity to rethink, reengineer and develop new strategies instead of throwing tantrums on social media and pages of newspaper like over-pampered children whose biscuit just got snatched... continued. Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
Title-less leadership IT is wide of the mark to say that leadership titles, labels mean nothing. No! Leadership titles connote something. Team Leader, Manager, Supervisor, Vice-President…President—they are all leadership titles, labels bestowed on those who are called by either an organization or nation to lead. They have the official duties and responsibilities that go with the title. What am I trying to pass on to you today? I am trying to letting you see that a leader having a title is not wrong, but it becomes wrong when a leader cannot function without a title. Please understand that a leader makes a title; a title does not make a leader. It is being said that leadership is influence. On the condition that that is true, are the people with the titles the only ones called to lead? No. You can lead without a title. It is just that the title only gives the leader some positional authority, but the truth is—you can still lead without any positional authority. You do not need an official title to lead. For the umpteenth time, leaders make positions, positions do not make leaders. If you cannot lead without an official position, you cannot lead effectively in this day and time. Once again, those without positional authority can and should lead. A team with leaders at every level will beat any team with leadership centralized at the top. A company with leaders at every level will outperform any company with leadership centralized at the top. This is so profound! If you do not build your organization this way in the 21st century, you will lose out. If you do not build your team this way in this day and time, you will lose out. This is non-negotiable. There is no one who does not have the ability to influence others no matter how ‘little’ the title is. Leading without the title is the purest form of leadership. I am not suggesting it is always trouble-free. But, it is indispensable. It only takes courage. Fear of being ignored, ostracized, or reprimanded
may exist. Remember, courage is not the absence of fear. Courage means taking action despite the fear. Without any title, you can lead through Words. If you are title-centric, you may not say some vital things that you are supposed to say. Too many people wait for someone else to say what needs to be said at critical moments, because they wrongly believe that they do not have the appropriate title to say what needs to be said. This is not right. This is affecting us negatively in Nigeria. Why? Because many Nigerians believe that some stuff is beyond them to say, simply because they do not have the title. No. Leaders speak out no matter what title they hold. Also, without any title, you can lead through deeds. Leaders do more than speak out, they step out. They move things forward and onward through their actions. People follow people who are undaunted and fearless to do the right thing or the hard thing. Initiative is a peculiarity leaders have. Take the initiative and others will follow your example. Buddy, do not be afraid to take the initiative in Nigeria. Step out and you will be amazed that people will follow you. Without any title, you can lead through attitude. “Attitudes are contagious.” Is yours worth catching? Leaders do not drag others into the pit of whining and despair. At any level, someone has the opportunity to pull others out of that pit. Why not you? You do not need any title to do that. You do not need any title to be of help to a fellow citizen. If your attitude is good enough, you will attract some people for a following. Many people are looking for titles today without having a good attitude. A big title without a good attitude is destructive. Without any title, you can also lead through mentoring. Servant-leadership creates followers. You desire to have followers? Become a servant. On the condition that you are
willing to put out a hand to help others, you will be noticed. And with time, your lifestyle will start attracting people to your leadership. If you see someone struggling – help him or her. It may not be in your job description, but it is your opportunity to influence others. Some people want to lead, but frustration sets in, because they feel their title does not allow them to lead. I reiterate, a title is only as good as the leader who holds it. A title does not make a leader. He or she may be given the title of a leader, but if he or she is not a leader, that does not make either him or her a leader. There are many folks today who move around with varied leadership titles, but who are not leaders and there are too many people in Nigeria—who are functioning effectively as leaders, but who do not have leadership titles. If you want to wait till the time you’d be given a ‘big’ leadership title in Nigeria before you start fulfilling your leadership destiny, you may wait forever. When you start functioning as a leader in your little corner, after a while, people will start noticing your leadership capability. This may cause some leadership titles to fly toward your direction, but if leadership titles do not come, that does not change you from who you are. Titles do not make you, you make titles! Lastly, titles do not make a leader, influence does. In Nigeria today, you do have lots of opportunities to influence others. Being without a leadership title does not mean that you are not called to lead. Lead where you are. Help people where you are. Leadership is about helping others. Leadership is about solving other people’s problems. On the condition that you are occupying a leadership position and you are not solving problems for those within your sphere of influence, you are not leading them; you are only merely occupying a leadership position.