LEADERSHIP MAZE

Leadership is a maze and it is radiant.  It is about people; their aspirations, expectations, short comings and shortfalls. It is about people; their circumstances, situations, accidents, hopes and failures. It is about people; their groupings: nation, states, communities, associations, unions, political parties, social, ideological, business and interests. It is about people and their feelings. Above all, it is about Humanity.  Understanding leadership requires an unequivocal appreciation of the nature of man – a universal phenomenon and the community life of humans – the enigma of existence. A leader is born out of a leadership maze.

Leadership is a human art where persons are called to understand the thread of human relation and how to tie the nexus of ‘humanity’.  This presupposes that leadership is undertaken by humans. To further this discussion, I will crave the indulgence of my readers to veer off tangentially to briefly explore the concept – ‘humanity’.

For, while the rest of things living are in their individual life and constitution complete as finished products (i.e. they are determined and protected biologically with automated response to stimuli and with limited ability for learning), mankind alone is, and remains an unfinished product (i.e. though mankind is biologically directed to some mechanical functioning, but he actively doctors his response and has an unlimited ability for learning and creativity).

In his individual self, man’s biological development makes him a man but as an individual he lacks humanity. As an individual, man is an animal, only distinguished from other animals by his inherent capacity to search for self-fulfillment and self-actualization. In the individual search for fulfillment, man discovers his ‘animalia’. This level is guarded by self-interest, domination and fear of annihilation and extinction. This is a trait which man has a capacity to supersede. Man can’t remain at the level of ‘animalia’ which is individualistic because the exigencies of his status as an unfinished product propel him to advance to self-fulfillment.

This discovery leads him to search for the true life of man; the ‘man-ness’ of man. The search for fulfillment makes man aware of the presence of the other man and the presence of the community of men.  This presence is the object of his interest and fear.  This presence offers two primary options to man: (1) being a member of the community of men and aligning his self-desire to the common good of the community by offering positive contributions and disagreement (i.e. being a human being) or (2) being a member of the community and pursuing only personal interest (i.e. remaining at the level of animalia).

It is in the community of men that man becomes a human being. Although he becomes a human being, he is not fully developed because his humanity has not been tested. It is his ability to live in the community of men as a human being that tests man’s humanity.  It is in passing this test that makes man fully developed. Therefore to be fully developed is to acquire ‘man-ness’. The defining characteristic of this man-ness is man’s humanity.

The nature of man is the search for self-actualization. The irony of man’s nature is the fact that man’s self-actualization as a human being and not as an animal is realized in the actualization of the other man. Nothing about mankind is definite. For, man is an unfinished product. He requires self-involvement in human society to achieve actualization. The fact remains that man in a human society cannot be taken for granted because his growth and development is completely self-engineered by a self-instinct or impulse through which he interprets life.

Man’s self-fulfillment is in becoming a human being; that is, acquiring humanity. According to Oxford Dictionary humanity is understood in two ways; 1) the human race – the state of being human and 2) compassion or benevolence. The self-fulfillment of man is in being a human being, compassionate and benevolent. The self-actualization of man which is the reality of his existence is in the community of men.

Man’s self-fulfillment and self-actualization are the two primary drivers of the nature of man which dispose him to seek for and appreciate the presence of the other person and to understand and respect the nature of the differences for co-existence.

Man is always found in groups, in associations and in clubs. What is not obvious is the relationship. Is man’s relationship that of a group consciousness or that of an individual in a group?

Relationship is an aspect of human understanding that tries to explain the community life of man as not a woe unto man but a necessary aspect of his integral self-full development. Relationship should always be seen as an affair of the individual and others.  The society is a community of individuals. There are reasons for this; firstly, the community is cultivated by man. Secondly, the structures therein are set by man to enable him live as humanly as possible. The influence of society on man is limited to man’s knowledge of his environment. Since man’s quest for knowledge is unquenchable, he turns the society around with every new discovery about his environment.

Man does not need a society to live in; he rather creates the society in other to remain human. The human species need each other for humanity purpose. Man as a being is not the product of his society, but human behaviour and attitude can be influenced by his environment.  The interaction of man with the facts of geography and spirituality and his relationship with one another creates the various types of societies. I therefore state, unequivocally, that any ideology that stresses the priority of the society over the individual is ‘humanitically’ destructive (anti-humanity).

The individual is an existential entity with the ability of raising-up a community. He has two propensities; conformism and reformism. As an individual, he has the instinct of every other animal. His highest aspiration is to humanity.

His status here reveals him as a unique existential phenomenon. He is presently functioning and carrying with him an accumulation of the projections of the dead while at the same time projecting self with an aspiration that renews his environment. Man’s highest aspiration is the humanity of man. This is distinctively human nature.

This human nature is a neglected aspect of the current dispensation within the idea and practice of governance. This neglect or failure to identify the human aspiration and the civility of life as the reason for the existence of human community is a fundamental error in human organization. This is why men profess democracy but rule with anarchy and the reason for failed leadership.

LEADERSHIP REQUIRES THREE WEB-SET:

1. THINKING SET

The Thinking Set or the Green-Set is the vegetation ground of leadership. On it lies 1) Wisdom = knowledge + Understanding. Wisdom is applied knowledge which is made possible through understanding. Knowledge without understanding is a ‘Parrotic intelligence’. With this type of intelligence, one knows all the solutions and answers to problems already proffered by people but cannot see beyond it to propose solutions to current specific problems.  2) Fortitude = Bravery + Care. Fortitude is careful bravery. It is conquering the fortress with calculated steps. Bravery without care is beastlike and inhuman. This set is measured with the following standards

1. Fundamental  – touches primary and relevant issues of the time, the people and the goal
2. Logical – in consonant with the real issues, the real people and the real goal
3. Reasonable – reflects common sense application of issues, of the people and the goal
4. Strategic – follows a pattern and has options for issues, for people and for the goal
5. Practical – offers value and reward for the issues, for the people and the goal

• SKILL SET

The Skill Set or the Yellow-Set is the workman tool of leadership. Leadership is an art and has to be worked out. Just like any artiste or farmer, the end-product comes through the use of tools and concentrated effort and time. Leadership is an end-product. To produce leadership the following tools are required;

1. Planning – knowing what to do/where to go before hand and creating the relevant steps
2. Process – arranging steps of activities in the order of primary –secondary – tertiary as chains of relations according to what to do/where to go
3. Communication – giving out information with facts and data sufficient to enable decision making in relation to what to do/where to go
4. Negotiation – interrogate interest and place value on consensus in relation to what to do/where to go
5. Presentation – show diagrammatically or by design and by any other statistical model available the relation between plan, process, communication and negotiation.

• ATTITUDE SET

The Attitude Set or the Red-Set is the cleansing centre of leadership. In the leadership maze, a leader goes through thick and thin, sludge, slum and storm. The cleansing centre works tirelessly at the background to streamline and harmonize thought, ability and feeling. The emerging leader acts as follows

1. Human – man is only human in the community of men, taken away from the community of men, he is a beast. The presence of the other person is the only guaranty of your continued existence and success as a human being.
2. Effective – man is limited in time and space and can only make living meaningful when limitations are respected and worked with and not loathed.
3. Efficient – wastefulness and misuse denies many of use and easily leads to fast depleting of the commons of the universe. Conservation should be the watch word.
4. Resourceful – the biblical injunction is; ‘increase and multiply’. Returning back a multiple-fold out of what one had received is an attribute of a good servant.
5. Organizational – understanding the relation of the differences and the right to be different decides who the leader is.

This web-set makes the understanding of leadership and the training path to leadership simple. Leadership is a maze with three web-set which makes it easy to define a leader. On the basis of this leadership maze; a leader is a knowledgeable servant whose thinking and attitude emits light that attracts followers.

About the Author:
Mr. Obioma Clifford Martin is the Chief Executive Officer of Managers and Planners Limited.

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