Leaders are in high demand right now. But more important is an understanding of the ultimate purpose of leadership.
Many times, we cannot define a thing effectively just by its function, but by understanding its ultimate manifestation; and the beauty of a thing cannot be discerned simply by its ambience, but by its intrinsic nature, ideological conceptualization, inspirational jurisdiction and the ultimate agenda at the end of the spectrum.
As we travel through the hazy path of maturity, we encounter several confluence points of wisdom and knowledge which are a combination of several factors along the path of life. People who aren’t students of life, live passively while those who attach a sense of meaning to relationships, experiences, and the entire frame of activities that surround their daily lives tend to be smarter than the former.
I have observed a scourge which has plagued the African heritage as it has to do with the baton of leadership transfer trans-generationally, and that is the transfer of “leadership insecurity”. I have watched my generation grapple with this challenge, also the sphere of politics is filled with leaders who are skilled at the destruction of the potentials of the younger generation. Their inability to look beyond themselves and the social curriculum of their era as well as the knowledge vortex revealed to them in their generations, and be meek enough to collaborate and cooperate with the younger generations in order to birth the right kind of future, has become the “gag” that has hindered the progress of future generations.
THE NEED FOR PERSONAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
We live in a society that’s configured to sway generations for the purpose of profit-making. Generations full of potentials are trapped in a society of false narratives and so nations suffer due to their untapped human and environmental resources. Can I ask you when was the last time you felt like reading a book to the very end; have you become carried by the get-it-quick schemes postulated all over the media world, trying to berate the principle of diligence and professionalism-par-excellence! It seems for me that the love for practical knowledge which is a core leadership attribute, is being short-changed with the need for so much irrelevant knowledge, gotten just for the sake of it.
However, the principle remains that personal leadership development is required in order for us to have an effective corporate environment which then becomes the premise for building legacy systems and structures.
Every great achiever understands the basic principles of personal leadership development. Though its curriculum could be diverse based on a person’s calling, parental background, mortality experience, race, religious and ethnic orientation etc; the basic principles of leadership development such as discipline, personal responsibility, sanity, faith, vision, a sense of meaning, right sense of self-worth, self-value and self-image and so much more, can not be chided because of the global deception of “the new age”. A generation must now get back to the drawing board, visualize the reason for a people’s co-existence territorially, desire to be righteously unconventional and be determined to chart a course for themselves.
While life owes us nothing, we are authorized to demand of life that which it has to offer, to our individual and corporate benefit. We must return to the fundamental principles of research in order not just to know, but also to become what we do know. We must yearn for the right things, even when it seems like everything is going contrary.
Winning is an attitude not a destination. Abraham Lincoln once said, “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.”
Emmanuel Sam