Building Effective Leadership

Going through online discussions under The Men’s Book Breakfast forum, which brings together leaders and aspiring ones drawn from different sectors of the economy in Kenya and beyond, revealed that we have great leadership talent that may not be widely known due to the fact that these leaders are mostly focused on their work segments and do not emerge out to shout about their knowledge and abilities. 

Why men? The forum is to bring men together into a space where challenges that face men are discussed alongside “boy child” issues. The men sharpen one another towards becoming better men. It is also mentor-ship and coaching space. Before COVID19 checked into the world, participants would meet for breakfast on an early Saturday morning at an agreed venue (home or quiet restaurant), do a quick catch-up while taking breakfast and the jump into the book discussion for one hour. The whole session lasted one and a half hours. However, when COVID19 came then the sessions were held on-line, and this opened the chance to have participants from across borders and continents. The sessions now last for one hour.

 The interactions also showed a genuine desire to learn from one another in order to become better leaders. There was also great willingness from each participant to share their insights and experiences, positive or negative, with the rest of the participants. 

One of the books covered in the forum is The 5 Levels of Leadership, by John C. Maxwell. The book breaks down leadership into five levels, Position, Permission, Production, People Development and The Pinnacle. Under Position level it is said that people follow you because they must, by virtue of your position. Remember the school prefect? This is really is the very first level of leadership and it is not a guarantee that someone at this level will turn out to be a good leader. The second level, Permission, is about relating with people and says that you cannot lead effectively if you don’t like people. The Production level, quoting one of the participants is “where true leaders are separated from “wanna-bes” “. This level stipulates that good results matter at the end of the day, and without them then one’s leadership abilities will be put into question. The book goes on to describe the three other levels, each in detail.

During our discussion we asked one another important questions under each level, and this is where the mentor-ship and sharpening of each other happened. For example we asked, just to open up the discussions, the question “What attributes are important in leadership ?”. Responses included: Leaders must have humility; a leader must be willing to work on himself or herself; leaders cannot give what they don’t have; leadership is about influence; leaders are made and not born; people come to you if they see leadership attributes in you; understanding oneself as a leader is important; leadership is a verb and not a noun; good leaders are trusted by their followers; leadership stands on values; values in a leader are what you are and not what you do; values in a leader will be tested in time if crisis in order to get validation; a leader must produce other leaders; Many more leadership attributes were shared and each participant was challenged to look inwards as see if they identified with any of these attributes. 

As we continued down the book, the level on People Development became very interesting and elicited frank and extended discussions. Here we asked each other questions such as: How does your ego, control and mistrust affect those in your team? Are you a self-centered leader who places obstacles that prevent others from doing their jobs effectively? Do you have a short term or long-term mindset? Are you secure in your position or is your insecurity an obstacle to letting others grow? Are you afraid to delegate tasks? Do you bring the best out of your employees? Do you appreciate people? Have you identified the potential in your team members? Is individual victory more fulfilling than team victory? Are you afraid of sharing responsibilities with others because you don’t want to lose power? What really sets you apart as a leader?

These questions forced participants to reflect upon their leadership style and take necessary corrective measures. Leadership is indeed an interesting journey and it is all about people and the more leaders learn to be effective the more fulfilling their leadership journey will be.