Leadership: Character, Competence and Capacity

It was the third call. It had all returned negative. Nobody could give him the information. None of the executive members of the council was Nigerian. It was a strange and foreign army running affairs. His thoughts drifted to Michael. If Michael was there, maybe the story could have been different. He had refused to sponsor Michael for the regional role that was open in the Gambia. There were too many speculations going on. He couldn’t stick out his neck for the young man. The same Michael is now the CEO at Blue Oceans, placing the company as the second most profitable Telco globally. He paced his office in measured labored steps, running his hands through one of the few pictures he hung on his wall. He spotted Tinuke and just walked to the window. She had been the brightest and the best of all their Engineers, but he couldn’t trust a woman with such a sensitive position. It was too much of a risk to sponsor her to a role no African let alone a woman has ever held in the history of the organisation.

It was the third call. It had all returned negative. Nobody could give him the information. None of the executive members of the council was Nigerian. It was a strange and foreign army running affairs. His thoughts drifted to Michael. If Michael was there, maybe the story could have been different. He had refused to sponsor Michael for the regional role that was open in the Gambia. There were too many speculations going on. He couldn’t stick out his neck for the young man. The same Michael is now the CEO at Blue Oceans, placing the company as the second most profitable Telco globally. He paced his office in measured labored steps, running his hands through one of the few pictures he hung on his wall. He spotted Tinuke and just walked to the window. She had been the brightest and the best of all their Engineers, but he couldn’t trust a woman with such a sensitive position. It was too much of a risk to sponsor her to a role no African let alone a woman has ever held in the history of the organisation.

He needed to preserve his pristine no-stain-no-dent records but it was at the expense of many wasted slot. With his primeval record hanging gracefully on his lapel; and his many plaques and awards gracing the shelves, his helplessness was shameful and embarrassing. He had lost the position he so desperately preserved in just eighteen months. And in only three months, Irama, the new CEO filled all three executive roles with talents from Tanzania and Uganda, making a case for them despite the organisation’s new stance on expatriation. His other Executive members were no different. They all left without grooming local talents to strategic roles. It was his loss, their loss, a total mess of the succession plans left in their care. He sighed………..

…Yes, you will sigh when you see the lost opportunities because of your inability to see beyond your nose as a leader. You do not truly become a leader until you have a host of men and women who graduated from your leadership tutelage. Leadership is performing optimally but most importantly unlocking other leaders as you climb the rung. Until you breed excellence and replicate your success story in another, it will be a lonely world at the top. It will also be difficult to remain at the top if your tripod stand or pyramid base is not standing well on this three values – Character, Competence and Capacity.

One of the most exciting training we have had in our 9 years of working closely with clients is the Leadership Training titled “Leadership, Team Building and Organizational Development.” It was a Leadership Lab with an action learning experience. We deployed seven tools to deal with the tripod stand of a leader.

(1)   Presentation Slides: Deigned and Customized from the Training Need Analysis Report

(2)   Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI Test) – Profiling Personality Type

(3)   Emotional Intelligence tool – Identify emotions, understand and deploy your emotions

(4)   Cartoon “Voltron” – Learning should be fun for adults. From their profile, we realize they were the 80’s breed and taught them about small teams using “Voltron: The defender of the Universe.”

(5)   Football Pitch: Used the football pitch to teach how to position individual talents in Large teams. Built around the Nigeria Best 11 – Tunisia ‘94 Nigerian Team

(6)   INVICTUS (The award winning Movie on the leadership style of Mandela): Leaders as change agents, team motivation and influence

(7)   Post Training Tool: For Implementations

Many leaders have built enduring and enviable reputation. Character which is embedded in your value system will continue to win individual opportunities. Competence is also built as leaders progress on the rung through cross functions, lateral experiences and international postings. Competence will survive each promotional level with good performance and recommendation. However, the requirement to win now and ever is your “Capacity”. Leaders like Mandela, Martin Luther king, Mother Theresa and our own Obafemi Awolowo had exceptional capacity which gave the opportunity of a distinct achievement. Mandela amongst other things had the capacity to forgive and partner the enemy in order to win. Martin Luther King had the unusual capacity to step up to fight a long term injustice against the black. Mother Theresa had the capacity of a care giver and support for the poor and needy. These hero continue to win in death because their unusual capacity created the field where others learnt to play and win.

Capacity also represent an exponential growth factor, especially of other talents committed to you.Most leaders fails at this third tripod stand. Every General “Leader” is as good as his army. It is better to have a slowly budding and progressive army than to be without a squad. Ask your self today; What is my Capacity?

Remember, when you chase the sun, you will catch the clouds, when you long for the moonlight, stories are heralded. Never seek perfection, simply stay genuine.

Dayo Oladele-Ilori is a management consultant, an entrepreneur, an author, a wife and mother. She is the HR advisory at House of Procurement. She is also the convener of WELEAD (www.weleadnetwork.org)