Leadership Scarcity

Leadership is about seeing beyond today; a people without a vision can be tolerated, but a people without a vision, paired with a leader without vision, will end up in commotion and calamity. Leadership without vision creates divisions, perversions, aberrations and illusions. Aspiring leaders are numerous and people who bear the name ‘leader’ without being leaders, are painfully aplenty; but true leaders are abundantly scarce! What then is the root of leadership scarcity? 

First, a leader is one who takes the lead, and taking the lead requires goal-setting, which requires a road-map, and the possession of a road-map is no accident for it is the product of rigorous planning preceded by meticulous initiation. Then there is the no small matter of sacrifice - leadership requires great sacrifice and sacrifice is not cheap, making scarifies for oneself is hard enough, true leaders take it to the extreme; they expend sacrifice for others before making same for themselves. They suffer pain when they see others suffering, thus, saddling themselves with responsibility, they take it as a personal goal to alleviate the sufferings of others – the common wealth of the people is their grave pursuit.

Further, leadership demands continuous self development, but many who aspire to be leaders or who unfortunately find themselves in the positions of leadership, make no efforts at developing themselves in order to adequately serve the peoples of their ship. Yes, the term "Leadership" is made up of two words - leader and ship. Hence, a leader is like the captain of a ship whose sole bother is: the satisfaction, safety and security of his people in the ship as they move towards a mutually agreed destination. So then, leadership is about service and service drags in humility, and humility is the direct opposite of the traits of many in leadership squares today. Many leaders can best be described as arrogant and proud and boastful; thus, we continue to experience leadership scarcity. Leadership cannot be successful without collaboration, for the very word itself ties in cooperation, coordination and communication. 

There are too many in leadership who think so highly of themselves that they openly devalue the contribution of others; however, leadership goals are always gargantuan in scope such that the attainments of the objectives are ten times out of ten, beyond the capacity of a single individual. So a leader is no lone-ranger: he is one who has supreme confidence in the ability and contribution of others. Leaders are akin to orchestra conductors, they know the sound and melody they want to hear, they give the directions and design, but they depend unequivocally on holders of the other instruments to produce sound to the best of their abilities in order to generate that melody. 

Now we see that leadership is about team building and it is powered by delegation - objective, compassionate and effective delegation. And it is this kind of delegation that streams from the knowledge that leadership is about people that can blow away the scarcity of leadership that has plagued our world.

Hey! Its time to get the leader back into the ship!

Written By Sunny Eronmnose Isuekebhor; A leadership Advisor, Keynote Speaker and Project Management Consultant.