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Tag: leader

  • Traits of a good leader

    Traits of a good leader

    Let me start this piece by looking at leadership from my own perspective. A true leader is not dictatorial but offers a responsible service to the people. It is pursuit of success and responsibility that empowers such a leader to influence his followers to achieve set goals. The motive, method and means by which he leads are important, as this will determine the quality of the leadership he would render and its impact on his followers. The major and prominent motive for leadership is simply for service. Service to the people is the ultimate goal of leadership.

    Leadership is more than a title, status or position one occupies. Leadership is a task and assignment that must be achieved through hard work. Anyone who is not ready to work hard should not aspire to lead because leadership and diligence are Siamese twins. The way we apply the force of diligence to responsibility will determine how far we will go and what impact we will make in leadership position. Success in leadership is the result of utilising whatever ability, skills and resources we have at our disposal maximally.

    Diligence has to do with mental alertness, intelligence and hard work which are geared towards producing specific results that will make the purpose of our leadership a reality. Diligence demands painstaking attention and utmost focus. Diligence means doing the right thing in the right way and at the right time, with the right people and with the right resources.

    An effective leader is always known for his tenacity to what is right and insisting on efficiency all the time. Many leaders succumb to the pressure of change, even though it is not needed at that particular time. “Consider the postage stamp. Its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there,” Josh Billings said. Our leadership exploits will be at risk if we do things frivorously and impulsively, without consistent and persistent approach.

    When our effort is inconsistent, we are not being diligent and we stand the risk of being inefficient. Diligence will produce perseverance, which is a vital key in making impact in life. John Rockeffer once quipped: “I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature. “The truth of the matter is this; a man who does not put in steady effort in the execution of his assignment cannot be relied on’’.

    Working hard on its own does not necessarily constitute diligence. Diligence constitutes working hard carefully. We must not fall into the danger of being busy while on the wrong track. We can be hard working, yet doing the wrong thing and channeling our energy and resources in the wrong direction. We have to be careful and give a lot of attention and thought to doing things properly.

    Working hard carefully on our way to becoming a great leader requires doing the right thing in the right way, at the right time, in the right place and with the right motive and strategy. This is diligence, which is crucial in putting us on the right track towards excelling as a leader.

    Any leader cannot succeed if he does not give a lot of attention and thought to what he does. He must make sure he consciously channels his human and material resources rightly in the execution of his leadership objective. The buck ends on his table. So, he must put in place a mechanism to ensure his goals and objectives are carried out the way he plans them.

     

    Yinka, 400-Level Chemistry, IBBU

  • MASSOB to resist arrest of leader

    Members of Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) have warned that the group will resist any move by the police to arrest its leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike.

    They noted that arresting Uwazuruike would amount to flouting a court order to that effect, adding that such action would force the group into discarding its non-violence approach to the struggle.

    Addressing reporters in Aba, Abia State capital, the Acting Director of Information of the group, Mr. Sunny Okereafor, said the warning became necessary following intelligence report the group received hinting that the police were planning to arrest their leader against a court injunction restraining police from arresting him.

    Okereafor condemned Uwazuruike’s invitation by Imo State Police Command over the Okwe incident which he said their leader knew nothing about.

    He said: “The Okwe incident is a family matter that does not require the involvement of police for settlement.

    “The unfortunate incident at our headquarters in Okwe was a family matter, we are going to handle it the way the Igbo communally resolve their problems which do not require the involvement of police.

    “Before inviting our leader, they should first account for the thousands of MASSOB members they massacred and have not told the public their whereabouts.”

    He said that there was no crack in the group, adding that what happened was an infiltration of the group’s hierarchy by a politician with the intent of causing discontent among its ranks.

    He called on Ndigbo to rally round the movement which, he said, was determined to liberate them from bondage through its non-violence struggle.

    It was alleged that serious hostility had broken out at the headquarters of MASSOB at Okwe in Onuimo Local Government Area of Imo State between some members of the movement and loyalists of Uwazuruike which allegedly led to the death of four people.

    As a result of this development, Imo State Police Command invited Uwazuruike for questioning and threatened to declare him wanted if he declined to report to the command’s headquarters in Owerri.

    Uwazuruike later headed for an Owerri High Court where he obtained an order restraining the police from arresting or declaring him wanted if he fails to honour their invitation.

  • Association gets new leaders

    Members of the National Association of Edo State Students (NAESS) have elected new leaders.

    The executive is led by Igbinevbo Clive, a 500-Level student of Medicine at the University of Benin (UNIBEN). He was elected unopposed as other aspirants, Joseph Osazuwa, from the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi (AUCHI POLY) and Precious Eghomwanre from Igbinedion University, Okada, were unable to present their running mates within the specified period.

    Others included Abiebhode Aaron, Vice President (National); Halima Muhammed, Vice President, (Special Duties); Ajie Kennedy, Secretary-General; Abdulafeez Muhammed, Assistant Secretary-General; Irhiaebo Odion, Financial Secretary; Osamede Asemota, Treasurer; Yusuf Abdulrahim, Director of Welfare; Aiyegunle Ofunime, Public Relations Officer; Ogene Jacob, Director of Sports, Christopher Uhunmwangho, Provost.

    However, Okoimisi Christopher and Joshua Airenakho have been elected as Speaker and Deputy Speaker for the National Representative Council of the association.

    Clive promised to consolidate the efforts of the outgoing executives to foster unity and promote the welfare of members.

    “By the grace of God, I pledge that my administration will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that we transform this association in dramatic fashion,” he said.

    Chairman of NAESS Electoral Committee, Matthew Sadoh, described the election as free, fair and keenly contested.

     

  • Commission trains 150 community leaders

    The Jigawa State Justice Sector Reform Commission (JSC) has begun training for 150 community and religious leaders on alternative dispute and conflict resolution.

    The Chairman of the commission, Justice Tijjani Abubakar, said while inaugurating the workshop in Auyo, near Dutse, that the exercise was designed to build the capacity of community leaders in adjudication as an alternative to conflict resolution.

    Represented by Mr Musa Imam, a secretary in the commission, Abubakar said the exercise would also enhance service delivery in the justice sector.

    He said the commission had so far trained community and religious leaders and other stakeholders in the five emirates in the state, to encourage alternative dispute resolution within the communities.

    He said the participants were drawn from Auyo, Kaugama and Kafin Hausa local government areas.

    The Chairman of Auyo Local Government, Alhaji Muhammad Danjani, praised the JSC for the gesture, saying that it would enhance peaceful co-existence in the communities.

    “It will encourage quality service delivery and peaceful co-existence in the society,” he said.

    The reform programme is one of the key interventions by UK’s Department for International Development, to enhance justice service delivery at the grassroots.

     

  • Important minutes in a leader’s day

    I f you want to become a leader, do not wait for the fancy title before you act. You can begin to act, think and communicate like a leader long before your promotion. Even if you are still several levels down and someone else is calling all the shots, there are numerous ways to demonstrate your potential and carve your path to the role you want, advises Amy Gallo, a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review.

    That is why we are reviewing this book titled: The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leader’s Day this week.

    John Maxwell, author of this book is the founder of INJOY, a leadership development institute. Maxwell says it takes time to become a leader and stresses that while a few people appear to be born leaders, the ability to lead is actually a collection of skills, nearly all of which can be learnt and sharpened.

    This text is divided into twenty-one chapters spread over twenty-one weeks. Each week is further segmented into five days. Chapter one is based on the subject matter of “the law of the lid”. Extracting from “the law of the lid” in “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, Maxwell says success is within the reach of just about everyone and personal success without leadership ability brings only limited effectiveness.

    He expatiates that leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness and the lower an individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid on his potential.

    Chapter two is based on the thematic focus of the law of influence. Here, this expert says leadership is influence. Maxwell adds that when you become a student of leaders, you begin to recognise people’s level of influence in everyday situations all around you. He says leaders do not possess influence in every area as our influence is either positive or negative. The author stresses that faithful leaders use their influence to add value and with influence comes responsibility.

    In chapters three to six, this author analytically X-rays concepts such as the laws of process, navigation, E.F. Hutton and solid ground. Maxwell educates that becoming a leader is a lot like investing successfully in the stock market. That is, if your hope is to make a fortune in a day, you are not going to be successful. In his words, “Leaders who navigate do even more than control the direction in which they and their people travel. They see the whole trip in their minds before they leave the dock.”

    In chapters seven to 12, Maxwell examines the concepts of the laws of respect, intuition, magnetism, connection, the inner circle and empowerment. He says people do not just follow others by accident, but follow individuals whose leadership they respect. “Only empowered people can reach their potential. When a leader can’t or won’t empower others, he creates barriers within the organisation that people cannot overcome,” stresses Maxwell.

    In chapter thirteen of this text, he examines the law of reproduction. Here, Maxwell submits that it takes a leader to raise a leader. In his words, “It’s true that a few people step into leadership because their organisation experiences a crisis, and they are compelled to do something about it. Another small group is comprised of people with such great natural gifting and instincts that they are able to navigate their way into leadership on their own. But more than four out of five of all the leaders that you ever meet will have emerged as leaders because of the impact made on them by established leaders who mentored them.”

    Maxwell stresses that it all starts at the top because only leaders are capable of developing leaders and followers cannot do it. “Neither can institutional programmes…If a company has poor leaders, what little leadership it has will only get worse. If a company has strong leaders – and they are reproducing themselves – then the leadership just keeps getting better and better…,” submits this leadership expert.

    In chapters 14 to 18, Maxwell beams his analytical searchlight on the laws of buy-in, victory, the Big Mo, priorities and sacrifice.

    In chapter nineteen, he examines the law of timing, stressing that when to lead is as important as what to do and where to go. According to him, “When leaders do the right things at the right time, success is almost inevitable.”

    In chapters twenty and twenty-one, the laws of explosive growth and legacy are discussed. Maxwell educates that leaders who develop followers grow their organisations only one person at a time, while leaders that develop leaders multiply their growth because for every leader they develop, they also receive all of that leader’s followers. He stresses that a leader’s lasting value is measured by succession.

    Conceptually, Maxwell’s efforts in this book deserve commendation. He establishes an analogical interface between the process of becoming a leader and investing successfully in the stock market. That is, if your hope is to make a fortune in a day, you are not going to be successful. By stressing that only empowered people can reach their potential and when a leader refuses to empower others, he creates barriers within the organisation that people cannot overcome, the author is able to inject real consciousness for right leadership in people.

    The language of the text is simple and the presentation very fantastic. For instance, Maxwell generously employs biblical and literary/classical allusions as well as illuminating illustrations to achieve conceptual amplification and ensure concrete conviction on readers’ part. This author displays temporal stylistic creativity by segmenting the text into 21 chapters spread over 21 weeks. Each week is further sub-divided into five days, while every day focuses on one predominant leadership thought, lesson, etc, for easy and memorable study.

    However, on Page 206, an error is noticed. Here, Maxwell says “… what little leadership it has will only get worse…” instead of “… whatever little leadership it has will only get worse…”

    Finally, this text is a compendium of insightful leadership tips. It is highly recommended to everybody, especially Nigerian politicians, civil servants, entrepreneurs, etc.

    PS: For those making inquiries about our ongoing Public Speaking and Business Presentation training programme, please visit the website indicated on this page for details. We are here to satisfy you. Till we meet on Monday.

  • ‘Onu not Ebonyi APC leader’

    Ebonyi State leaders of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) have said Ogbonna Onu, former Chairman of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) is not the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The leaders, in a statement yesterday by Alhaji Kabiru Onyeka, State Chairman of the CPC and Pastor Eze Nwachukwu, Secretary (ACN) urged the public to disregard the reports credited to a former House of Reps member, Innocent Ugo Chima that Onu is the APC leader in Ebonyi.

    They said in line with the Southeast caucus decision, Sunday Jacob Chukwu, is the leader of the state chapter, until the national body formulates a template for the formation of state leaders of APC.

  • Rivers crisis: EFCC quizzes detained House Leader

    Rivers crisis: EFCC quizzes detained House Leader

    Govt protests alleged plan to change charges against lawmaker

    With Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives visiting Port Harcourt to quizz the detained Majority Leader of the House of Assembly, the crisis in Rivers State seems to be taking a new shape.

    The deployment of EFCC operatives, to observers of the political row, signposts a breakdown of the ongoing reconciliation talks between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Rotimi Amaechi.

    A source in the state said the coming of the EFCC operatives was a ploy to implicate Amaechi and pave the way for his impeachment .

    But the EFCC yesterday said its operatives were in Rivers State as part of an ongoing investigation.

    It was gathered that the EFCC operatives stormed Port Harcourt at the weekend to look into the financial activities of the state government and House of Assembly.

    The operatives reportedly made Lloyd’s police detention camp their first port of call.

    For about two hours, the operatives interrogated Lloyd on some financial transactions between the Executive and the Legislature.

    A source in the anti-graft commission said: “We are looking into allegations of diversion of public funds, outright graft and financial crimes against Lloyd and some public officials in Rivers State.

    “I cannot give you the details to avoid disclosures which could prejudice ongoing investigation because our operatives just got to Rivers State.

    “Already, the operatives have met with Chidi Lloyd at the facility where he is being detained. They are going to interact with other officials connected with allegations against Lloyd.

    “It is not a personal thing against Lloyd; if nothing is found against him, we will let the public know.”

    The Rivers State Government yesterday raised the alarm over the Federal Government’s “desperation” to take over Lloyd’s prosecution through the EFCC.

    It alleged that the operatives of the EFCC were acting on the instructions of two prominent citizens involved in the crisis to change Lloyd’s charge from attempted murder.

    The Amaechi administration also accused the Federal Government of playing dirty, stressing that attempted murder, the allegation with which Lloyd has been charged, is under the state’s purview.

    Commissioner for Information and Communications Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, said: “The Federal Government is playing dirty. They have brought in the EFCC to interrogate and investigate the House of Assembly’s Leader, Hon. Chidi Lloyd (a lawyer, who represents Emohua constituency).

    “They want to take over the prosecution by ulterior means and so plan to change the charge from attempted murder, which is under the state’s purview, to EFCC.

    “They have planted something in Hon. Chidi Llyod’s house, which would be against the governor.”

    A government source said: “They have designed a plot to detain Lloyd perpetually. With this, it is apparent that they intend to arrest other members of the G-27 who are loyal to Amaechi.

    “Since they failed to impeach Amaechi with five lawmakers, they have opted the ambush method by framing up Lloyd and the 26 lawmakers in the state.

    “Once they are able to arrest the 27 lawmakers, the five pro-Minister Nyesom Wike’s lawmakers can then sit and impeach Amaechi.”

    Another source spoke of some stakeholders being against the reconciliation plans between the President and Amaechi.

    “It is clear that the so-called peace talks were mere shadow chasing to gauge the mind of the governor,” the source said.

    EFCC spokesman Wilson Uwujaren said: “Some of our operatives are in Rivers State over an ongoing investigation. I think there is a link to the Majority Leader Chidi Lloyd.

    “But the operation is not just a Port Harcourt or Rivers State thing; it is about investigation of some allegations in some states in the Southsouth.”

    It was learnt that Amaechi summoned a meeting of the State Executive Council, obviously to discuss the latest development.

    A third source added: “The governor has been meeting with his executive members on the invasion of the state by EFCC operatives.

    “The governor and his team have nothing to hide but it is evident that the EFCC is falling into a trap of being used for political vengeance.”

  • How I was battered, by Rivers House Leader

    How I was battered, by Rivers House Leader

    The House Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Chidi Lloyd, in a statement yesterday, detailed how he was battered by two of his colleagues.

    The statement reads: “Well, yesterday, the Speaker of the House, the Rt. Hon. Otelema Dan Amachree, directed that the House be reconvened to consider an amendment to the 2013 appropriation law, which the Governor had communicated to him via a letter and as if Mr. Speaker saw what was going to happen today, he wrote a letter through the Clerk of the House to the Commissioner of Police to provide security for today’s sitting and he also wrote to the commander of 2 Amphibious Brigade, who also doubles as the head of the internal JTF.

    “So, when we got to work this morning, we saw the presence of policemen numbering over 50 and we thought that this was in response to Mr. Speaker’s request.

    Shortly thereafter, I noticed that the five anti-Amaechi members were discussing in clusters and calling on their boys to come in. Initially, the policemen were searching everybody who would come into the premises. I had to even come down at the gate and trekked into the premises. So, after a while, we learnt that there were phone calls and the commissioner of police personally called the unit, the man in charge to allow everybody in.

    “We went in as members who have not seen ourselves for sometime because of the crisis in the state. I was on my seat. Without provocation, Hon. Evans Bipi came to me in the full glare of everybody on camera and started raining punches on me. As his leader I did not react because I felt that it was something we could settle, whatever it was. Maybe I didn’t greet him also. When that continued, the speaker intervened and said, ha, ‘what’s happening?’ Then he reached out for the tripod that stands the camera, used it freely on me, himself and Michael Okechukwu Chinda. They flogged me to their satisfaction. I didn’t just utter a word until Hon. Ihunwo graciously asked me to run for my dear life ‘because they have brought people with guns’ and of course when I looked at the gallery they were shouting ‘who is the Chidi Lloyd? Who is the Chidi Lloyd?’

    “So, at that point, I’m sure somebody may have reached out to the governor who came in with his own security because these other policemen were there, standing helplessly, watching what was going on. He came and rescued members out of the place. Then, after a while we heard that they had sat, that they were meeting, they were trying to meet, they had procured a fake mace to the House, so we went back and I took the mace where they were sitting, then I sustained injury as a result of the violence by Michael Chinda and Evans Bipi.

    “So, while I was in the hospital, the speaker and other members of the House sat and heard the amendment that the governor sent, which was presented on his behalf by the deputy governor. Now these amendments are, the governor said he was just seeking for us to vire some sub heads for him to enable him take care of certain unforeseen events, such as flood, and all that. That is why we went to work for the state only to be dealt with in the manner that they have dealt with us. I want to use this opportunity while in the hospital here. I have received phone calls of threat to life for my family and me.

    “Incidentally, I’m so helpless; I don’t know who to run to. I can’t go to the commissioner of police because he is already in the arena; he’s already on the other side. I’m appealing to well-meaning Nigerians to pray for me and my family. That is the last hope we have resorted to and that we also urge the National Assembly, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Reps not to turn the other way on the events of Rivers State. This could lead to something that we cannot imagine. It had happened in Anambra State, people were laughing. Today it’s Rivers State; nobody knows the next state it would be. If we are practising a democracy, let us please play by the rules. Nigerians should pray for me and come to our aid. The state is under siege. You can’t even vouch for the safety of the governor. The people are getting more daring on a daily basis.”

     

  • Community leader seeks support

    THE Onoje of Ihuevbe-Ogben in Owan East Local Govt Area of Edo State, Chief Andrew Eboh Otokhua, has solicited the support of his people to take the community to greater heights.

    At a reception in his honour marking his installation as the Onoje of Ihievbe-Ogben, Chief Otokhina advised residents of the community to be wary of those bent on margilising and denying them of their rights. While calling on the indigenes to remain united and formidable as the biblical Israelites who conquered the world through a small nation, he reminded them that their resolve to make their community better economically and politically should be their guiding philosophy. He also admonished thoem them to hold on to God. Chief Otokhina was installed on February 25.

     

  • Margaret Thatcher: In every sense a leader

    Margaret Thatcher: In every sense a leader

    Unless we change our ways and our direction, our greatness as a nation will soon be a footnote in the history books, a distant memory of an offshore island, lost in the mists of time like Camelot, remembered kindly for its noble past.” Margaret Thatcher, never given to understatement, presented that grim vision for Britain in 1979, the year she became prime minister.

    Then, for the next 11 ½ years — almost as long as three U.S. presidential terms — she worked with fierce determination and unrelenting stubbornness to dispel it. By the time she left office, reluctantly, in 1990, there was not much talk anymore of Britain’s inexorable decline. Lady Thatcher had changed not only her country’s direction but also its standing in the world. She continued to be passionately detested by some and admired and respected by others long after she left office, and her record will be debated for decades, or centuries. What is hardly debatable is the proposition that she was, in every sense of the word, a leader.

    Margaret Thatcher was a new kind of Conservative in British politics, a true-believing, Friedrich von Hayek-quoting enemy of what she saw as the excesses of the welfare state, of the unions that seemed to run it and of the mass of socialist encrustations that had formed on the Labor Party’s left wing in the years after World War II. She thought that statism was crushing the nation’s economy, destroying the morale of its people and rapidly diminishing its standing in the world. Apparently a good many Britons agreed with her, though not necessarily with her fervent embrace of the total conservative ideology. The country was ready for a break with the postwar past, and Mrs. Thatcher’s party had the good sense to see in her the forcefulness, conviction and eloquence that could bring it off.

    Mrs. Thatcher’s great domestic battles as prime minister were waged against the institutional left and its supporters among the British intelligentsia, which meant of course that they were extremely entertaining. They were fought on the same issue that divides Europeans to this day: When does the people’s demand for security become so all-consuming that it overtaxes the economy, saps initiative and buries the state under a mountain of debt? She worked for deregulation, privatization of state enterprises, tax changes and other domestic reforms she felt were desperately needed, many of which worked real hardship on the country’s poor, at least in the short term.

    But outside Britain she will be remembered primarily as a world figure. She strengthened Britain’s ties with the United States, bolstered its military, supported placement of intermediate-range missiles in Europe (an extremely controversial move at the time) and spoke out with undiplomatic boldness when she took offense at some countries’ actions. She saw a great divide between freedom and the various forms of tyranny in the world, and she made it clear, always, which side she was on. She voiced harsh criticism of the the Soviet Union, but then also, like her good friend Ronald Reagan, moved to engage its new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.

    She made her name in the world a few years into her first term, when the military government in Argentina sought to whip up popular support by invading the nearby Falkland Islands. It was a largely unpopulated place, but those who did inhabit it had no desire to live under the Argentine regime of the time, and Mrs. Thatcher had no intention of letting the invasion stand. Against the advice of many, she ordered a military invasion of the Falklands and retook the islands. Eight years later, after another act of aggression in another part of the word, she reinforced President George H. W. Bush’s resolve to drive Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait.

    Mrs. Thatcher, who was raised in the family apartment over her father’s grocery store in Lincolnshire, and who thought that everyday upbringing an ideal preparation for political life, officially became a “lady” (a baroness) after she left office. She was pushed out by divisions within her party on several issues, the most important being the rapid pace of European integration, of which she was skeptical. For some years afterward, she continued to write, speak and agitate. The first woman to serve as Britain’s prime minister, she held the post longer than anyone else in the 20th century, and she might have held it even longer had she been a bit more flexible. But then of course she wouldn’t have been Maggie Thatcher.

    “I can’t bear Britain in decline, I just can’t,’ she said in an interview shortly before her election as prime minister 32 years ago. She did what she thought necessary to stop that decline, and she didn’t really seem to have much worry about what anyone else thought of it. Her toughness in negotiation exasperated and even enraged adversaries. “I’m extraordinarily patient,” she once told an interviewer, “provided I get my own way in the end.”

    – Washington Post