Leaders and power of forgiveness

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3 years ago

The difference between great and ordinary leaders is in their disposition to power deployment. While great leaders use their position to build a stronger and better system as well as help others achieve their goals, mediocre leaders deploy their position to minister to their greed and massage their egos. To the latter, leadership caters to the leader; it is an opportunity to improve the life and living of the leader; it is neither about the led nor the institution. So, they embark only on activities that will further their interests, entrench their power base or increase their net-worth. Whatever is for the benefit of the people comes a distant second in their scheme of things. So, to ordinary leaders, acquiring a position of power provides a unique opportunity to even scores with those perceived to have wronged them on their journey to the top. On the other hand, a great leader, because he does not see leadership as being about him but for the benefit of the people, does not use his position to get even with people but rather to heal past wounds so that the organization or nation can move to higher heights.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs established Apple Computers in 1976 with his friend, Steve Wozniak, but was forced out of the same company in 1985. When the company ran into troubled waters in 1997, Apple turned to Jobs to lead it again following the acquisition of NeXT, which Jobs had bought after exiting Apple.

On his return, Jobs did not go looking for those who had betrayed him to pay them back in their own coin but brought as many people as were relevant to the task at hand on board. He built a wholesome organization that was not out to hack down any enemy. He even built bridges with competitors with a view to making Apple stronger. He had a pact with Microsoft, a competitor, just to ensure that Apple got a fair share of the market.

Speaking on the collaboration with Microsoft which he midwifed in 1997 shortly after his return, Jobs said, “If we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace a notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job. And if others are going to help us that’s great, because we need all the help we can get, and if we screw up and we don’t do a good job, it’s not somebody else’s fault, it’s our fault. So I think that is a very important perspective. If we want Microsoft Office on the Mac, we better treat the company that puts it out with a little bit of gratitude; we’d like their software.”

Just as it was in the beginning when Jobs led Apple into great prosperity, so was it in his second coming principally because he did not set out to avenge the wrong done him by those who ousted him from the company he had co-founded.

Goodluck Jonathan

Dr Goodluck Jonathan was disrespected as the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State and disregarded as the Vice President of the country by many politicians. As deputy to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, he was often not treated better than a piece of furniture by those who sought and curried the favours of his boss. But the tide soon changed as Yar’Adua died in office in 2010 and Jonathan had to step into his shoes as Nigeria’s president. All those who had disparaged him either as Deputy Governor or Vice President had a raw deal from him. It started with the sack of the federal executive cabinet. Jonathan eased out many of those who had worked with late President Yar’Adua. Then the axe fell on Timipre Sylva, whose election as Bayelsa State governor had been nullified by the Supreme Court in January 2012 but was not allowed to run on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the president’s party, in the rescheduled election the following month because of obvious differences between him and President Jonathan. Sylva dumped the party and teamed up with the opposition. That later became a pattern with the former president as those who had differences with him either had to toe his line or head for the highway. This got to a head with the defection of five of the party’s state governors as well as considerable number of National Assembly members to the opposition party. Jonathan amassed an array of formidable enemies and ended up having to fence off attacks from detractors so much that he had little time left for doing the task for which he was elected. This turned out to be his Waterloo as he lost the presidential election in March 2015.

Why forgiveness is imperative for leaders

Leaders must learn to forgive others for the following reasons:

Leaders set the tone for their organizations

Whatever a leader encourages grows and what he discourages dies. To build a healthy and virile organization, a leader must learn to overlook injustices and wrongs against him. If he does this, it will set the tone for others. But if a leader insists on avenging every wrong, he will send a message across to the people that he is not averse to building a toxic organization. So, forgiving wrongs is critical to building healthy and toxin-free organizations or nations.

Forgiveness shows that the future is more important than the past

Great leaders take lessons from the past but live in the future. So, their focus is on the future and how to improve it. Therefore, rather than dwelling on the hurts and pains of the past, they use the lessons drawn from past incidents to build a stronger future for everyone. Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who was incarcerated for 27 years, knew how it felt to suffer injustice and would not want to inflict same on anybody because he realized that building a virile country which would be home to all was of more importance than avenging the hurt he personally suffered from injustice. So, rather than going after his adversaries, he focused on building a stronger country that would not repeat the mistake of the past.

Forgiveness breaks camps

When leaders overlook wrongs and do what is right, what they actually do is to break camps in the organization or nation that they lead. Every act of vengeance always pitches some people against others because no matter how wrong a person may be, he will still enjoy the sympathy of some people. Great leaders know that to achieve more, all hands must be on deck, so they try as much as possible to get everyone along. Apparently that point was not too clear to former President Goodluck Jonathan who was fighting enemies among those he led. Great leaders do not make enemies of their followers irrespective of their point of disagreement with them; they know that the real enemy is outside the camp, not within.

Forgiveness is a sign of maturity

When a leader forgives, it shows that he is higher than what has happened and better than those who wronged him. As observed by Mahatma Gandhi, the weak cannot forgive; forgiveness is an attribute of the strong. So, weak leaders find it difficult to forgive while great leaders are quick to forgive. Leaders need to realize that they are called leaders because they are expected to be exemplary. Leaders who forgive wrongs show that they are mature and fit for the office they occupy. If a leader holds on to a wrong and allows that to be the determinant of his conduct in office, it is a demonstration that he is way below the office he occupies.

Journey into leadership greatness

Leadership greatness flows from the ability of a leader to move from personal interest to greater good for others. The average person is selfish but understanding leadership responsibility makes it clear to the leader that he should be more interested in the institution and the people he leads than in his personal concerns or comforts. Consequently, he is able to look at issues from the people’s perspective and does things that would benefit them even if he is shortchanged in the process. This is what makes leaders great. So, for leaders, the journey to greatness commences when he is able to downplay his personal interest so as to play up what matters to both the people and the institution he leads.

A leader may be forgiven for lacking any other thing but certainly not a forgiving heart. A leader who cannot overlook wrongs cannot go far. As observed by Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, “Forgiveness is one of the factors that differentiate exceptional from mediocre or ineffective leadership. When leaders forgive, they dissipate built-up anger, bitterness and the animosity that can color individual team and organizational functioning.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED THESE FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Mandela became a global citizen because he did not use power as a means to fight his enemies. Jobs turned a tottering Apple into one of the most profitable companies in the world because he left the past behind and used his power to build bridges. Those who use their leadership positions to fight enemies (real or imaginary) are wont to lose their grip on power because they are busy chasing shadows while the serious business of their calling is left to suffer.

Last line

Those who don’t look beyond past hurts miss the opportunities packaged in the future.