In 2016, Sunday Oliseh, then head coach of Nigeria’s Super Eagles, did the unthinkable when he declared war on those who criticized the crash of his team out of the year’s African Nations Championship (CHANS). The sweat merchant faulted everyone but himself. He insulted Nigerians, blamed the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and abused his former team mates calling them “bench warmers”.
Oliseh anchored his angst on what he called the unfairness of his critics. By his reckoning, his team had done well, losing just two matches out of the 14 played since he took over as the head coach. He even said that the CHANS was not a very important competition and wondered why Nigerians decided to make a mountain out a molehill of the inability of his team to qualify for the knock out stage of the competition.
The outburst was a revelation of Oliseh’s leadership quality. He might have been a good footballer in his days, an outstanding football analyst and a good coach but the outburst showed that he still had a few things to learn as a leader. Just like many people, Oliseh was more interested in the glamorous part of leadership. But glamour, honour, accolades, perks and praises are not all there is to leadership; there is also the flipside which is bifurcated into burden and responsibility.
Burden of leadership
Many are aware of and covet both the benefits and perks of leadership but want to avoid its burden. Leading at any level is burdensome. Hereunder are some of the burdens that come with leading.
Criticism
One of the facts that leaders have to live with is criticism. For good or bad, every activity of a leader will come under criticism. The reason for this is obvious; everything in life has merits and demerits. There is nothing that is absolutely good or absolutely bad. So, every choice made by a leader has its downside and some people will choose to concentrate on the drawback and as a result take the leader to the cleaners.
Another reason this is so is that whatever the leader does, there will be some people who will believe that they can do it better and they will condemn what has been done.
When his activities come under criticism, a wannabe leader wastes no time reacting to this; he does everything to defend himself and justify his actions but a great leader does nothing of such. Rather than react to criticism, a great leader allows his result to speak for him. As the saying goes, if the act condemns you, let the result absolve you.
Tested leaders know that criticism is part of the package and realize that whoever cannot stand the heat should quit the kitchen. So, they take criticism in their stride.
During a presidential campaign in the United States of America, one of the two candidates reveled in lampooning and deriding his opponent. On the contrary, the opponent never said any vile thing about him. One day, journalists asked the candidate who refused to get dragged into verbal war with his opponent why he opted for that. He said when he was a young boy there was a dog who always barked whenever the moon was up. He said but the barking never stopped the moon from shining, adding that he had resolved to let the dog continue with its barking while he continued with his shining.
Service
A leader exists to serve others. Many people, including some leaders, believe that the leader is to be served. That is holding the wrong head of the stick. Anyone who waits to be served is not a leader. The hallmark of leadership is service. The leader serves by engendering an improvement in the lives of his people. Hence, leadership is synonymous to selflessness. Anyone who is out to improve his own lot will make a shipwreck of his leadership. That is why the leader serves without counting the cost.
Apparently this was alien to Oliseh’s understanding of leadership. Oliseh sounded as if he was doing the country a favour by taking on the duty of the head coach. Leadership is about rendering top of the range services without expecting much in return. That is why it is a burden.
Take the blame
Leaders are quick to take the blame not just for their misdeeds but also for the misdemeanour of others. A great leader always has the back of his people. He never throws any of his men to the wolves. When they make genuine mistakes he takes the bullet for them and helps them overcome challenges that can turn them into mediocre. The only member of his team that is allowed to bear his own cross is the one that gets involved in clearly ethical issues or the one that consistently performs below par.
Leaders take the blame for the mistakes of their team members because this builds trust in the team, bolsters confidence and propels team members to stretch themselves. When team members trust their leader enough to protect them even when they make mistakes, their confidence level is increased and they go to any length to work for the success of the team.
Share the credit
Leaders solely take the blame but gladly share the credit for success recorded with their team members. A great leader, even when he is solely responsible for the success of his team, readily gives the credit to his members.
Why do leaders take this route? The reason is that a leader’s pursuit should not be success. A leader who is after success will struggle for credit with his team members. A leader should make significance his pursuit. Significance speaks of building people and leaving a legacy. What better way is there of building a legacy than raising confident and surefooted people who will continue to do what is right?
Deflect attention
Everyone wants to focus on the leader, especially if the team is doing well, but great leaders never allow the klieg light to focus on them. What they do instead is to deflect the attention to the activities of the group rather than allow it to be put on them. That is why Nelson Mandela says in his autobiography that, “A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”
This is not an easy choice for leaders, but those who want to leave indelible footprints on the sands of time know that it is best for them to allow those they are mentoring enjoy the limelight at the leaders’ expense.
Responsibility
The other aspect of the leadership flipside is responsibility. In the discharge of his duties a leader must take up certain responsibilities.
The buck stops here
The primary responsibility of leadership is decision making. Leaders are employed to take their organizations from one level to a higher one. They accomplish that task by taking decisions. Their decisions determine what is done and how it is done or what is not done and why it is not done. When leaders make decisions, those decisions either make or break their organizations. Interestingly, those decisions also make or destroy the leaders.
One issue about decision making is that it is done based on available facts as well as those marshalling those facts. If a leader does not have all the facts while making a decision, the probability is high that he will make a wrong decision. If a charismatic lieutenant is canvassing a position which is based on flawed assumptions, unless the leader is careful and insightful, he may be taken in. It is for this reason that a leader must strive to improve his knowledge base on a daily basis. Although there are occasions that call for instant decision making when the leader has to act immediately, it is better for a leader to tarry a while and subject every issue to deep reflection before committing himself one way or the other.
If a leader makes the right decision 100 times but makes the wrong decision at the 101st time, he is not spared, especially if the effect of the wrong decision is calamitous. Nobody remembers the good decisions he once made, everybody’s focus is on the wrong decision he has just made. Hence, a leader is only as good as his last decision.
It was former United States president, Harry Truman, who said, “The buck stops here.” He knew that in the final analysis, nobody, but him, would be held responsible for whatever happened in his administration. Therefore, he did not allow himself to be goaded into taking any irrational decision. He thought through every decision he had to make as the president.
When right decisions are made and things turn right, people get to see the glamour but they never get to appreciate the rigour that went into making things happen.
Inspire others
The leader also has the responsibility for inspiring others. This is a very critical aspect of leadership because the output of a workforce is directly proportional to its level of inspiration. While a motivated workforce gives a heartwarming performance, the best that can be expected from an uninspired workforce is an insipid performance.
While the workplace environment and the availability of tools can motivate employees, what is most important to them is the organization meeting their present and future aspirations. So, a leader has the responsibility to consistently assure his people that both their present and future are secure by ensuring that the organization remains a going concern. Even when the organization is facing challenges, the leader must continuously assure the people that it will overcome the challenges and he must be seen working towards achieving this. It is then that the workforce will remain inspired.
Achievement of corporate objectives
No matter what else a leader does, if he fails to achieve the corporate objectives, he has done nothing. Irrespective of how an organization carves its vision or mission statement, it boils down to three things; satisfying the yearnings of customers, meeting the aspiration of the employees and fulfilling the expectations of the shareholders. What are the yearnings of customers? They want top of the range products and services at competitive prices. What are the aspirations of employees? They desire generous reward for their services to the organization and fairness from their leaders. The expectation of the owners is adequate return on investment which will ensure that the organization remains a going concern.
So, in striving to achieve corporate objectives, leaders, especially CEOs, need to understand that they have three constituencies with different aspirations to satisfy. Once they can maintain a balance among these three interest groups, their job is done.
Last line
Great leaders are motivated by the burden and responsibility of leadership because it is the proper handling of these that produces the glamour.
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