Identify one leader that you admire and one that you do not and reflect upon what is it about the one leader that you admire and appeals to you and what is it about the other that you dislike and disapprove of and why. Use the concepts from the Corentus reading and your Strength Finder Assessment to evaluate the reasons why you may like or dislike these leaders. Also, use this opportunity to reflect up what you might have learned about yourself from the Strength Finder Assessment that reinforced your belief about yourself or may have been surprising and challenging to you
(Note: This reflection paper was written in the first quarter of 2019 as part of an Ethics and Leadership course)
Leader I admire
Among other roles and aspirations, Oby Ezekwesili is the 2019 presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), former vice president of the World Bank’s Africa division, a former Minister of Education in Nigeria, co-founder Transparency International. a global watchdog fighting corruption, and co-founder bring back our girls’ campaign, the campaign that broke the silence on the abduction of 200 Chibok girls in NE Nigeria in April 2014 and gathered international attention on the abduction in late 2014. In an interview in January 2019 with the Punch newspaper, she talked passionately of her love for Nigeria and expounded on her motivations to run for presidency in the February 2019 elections. She mentioned that politics in Nigeria undermines the efforts of technocrats and if Nigeria’s politics is not fixed, it will be impossible to fix Nigeria. Her passion and clarity are unfettered in all she says and does. It is obvious from her life’s journey that she has worked to remain consistent and has not “negotiated her values”. For this and many more reasons, Obiageli Ezekwesili is one leader I admire.
The overlap between my first five Clifton strengths and the reasons I admire Oby refocuses in my mind the fact of life that we are attracted to what we are and the need to constantly assess the people or things we are being drawn too introspectively and retrospectively.
o Connectedness — Oby’s believes that what she is doing is the role she has to fulfil, that her action or lack of inaction does not affect her only. Therefore, she wants to be the one acting so as not to deprive Nigeria and the things she cares about the benefit of her impact.
o Consistency — Oby’s commitment to the things she cares about is also innate. As a child while watching a program where stark poverty was portrayed, she had wondered why this was the case to her father. Her father mentioned that it was because of a lack of good governance. She decided that she would bring good governance to work against poverty. This desire has stayed with her and can be easily seen when her actions are analysed.
o Restorative — There are so many problems. Hence, it is soothing to see Oby identifying problems and doing the needful to identify entry points to tackle them successfully.
o Belief — Oby lives out her values in the projects she embarks upon and her leadership aspirations, and in her efforts to be the voice for the vulnerable, to be able to “leave a legacy of value and worth”. For her, the process of adding value to the lives of other people enriches her own.
o Deliberative — Oby chooses her choice of actions and words wisely. In her response about her views on response to certain countries including Nigeria as shit-hole countries, she responded with so much tact emphasizing that rather than focusing on what has been said, the not onus rests on LDCs to show that narrative is in error.
In the same way that the elements of various leadership styles intersect, Oby’s leadership style embodies intersections of leadership elements from the trait, behavioural, and contingency theories. It is often the case that exemplary leaders have these three elements of leadership visible in their style. This supports the readings’ assertion that, “the theories are a progression, not mutually exclusive or totally time bound”. Although a leader may exhibit some leadership traits or styles more prominently than the other. Also, some leadership traits or styles were also more prominent at certain time periods, but this does not mean that traits from the other theories were non-existent at those time periods. While it may not be a worthwhile exercise to try to strictly categorize leadership styles as either good or bad, it is necessary to identify which leadership style is appropriate for a particular situation, the target entities to be influenced and the goals to be achieved. For example, an autocratic leader might just be a situational leader who rose up to a challenge that requires a “strong” leader. An example is the military regimes in Nigeria in the 70s. Oftentimes, transformational leaders need the support of transactional leaders, to provide additional push towards desired outcomes. What is the value of transformation if it doesn’t translate into some tangible output?
In conclusion, Oby also fits well into the committing quadrant — courageous and holds herself accountable to her commitments with intention and integrity — and the overall concept of “being” because of the clarity and authenticity in her leadership style.
Leader I disapprove of
I will refer to the leader I disapprove of I will simply refer to as “M”. M cared so much about the bottom line. It was a private firm and the numbers should matter. Numbers should matter everywhere, or what is the essence of activity without discernible progress? This focus on numbers led to high staff turn over rates as staff found companies who paid more or were not as demanding. Other staff stayed back as they awaited their “miracle”. Although, M tried to be friendly and often went around from office to office, smiling and patting shoulders, because of M’s general stern disposition, this was sometime seen as a façade or just a walk around to ensure everyone was at their duty post. Therefore, there was no sense of connectedness with the job because of the lack of connectedness with the leader. The leaders at lower levels were more people-centric providing a balance and indirectly ensuring that this lack of connectedness to the main leader did not degenerate into apathy.
It was also tempting to read individual efforts to be friendly with M as being sycophantic. Also, it seemed M was naturally closer to these people. This could also be read as a lack of consistency because those people got certain benefits not because M was partial, but they knew how to manage the relationship. Those who were scared by her strict mien were not in this category and felt increasing discomfort with her leadership. When M made efforts tried to be balanced and friendly, it seemed like M was erratic. This moment laughing and making jokes which everyone laughed along sensing the comment to be a joke and a couple of minutes later moment scolding harshly and recanting all the failures of the year.
While a leader could be output centric, they should also make efforts to be relationship oriented. The challenge however is that if a leader is very output centric, the relationship with followers become strained. Also, if a leader is too people centric and trying to use a laissez fare method, so many things seep through the crack and leads to the situation where too much of one thing ends up being a bad thing. In my opinion putting in reward systems help with these concerns. Leaders are rewarded based on staff perception of their leadership and staff who performs their tasks well especially in a laissez fare setting are recognized and rewarded.
In summary, I agree that combination of leadership styles work. The problem arises when the leadership style stems from one theory.
Reflections from the Strength Finder Assessment
The 80–20 rule has attained credence not only in management. The importance of focusing on the things you do best and seeing all other things fall in place keeps proving itself to be true: why sweat the small stuff while the big stuff can become a great fire with relatively minimal push? Thinking through these strengths it seems that every individual has a little of each strength within them. The strengths that have floated to the top I would like to describe as those which genes or life’s experiences have presented us with opportunities to grow and become competent in. As these strengths have grown they have become stronger and that competitive advantage makes them the strength that is most reasonable to keep investing in. There also seem to me some reverse causality with regards to how the top strengths emerge; did they gain prominence because those are our intrinsic strengths or because they are our true strengths was why they gained prominence?
At some point, there was some desire for other people’s top strengths. For example, activators are individuals who provide drive and are usually at the fore. Nobody would prefer to be at the background all the time or not getting their share of recognition for their contribution. I soon discover that desiring other’s strength is not necessary because looking at my top 5 strength, I find that these are the ones that define me more and the ones I can most benefit and benefit others with if I focused on understanding and developing them. Irrespective of one’s dominant strength one can still get to the fore if one hones how to exhibit the strengths and collaborate with other strengths. For example, I am so sure I will stress out trying to be an activator all the time. Individuals who have consistency strengths are encouraged to partner with individuals who have powerful maximizer or individualization talents who are better equipped to handle situations that involve accommodating individual differences. Likewise, deliberative individuals are encouraged to partner with individuals with strong command, self-assurance, or activator talents, so that together they can make sound decisions.
Most of what I have learned from reflecting on the Strength Finder Assessment reinforced my belief about yourself. Others that I find surprising and challenging are those that describe the collaborations that certain strengths need to make with other strengths.
o Connectedness — From my prior work experience, in places where I no longer feel connected with the value of the work being done or the satisfaction and other remuneration, I get from the job does not afford me the resources or strength to feed other things that I am committed to I start planning an exit strategy. I also have the tendency to be overcommitted to work such that I do not leave out time to pursue other things I am connected to. In situations where I am the team leader, I try to ensure my team members feel connected and relevant by delegating tasks to them and keeping them in the loop of communications.
o Consistency — I appreciate consistency because when there are rules to follow people know what is expected of them and they have something to refer to if they need to check that they are still in line. Consistency also helps avoid situations where people don’t overstep boundaries or start making unnecessary demands. As mentioned by StrengthsFinder2.0 book, sometimes my consistency talents occasionally lead me to emphasize how others get work done and ignore what they have done. The suggestion to keep the focus on performance was very relevant.
o Restorative — A Yoruba adage is translated as follows, ‘if a child falls, he keeps walking on, but when an adult fall, he looks back to know the reason why he fell”. From my childhood, I had always wanted to act like an adult to avoid repeating the same mistakes. In my work experience, I have learnt to design update forms and request periodic updates from teams. I also have a way to check that the updates are the true updates so there is no last-minute rush that could result in shoddy work. In the restorative vein, growing up, mathematics and other quantitative skills did not come naturally to me. Over the years I had built interest in Quantitative skills and keep trying to learn more. So much so, that it now looks like mathematics is my strength.
o Belief — Over the years I have tried to find work, volunteer experience, mini projects, and other engagements that align with my values, because I want to remain on the path that leads me to that holistic picture at the back of my mind.
o Deliberative — I also do my best to plan meticulously understanding choices I am about to make, likely challenges, and the reasons why I am taking steps and likely outcomes, so I am not faced with negative surprises.
References
Corentus Leadership Theories
Corentus on Leadership and management
Dorcas Omowole. Strength Insight Report. Galllup Inc. January 3, 2019
Punch Newspaper. My dad prepared me well for what I’m doing — Oby Ezekwesili. Featured article. January 20, 2019
https://punchng.com/my-dad-prepared-me-well-for-what-im-doing-oby-ezekwesili/
Stories of 2014 Nigeria. Obiageli Ezekwesili: ‘When they took the girls, our government went under’. December 28, 2014 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/28/obiageli-ezekwesili-bring-back-our-girls-boko-haram-school-kidnapping
Tom Rath. StrengthsFinder2.0 from Gallup. Gallup press. 2007.