Reason 11: Not Understanding the Purpose of Leadership is a reason why many leaders end up cataclysmically poor.
I believe most people aspiring for leadership positions hardly understand the purpose of leadership. Purpose does mean OR equal to goals or aims. The purpose is the original intent for a thing – the primary reason a thing exists. See, the original function/intent of the phone is to send and receive calls though it can be used for other functions like serving as radio, touch, browsing, etc. These secondary assignments are called value-added functions. The same is leadership; the primary function of the leader is mostly forgotten to the oversight function.
The purpose of leadership is authored by the First and the Last, HE who said I WILL LEAD YOU, HE who said, “FOLLOW ME”. The purpose of leadership is not to CONTROL people – that could be Management. It is not to organize, divide, and rule people – that could be governance and headship. Perhaps you can see why we have problems in leadership – the majority who come for leadership come NOT to lead us but to manage us, to rule (subjugate, dominate, subject) us instead of leading us. Sir, God didn’t make man manage to follow man, and the same is true for man to subjugate/subject another. He made man to LEAD man in an extension to HIS leading man from ABOVE. Sir, go and ask Human Resources Managers; you don’t manage people. You can manage Money, Material, and Machines but certainly not Manpower, Manager, Time, and Change. Managers need to step up and become leaders if they want to lead Manpower, Manager, Time, and Change.
The PURPOSE of Leadership is to TAKE PEOPLE TO THEIR DESIRED FUTURE. The end of this future is called Destination or DESTINY, which can be both Corporate and Individual.
The next purpose is to MAKE us GROW. The next is to make us strive and LIVE FOR EXCELLENCE and nothing less. The part is to give us hope while working out the fulfillment of these and in our lives.
So, how many people who elect people for leadership positions understand these. That’s the mistake many of you make in the assessment of leadership aspirants. The jostling for political offices is at its height, scouting for votes. We need to keep our cool to know real leaders and scavengers.
Dr Mike Ihezuo is a leadership authority. He can be reached via this CONTACT.
Your comments, please.
