Building Moral & Strategic Leadership for
Nigeria
4th Annual Graduation Lecture of the African Centre for
Leadership, Strategy & Development
Delivered by
Johnson A. Ikube
Managing Consultant/CEO
JI Global Solutions Ltd.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Bolton White Hotel, Abuja
The lecture theme explores …
… How leaders should behave
and how they should achieve
desired results generally and in
Nigeria in particular
Effective leadership is a critical challenge in the world today.
Africa is said to appear to have an especially large share of
this crisis of leadership.
Initial food for thought
I cannot teach anybody anything; I
can only make them think
(Socrates)
Opportunity does not knock. You
knock and opportunity answers
(Anonymous)
When Opportunity answers, you must
know how to open the door and utilize
what the opportunity has successfully
(Anonymous)
What I intend to achieve with this lecture
• Sensitize all to why we must continue
to rethink leadership
• Remind us of why we need great
leaders
• Sharpen our minds with what great
leaders do and have
• Suggest ways in which to build great
leaders in and for Nigeria
• The subject of leadership has captivated the minds of
business, politics, society and the world more than any
other in the last 50 years.
• There are as many definitions of leadership as there are
writers. There are many descriptions of leadership as
there are persons in leadership roles. Everyone it
appears, is a leader
• There is so much effort to teach leadership despite which
we are experiencing large scale and continuous failures of
leadership in virtually every sector of modern society.
• What can be wrong? Is it in the teaching? Is it in the
learning or is it in the practice?
• There appears to be some disconnect somewhere.
• The trinity of the leader, the led and the situation as the
leadership tripod must be factually rethought?
The case for continuous leadership attention
The leadership crisis?
Economies grow but
People develop
With developed people, economic growth is not only
assured but sustainable
The leadership crisis cont’d
• Economic growth without people development is a
curse to future generations
• This the challenge of leadership worldwide
• Sustainable economic growth and development is the
evidence of good leadership
• This should assure harmony internally and
externally, bring pride to the people as values and
numbers align with higher purpose
• It must leave leaders with fulfilled hearts and peace
of mind
All leaders should understand and be equipped with the know-how
What really is leadership?
• Leadership is the opportunity to make a difference positively
• We are born with potential and opportunities
• Described thus, leadership is born; leaders are made
• Leaders are persons in leadership positions
How persons can recognise and utilize their opportunities
positively should really be the issue to explore in leadership
• Leadership cannot really be taught
• It must however still be learnt by leaders
Leadership must be science performed with the heart and mind of wisdom
What Ineffective, Good and Great Leaders do?
• Ineffective leaders fail to
achieve desired results
• Good leaders achieve
desired results
• Great leaders make a
difference
They decrease personal,
organisational and community
resources
They increase personal,
organisational and community
resources
They touch collective humanity in
significant ways, building people
through significantly
transforming their personalities in
line with life’s higher values
It is generally said that the human race has improved virtually
everything else but the human race itself. Great leaders focus on this
challenge
With what did they do what they did?
Led
organisational &
societal change
•
Focused on
Why? outcomes
Deployed
Character
Empowered
others to own
the vision
Deployed
Personal
capability
These can be building blocks of moral and strategic leadership
… John Zenger & Joseph R. Folkman (2009) modified
Building Great Leaders?
Personalities must be transformed through Core Values, Core
Behaviours & Core orientations
Core
Values
They
are
humble
They
value
others
Core
Behaviours
Respectfu
Support
others to
succeed
Core
Orientations
Self
Leadership
is key
Inclusion
is better
than
exclusion
They have
Integrity
Transparen
t and
integrated
Leadership
is for the
future
They
love to
do good
Good is
superior
to right
They
transform
right to
good
The
value
positive
Image
Consistent
There is a
higher
purpose
for life
They
deliver
Results
Superior
outcomes
True
service
fulfills that
purpose
Building Great Leaders?
Leadership is for the future. Focus where the weakness is
How do we build great leaders, since the teaching of
leadership appears to be running into troubled waters
How many great leaders
were taught leadership?
They did not consciously
teach it. They just led.
How many great leaders
learnt leadership?
ALL of THEM
How then did they learn?
How good and great leaders learn?
• Personal wisdom, inspiration and creativity
• Strong orientation to selfless service
• Modeling persons they admired as great leaders
• Through stories of the lives and orientations of leaders
• Challenged by situations they handled as opportunities
• Read and applied books that no man had written
Core Orientations of Past or Present Great Leaders
• Before they feel, they are
prepared for new experiencing
of who they really are and to let
go of your previous
experiences
• Before they think, they feel.
After they think, they feel
• Before they speak, they feel
and think. After they speak,
think and feel
• Before they act, they feel.
Think and speak. After they
act, they feel, think and speak
They are guided by deep feelings of reality, profound thoughts,
good words and right action
Does Nigeria need Good & Great Leaders?
There was a Country
• More values than numbers. The means
determined the worth of the end
There is a Country
YES?
Why?
• More numbers than values. The end
justifies the means
There will be a Country
• Proper fit between values and numbers;
preference for the permanent and the
survival of all as against that for the
temporary and survival of the fittest
orientation.
Core Practices of Great Leaders
1.
Work at
understanding
themselves
2.
Create higher purpose
sublime visions
3.
Passionately share
their vision
4.
Inspire others with
trust and
compassion
5.
Assemble the team to
drive the vision
6.
Serve to purpose and
with gratitude
7.
Know where they
currently are
8.
Develop high
probability realistic
road maps
9.
Install a high
performance culture
10.
Execute efficiently
11.
Control intelligently
12.
Lead by example
(1 – 6 drive Moral leadership; 7 – 12 drive strategic leadership)
How shall we build moral and strategic leadership for Nigeria?
Immediate term – next 1 to 2 years
• Sensitise leaders to the impact of their behaviours on all
• Rethink and operationalise our national values
• Strategically reorient all in Nigeria to these values
• Rest the growth and sustainability of the economy on the
private sector in all major aspects that by global good
practice should be the domain of business. This will drive
efficiency upward
How do we build moral and strategic leadership for Nigeria?
Immediate term – next 1 to 2 years
• Equip the “Selectorate” (those appointing + those electing)
with high standards of judgment working with what is
good and not just right
• Strengthen the sanctions and enforcement for infractions
• Provide adequate support to strategically focused and
morally strong persons and institutions, e.g. Centre LSD
How do we build moral and strategic leadership for Nigeria?
Immediate term – next 3 to 5 years
• Recognise what is common to us all and restrict impact
scope of our differences to local communities
• Institutionalise competent and professional regulation
• Reorient all from religiosity to spirituality. There will
then be the love for collective humanity and heightened
higher moral leadership
How do we build moral and strategic leadership for Nigeria?
Longer term – next 3 to 5 years
• Strategically envision and plan for the next 50 to hundred
years
• As we become the change we wish to see, ask the Creator in
prayers for support with children with the DNA for GOOD
and GREAT LEADERSHIP
Conclusion
Spiritual Leadership
(Serving to purpose of collective humanity.
Doing the good things)
Entrepreneurial Leadership
(Discovery, Innovation, Ownership &
management)
Organisational Leadership
(Doing the Right Things)
Practical
Leadership
(address
existing and
anticipated
challenges)
Managerial Leadership
(Doing Things Right)
Self Leadership
(Achieving personal goals)
Effective leadership requires climbing the ladder of practical leadership thus:
Closing thoughts
“To lead the people, walk
behind them”
Lao Tzu
“Injustice anywhere is
threat to justice
everywhere”
Martin Luther king
“He who is not contented with what he has will not be
contented with what he will like to have”
Socrates
Final Thoughts
The longest journey
you will make is from
your head to your
heart.
The highest purpose of
life is fulfilled through
giving of what you are
and have with a pure
heart
May the love and peace of GOD be with you to bless you
and yours with an abundance to overflowing of all
things GOOD. Amen
Johnson A. Ikube
email: ceo@jiglobalsolutions.com