VACANCY FOR LEADERS

Leadership is crucial for progress, growth and performance for any human endeavor. The result of positive leadership is very tangible creating benefits that can be seen or felt.  Equally, the devastating effect of bad leadership is also very visible and tangible.

Leadership defines a successful home, church, enterprise or nation. Actually, leadership defines our personal lives.

Weighing the importance of leadership, it can be described in all terms as an essential goods or need and not just a want if humanity must see progress. Leadership by all standards can be likened to the role of oxygen for human existence.   

The importance of quality leadership is a common knowledge yet we are still locked up in choosing or appointing pseudo leaders. So why is that  although the importance of leadership is not debatable, there is not much being done to ensure that the next leaders are prepared to stand up to make the needed difference  as  made by other leaders like  Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, etc.  

Take your time and list the main problems confronting our Country. Zoom your analysis to the district levels or the various organizations, either public or private and you will notice that the underlying problem facing all of these entities from growth and progress are lack of quality leadership. 

There are vacancies for quality leadership and this is very obvious considering the various challenges we are witnessing as a Country.  The vacancy for this leadership position is not synonymous to finding people to fill vacant positions. We don’t need bosses who will get buried in the position instead being buried in the duties required of the position. The leaders needed to fill the vacancies must be individuals   with skills needed to solve problems. They must have the ability to shepherd their followers in order to get things done without necessarily destroying the people who must benefit of the leadership.

We don’t need leaders who chant political party songs and who have theorized their political party ideologies without recourse to the bigger picture of building a progressive nation.  We need leaders who will uphold right or wrong not in reference to their political standings.  We need leaders who do not count the gains that position offers but who have the desire and commitment to sacrifice for the sake of the system. We need leaders who don’t see position as a time to chase out the voices that ask for clarifications but leaders who will embrace different shades of voices and opinions to craft a stronger system.

The shortage in quality leaders is worse than “dumsor” (power outages) that is currently being experienced in Ghana. Our worse enemy as a Country after poverty is leadership. 

The  happenings  around us in politics, corporate organizations ,homes, communities  and even in the churches point to the fact that there is the need to have a  breed of new leaders with the  paradigm of making positive impact and not just being called by the various tittles; boss ,Dr., chief, honorable, etc.

The state of Ghana need leaders who like any economic assets can serve to benefit the system they are leading. Currently the nation as it stands have very few asset “like leaders” with many leaders acting as liabilities to the system. The “liability” like leaders do not generate benefits beyond what is invested in them.

Trumpeting the call of quality leaders at every sector of the economy has been made since time in memorial but what steps are being followed to make sure as a people we have the leaders that we need to ensure national and institutional progress.

In our bid to seek for leaders to feel various positions either through voting or appointment, many people  have been misled by the physical appearance, fluency or the economic networth  of the people they nominate or recommend for leadership position. A leader must take care of his looks but that is not the defining gene that can make the leader effective or not. People asking other people to be their leader must go beyond their looks, heights or colour and rather understand the attributes  that the leader  exhibits ; verbally or non-verbally. It is important for people hiring or searching for quality leaders to note that leadership is not a spontaneous eruption of some special traits. It is an extended part of people that shows up in ordinary situations.

The absence of quality leadership cannot be solved any time soon if a nation or corporate organization does not take emergency steps to grow and groom leaders for the future. We must be intentional in growing leaders. The importance of leadership in our society is so important to leave it to chance.

The leadership ability of people must be groomed

right from their childhoods.  People should be trusted with responsibilities right from the home, school or 

 church as they grow. The positions of class prefect, bell boys, blackboard (I sound old here) cleaner and

  many other leadership opportunities from everyday lives can serve as a means to groom leaders for

corporate Ghana. People must be tested with leadership positions that matches their skills and exposure

before being allowed to handle certain kinds of responsibilities. We must begin to bring “apprentice

concept” in growing leaders.  Growing quality leaders for the nation is not accidental but a well thought-out

process. Let us begin to tackle our shortage for leaders and I am sure it will be the shortest possible route to

transform the Country Ghana and the various institutions we have.