The-Accountant-Sep-Oct-2017-Final

Society
As a leader, the most important question
to ask on your leadership position is not,
“what am I getting?” instead you should
ask, “What am I becoming?” In other
words, what you become directly influences
what you get. Remember that as a leader if
your staff members do not have programs
for personal skill development, you will
face great challenges especially during
turbulent times. You employ someone who
has worked in different organizations for
ten years and you are excited that you have
a new catch with a wealth of experience.
What you do not realize is that he or she
doesn’t have ten years experience. What he
or she has is one year experience repeated
ten times. He or she hasn’t made a single
improvement, a single innovation for nine
years.
There has been a hot debate lately in
Kenya about scarcity and cost of maize
flour. Different opinions have been formed
from different quarters on how to make
the commodity affordable. In my view the
cost of maize flour is not the problem of
the Kenyan people. It is not that it costs
too much. The problem is that they can’t
afford it. Why can’t they afford it?
The answer to this may be got from a
situation I found myself in when my car
got stuck in the mud as I was driving in
one of the counties. When my car could
not move, I did the easiest thing, blaming
the leadership of the county for neglecting
the roads. I continued to complain and by
this time some boys had gathered around
me and one of the boys said some words
in Swahili, “Buda barabara si mbaya, wewe
ndio una gari ndogo” (the road is not bad,
you are the one who has a vehicle with
small capacity). These words hit me like
thunder breaks.
Why do we point fingers instead
of looking within? The ego strives to
defend itself. Therefore when we blame
outside forces we do not have to face
our own weaknesses and failings. This
must have been my reason for keeping
on complaining without realizing that as
much as the road was not in the condition
I expected, I needed to work hard also
to buy a car of higher capacity that can
pass through such roads. Similarly, it is
the responsibility of the Kenyan leaders
to empower the Kenyan people through
personal development so that they are able
to afford the price of maize flour instead of
focusing on its cost.
From this, it is important to note
as a leader that what you become is far
Jean-Pierre Lehmann
more important than what you get. The
important question to ask on your position
of leadership is not what you are getting
but rather what you are becoming. What
you become directly influences what you
get because what you have today you
have attracted by becoming the leader
you are today. In other words, to have
more influence on your people than you
have got now, become more than you
are. To overcome more challenges, you
need to read more, you need to get more
information and use it more to your
advantage. Do not rely on loyalists who
exhibit blind loyalties to please you; seek
more yourself.
To overcome more
challenges, you
need to read more,
you need to get
more information
and use it more to
your advantage. Do
not rely on loyalists
who exhibit blind
loyalties to please
you; seek more
yourself.
An illustration of the power of becoming
more in order to overcome challenges
happened 500 years ago to Christopher
Columbus during one of his voyages to the
new world. In 1504, Columbus ordered his
crew to anchor their ship off the coast of
Jamaica. The long voyage had depleted most
of the on-board supplies and Columbus men
were desperate for fresh food and water. The
native Jamaicans however refused to trade
and Columbus pleaded to no avail.
One night, while reviewing his
navigator’s almanac, he came across some
potentially meaningful information that a
lunar eclipse was scheduled to occur within
a few days. He arranged a meeting with the
Jamaican leaders on the day of the eclipse,
and warned them that if they continued to
refuse to trade with him, he would have
no choice but to use his magical powers to
blot out the moon that night. And if they
refused to trade with him the following
day, he would call on the sun to drop fire
on their villages. He did this because he
had prior knowledge and wanted to take
advantage of their ignorance.
The Jamaicans laughed at him but that
night, as the eclipse began, the Jamaicans
stared in astonishment as the moon began
to disappear. The panic-stricken natives
rushed to Columbus, who offered to restore
the moon that night under one condition
– they must bring fresh supplies to his
ship immediately. They complied with
Columbus’s offer and gasped in amazement
as the moon reappeared, just as Columbus
had promised.
What do you think would have
happened to Columbus if he didn’t
continually empower himself by getting
information and didn’t do anything with it?
No doubt, it would have changed the course
of history.
Professor Jean Pierre Lahman said,
“Education has a much broader and deeper
meaning; it is not confined to time or
space, it is an attitude, a constant search for
learning founded on an insatiable curiosity”.
Similarly, continue to enhance your
leadership skills to enable you overcome
many challenges ahead.
Referring you back to ‘surfing the waves’,
when surfers see a good wave, they make
the most of it, even if that means surfing in
the middle of the storm. They always do so
because they have developed the skill. To do
so also, in your own area, you must develop
the requisite skills.
nyanchamajoseph@gmail.com
september - october 2017 47