The Eagles And The Raving Fans

The Author

Most leaders will never be what they think they are and will ironically pray to be the persons their dogs think they are: In a date with CIMG marketing man of the year 2015, Patrick K. Akorli, Managing Director (Goil) recently, he made us appreciate the complementary role of the dog whenever it is being misled towards the wrong direction by its manager. In a related development, Ken Banchard concluded that Eagles flourish in organizations where customer is the focus but Ducks multiply in places where boss pleasing is a daily ritual. In every faculty of life, eagles abound in transforming the lives of individuals through activities within the aegis of human relations. Indeed, Max Depree emphasized that the first responsibility of a leader is to define the reality. The last is to say thank you. In-between, the leader is a servant.

From the world book (2001), leadership is important in keeping group work together and directing it to act in certain way. Being one of the elements of human relations, experts believe it is one of the best means in achieving the desired goal with minimum conflict primed on the fact that individuals have inborn and acquired needs. If a leader understands individuals’ needs, why they act and react as they do and the things that will change their mind, he is better positioned to provide them with the appropriate solution. It is also important to marry individual needs to living together because people are social beings and live in contact with each other. The third reality is the unpleasant ring of conflict that every group situation offers among members with distinct needs.

A royal caretaker must know his sheep just as the dynamics of leadership in salesmanship beholds on the manager to understand the needs of his sales force and the specific situation. The value relevance of this as presented by Anderson provides four kinds of people that will need tailored art of influencing. In the first segment, you will lead experienced high performing team who tend to be competitive with one another. A second set consists of experienced high performing team doing work they know and enjoy amid new hired inexperienced trainees and experienced team likely to do the unpleasant unfamiliar jobs. A study has determined that effective leaders address two kinds of needs within an organization: efficiency and human needs.

These leaders are effective at both planning and implementing task and at working with people in the organization. The journal school of leadership reaffirmed that the more a company focuses on internal leadership growth, the better its sales and profit. A great deal of contributions from the social sciences such as the economist, political scientist, cultural anthropologist, social psychologist and the sociologist enhance this element of human relations.

The genetic engineering on the art of influencing through research from the 1970s and the 1980s has been phenomenal in that while leaders are essential component of organization, they are also one of the most complex components. According to Thomas Carlyle (1840), to suggest that leaders do not enter the world with extraordinary endowment is to imply that people enter the world with equal talents. It is also widely accepted that leadership learning should be a lifetime activity as being practiced by the military.

This puts to rest whether leaders are born or made because a leader will always be born before being grilled by teaching, observation and learning. These manifest in telling people what to do, how to do it and who is to do it. Leaders are also expected to be concerned about how they listen, provide clarification, know the individual motives and providing feedback. In order not to court a leadership failure one fit style to all situations is bad.

Ken Blanchard emphasized that the best leaders are those who understand that their power flows through them not from them. On this journey of influencing you need to know where you are going and have a personal mission statement strongly footed on your strength but be guided by your assumed obituary. According to Ken, you need to set the boundaries as to your purpose, values, goal, role and structures. The world book also admonishes us to consider other factors such as the organizational unit and any outside influences, system control and the group goal.

Human dignity and respect are important because leadership is not something you do to people but something you do with people and committed to helping your people win. All the things leadership espouses has nothing to do with size; it is about knowledge, wisdom and dealing in hope. In the words of Peter Drucker, it is lifting a person’s vision to high sight, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of personality beyond its normal limitations.

All remarkable leaders are marked with great achievement and history. Pope Francis has attracted non catholic admirers by setting a new direction for the church, refused to occupy the Palatial papal apartment, washed the feet of female Muslim prisoner and created an advisory team of 8 cardinals. Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford Motors is referred to as miracle worker who saved his company without resorting to bailout as previous leaders tried and failed. Bill Cliton has been a relentless and forceful advocate for HIV/AIDS, Malaria, tuberculosis and the need to stem greenhouse emission. Jeff Bezor is also a life testimony of world leader as CEO of Amazon.com is an extremely rare combination of visionary and master builder for 20 years with the foresight and turning into world number two after Apple.

Warren Buffet, an investor is also an example of leaders who leads 300,000 employees into a value based hands off style that gives managers wide leeway and incentivizes them like owners. The likes of Christine Largarde and Angela Mekel are worth mentioning. Zed Corner in 2015 listed some of the good leaders in Africa as Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Haile Selasie, Ellen Johnson, Kenneth Kaunda, Patrice Lumumba, Jomo Kenyatta, Thomas Sankara and Samora Machel. We venerate them for their boundaries, exemplary lives, truthfulness, self sacrifices, investment in the wellbeing of followers, human relations, and the eagle like characteristics.

You can inspire in your marital decision, business decision, household decision, national decision, global decision and financial decision among the lots because leadership is a high calling. You should think and talk about the solution as suggested by Brian Tracy. Mr Patrick Akorli MD (Goil) advised us to be ready to learn on this journey of leadership while thinking about our followers first because if town folks are happy, the chief deserves thank.