Drawing on more than two decades of experience in various organisations, among my personal aspirations is to build an institution that excels not only as a builder of strong and successful teams. I cherish a dream to see my academy demonstrate a capacity to grow and develop high calibre individuals. Those individuals must be capable of functioning effectively in teams as well as being productive when working independently in a diversity of settings.
Modern success stories are as much about teamwork as they are about individual brilliance. Brazil is the only country in the world to have won the FIFA World Cup five times. The effectiveness of their playing systems is always underpinned by the high quality of their individual performers. It is commonly believed that Brazil goes to every World Cup with a minimum of five world class players. Many countries are said to average three world beaters in their teams for the FIFA spectacles, which take place every four years.
We cannot deny that the whole can, and should, always grow bigger and better than the sum of the individual units. However, there is a definite limit to how far you can go in papering over cracks created by under-prepared individuals within a team. It becomes even more difficult if such under-prepared individuals are in leadership positions. Throughout my life, I have taken plenty of pleasure from watching individuals who, having trained and prepared themselves to the highest standards, turn ordinary jobs into sciences and sciences into works of art.
The conundrum of how much power you give to an individual and how much you leave in the hands of the team is one that will for a long time continue to fascinate people. Management and leadership science students, practising managers and leaders as well as ordinary people battle with this subject on an endless basis. The truth is that we are living in a world of degrees and extents rather than kinds and types.
A good balance always needs to be found between the issues of the individual and the matters of the team. Sometimes in an effort to prevent what is commonly called personality cults, we curtail the room for the individual. But closing individual space sometimes results in low creativity and reduced accountability on the part of the individual. South Africa is battling with aspects of this phenomenon in various fields at the moment. It is all a balancing act with very little room for straight yes or no answers. It calls for higher levels of knowledge and creative courage.
Regardless of what we may want to think, the most promising and profitable way for our country to move forward on a sustainable basis is through the richness of its people. The best tools we have to equip our people with are knowledge and skills. But it is quite a formidable task in a society that for decades, if not more, treated knowledge and skills as personal pastimes instead of national duties.
We need an army of competent managers and leaders to effect the change we desire and deserve in our communities. Our communities, however, have to appreciate the fact that knowledge management issues, like educational ones, are investments with very long gestation periods and will therefore not produce instantaneous results.
Gibson Sakong
Executive Chairman – Montshepetja Academy
5 Comments until now.
Based on the last paragraph… “I believe Leadership is the ability to get extraordinary achievement from ordinary people”.
With attention to what Ouma said, I have a differnt definition of leadership. I believe that leadership is the ability to move from being an ordinary person to being an extraordinary achiever.
If we tend to make ordinary achievers to extraordinary achievers we are then contributing to what the ordinary person has already initiated. The minute we try to make people achieve what we have planned for them, as we will turn that person to be what we make of that person, we are then projecting our intentions and abilities on him/her.
Mr. Sakong in the last paragraph says “we need an army of COMPETENT managers and leaders to EFFECT the CHANGE we desire and deserve in our communities.” When one effects change, one implements what is necessary for change to take place, one does not take one’s wishes and put them into action because he has the ability to do so, but takes another persons dream and puts it into action.
I think that the way in which people see things also has an effect of what we make of things aound us and in our communities and societies, that in this case being leadership.
one thing I noticed and I have practices in teamwork is that I bring my skills, abilities and all there is that can be used to achieve whatever objective. this is unconsciously done.
think of the biggest teams in the world, they go out and buy players for specific tactics that they think can better the team. my point is as follows; if the manager or coach saw that a particular person can be of great use in the team, he takes only that player, not the whole team since the current team plays better because of one persons abilities.
What do I conclude with the above? We should at all times practice individual skills and abilities whehn an opportunities arise, but, still on that note, we should always make it a point that what we practice accomodates others people and abilities. No one can ever say he/she achieved his goals/objectives without any help.
I have noticed that there is a big gap between idividual and collective work, that is not at all suppsed to be there.
This gap is caused by the training we get from those who possess the skills we need, at other instances we are isolated and alienated from our societies at large. If one has no place in the society, one will never be able to accomplish or grow within work.
Some people are taught not to engage withn other people if they want to be independant, the question is “is independance not the ability to know how to succeed usnig your own abilities?” If it is so, then why do we deprive people of going out there and develop their abilities? That means people are actually dependant to be independant.
This might be difficult to understand, but if one engages in collective work, one will understand. Go work with other people to grow and help others grow.
PERSONAL PERFORMANCE ACCORDING TO ME IS GOOD BUT PEOPLE WHO ARE BRILLIANT NEED TO PRACTICE TEAMWORK MORE. FOR EXAMPLE BEING A STUDENT MYSELF I HAVE NOTED BRILLIANT STUDENTS STRUGGLING WITH THEIR ACADEMIC WORK NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE NO LONGER CLEVER BUT BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT USED TO WORKING IN A GROUP AND SUCH PEOPLE WITH A LITTLE PRACTICE THEY CAN MAKE SOUTH AFRICA GREAT. ADDING TO THAT BRAZILIAN PLAYERS ARE ALL GREAT PLYERS BUT WHAT MAKES THEM THAT GOOD IS THAT THEY KNOW THE IMPORTANCE OF TEAMWORK AND FAILING TO WORK AS A TEAM MAY MAKE THEM LOSE THE MATCH EVEN AGAINST THE LOWEST RANKING NATIONAL TEAM IN THE WORLD. IN CONCLUSION INDIVIDUAL BRILLIANCE WITHOUT TEAMWORK IS,TO ME, USELESS.
Comment!