As a society, we are still very far from entering an era of being able to put our best foot forward through proper people management in general and talent optimization in particular. Our society is dominated by people who wield positional power and possess material assets. There is a crying need to accommodate β in the frontlines β more people with personal authority and professional expertise to influence the course of our transformation.
Aaron Mokoena β or will we give the armband to Steven Pienaar and hope to milk the currency of his solid performances and seemingly improved maturity? β and his mates are going to struggle against top countries next year largely because of what they are capable of first as individuals and secondly as team members. Another dimension that is certain to be tested will be the quality of the leadership they will be having, which is quite dicey at this stage.
We have a legal and moral duty to work hard in order to undo the paradigms or thinking patterns and knowledge systems of apartheid. We need to find ways and means of training a new breed of leaders, which can produce people who chose adding value and making a difference over mere participation and peer approval. We need to start producing a new breed of people who understand that at times the best form of unity is between an individual`s own thought and action.
We need to find a leadership breed that can take tangible steps to rid our society of leadership styles based on the vices of fear and intimidation and replace them with ones founded on the virtues of positive engagement and persuasion. We need to fashion for ourselves a dynamic society where the power of the leader is curtailed by the abilities of the individual team members while the leader`s authority is enhanced by his or her own ability to reach out. Leadership is a critical subject of our times and we must make sure that we put it up there with mathematics and other hard or super sciences in our schooling systems.
The greatest challenge confronting our society today is how we are going to expand and extend opportunities with justice and effectiveness to those who desperately need them, within the window period available. We need to find a way of getting the majority of our people to count their blessings and focus on playing their practical and historical roles, instead of wallowing in the dual pathologies of self-importance and self-pity.
I have never believed that the majority of our people are lazy or selfish. It has always been my firm belief that our people are mostly disorientated and distrustful as a direct result of the uncaring and wicked society they have lived in for long periods. I believe that with appropriate focus on both people and the environment, we can turn the fortunes of our society around. The first step we must take in this regard is to sift through our society to find leaders who can help free the arrested individual and collective potential of our people.
We need to hand-pick special people where necessary to help build special institutions β or change capable existing ones β to identify and nurture special talents for our leadership needs of today and tomorrow. But in general we need to find the vision and courage to free our entire society to think, plan and implement in order to take their destinies into their own hands. We need a leadership to take our country out of the dour culture of control, compliance and survival by replacing it with a vibrant culture of freedom, excellence and success.
Apartheid represents the worst that any leadership effort or process can produce. It has resulted in a society of endless square pegs and round holes as well as sick processes of trying to separate the chaff from the wheat instead of the wheat from the chaff. It has spawned generations of people whose temperaments vacillate between fear and anger, finding it difficult to stabilize on the fine intermediate line of reason and calm. It has produced a preponderant behaviour of teaching people to suck up to the rich and cock a snook at the poor, dehumanising both sides in the process.
The wickedness of apartheid leadership sank us to the bottom of the well of mankind. We cannot get to where we belong with ordinary leadership effort. But whatever leadership we come to have must make sure that it focuses on freeing every single one of our people to be themselves and do things for themselves. It is the only way we can be able to deal effectively with the maladies of illiteracy, homelessness, diseases, unemployment, unproductiveness, inequality, lawlessness, immorality and oppression.
We must find the courage and creativity to set people free to explore with their talents, plan things, do things and take responsibility for consequences or credit for achievements. We have a rich opportunity as a society to demonstrate that we can work together to fulfil the promise and potential of our nation, following in the great example of Nelson Mandela.
Nelson Mandela taught us that while the business sector has the power of money and the government has the might of the military, the poorest of the poor, whose wealth it is in the first place that purchases the power of business and the might of government, the poorest of the poor have a moral high ground.
Those of us in government must realize that the mandate we carry from the poorest of the poor bears more weight than the might of our army. Those of us in business must appreciate that the money we possess carries less weight than the moral high ground upon which the parched and shoeless feet of the poorest of the poor graciously stand. We require leadership to provide both steam and stewardship to advance the noble course bequeathed to us by the vision of Madiba and those in his class.
The world came to know Nelson Mandela and his iconic abilities mostly because of the magnanimity of one man. It was Walter Sisulu who moved mountains to make sure that Nelson Mandela got to occupy the leadership positions in our society that his talents deserved. It was Walter Sisulu who worked tirelessly and selflessly to ensure that there was enough support for Mandela`s leadership.
How many people like Walter Sisulu can we find today in our society? How many people can we find in our society today who will campaign for another on the basis that the abilities of another meets the requirements of the position? How many people can we point out in our society today who are able to consider requirements attached to positions before they consider benefits? The sad but truthful answer is that too few people β some of them neither sufficiently talented nor adequately trained β occupy too many positions, have too much institutional power and stifle innovation to the detriment of our long-term future.
Gibson Sakong
Executive Chairman β Montshepetja Academy
1 Comments until now.
I HAVE INTEREST IN ELUCIDATING ON CERTAIN PARTS OF THIS POST. FIRSTLY, WHEN IT COMES TO INCLUDING LEADERSHIP IN OUR SCHOOLING SYSTEMS, PEOPLE HAVE A STEREOTYPED PERSPECTIVE, BEING INFORMAL SCHOOLING. THAT IS, WITH NO DOUBT OR DEBATE, INCORRECT. LEADERSHIP CAN BE SCHOOLING CAN BE EMPIRICALLY BE INCLUDED IN OUR SCHOOLING SYSTEMS IN MEANS BEYOND SRC AND CLASS CAPTAINS.
ONE SIMPLE MEANS WOULD BE THE FOOLOWING EXAMPLE. IN CHINA, THERE ARE CLASSES WHERE STUDENTS FROM THE FIRST GRADE ARE TOLD TO STAND AND GIVE MANIFESTOS FOR CLASS REPRESENTATIVE AND SOCIETY AMBASSADORS POSITIONS. THIS IS NO DIFFERENT AS TO SRC AND CLASS CAPTAINCY ONE WOULD SAY, BUT THE DISPARITY LIES IN THE SYSTEM IT IS BEING APLLIED THRIUGH AND IN. IN CHINA LEADERSHIP IS INCULCATED AND IMPARTED WHEN THE STUDENTS ARE IN NO POSITION TO LEAD, IN OTHER WORDS LEADERSHIP IS INDUCED. WHEN YOU LOOK AT OUR SCHOOLS, NOT EVEN ONE HAS TIME FOR MANIFESTOS, YES THEY DO TEACH OF GREAT LEADERS AND THEIR QUALITIES IN LIFE ORIENTATION (L.O), BUT THEY DON’T SHAPE US TO BECOMING DISTINCT LEADERS.
SECONDLY, THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN LEADERSHIP AND WHEN THEY ARE BEING CRITICISED, THEY PROVE TO BE DWELLING ON THE VALUE OF THE ONE SUCCEEDED BY THEM. WHEN WE ADD VALUE, WE BRING DIFFERENCE THAT WILL BE SEEN AS SUSTAINABLE, AT LEAST, IF NOT AS AN INDELIBLE IMPRINT. HOW DO WE LIVE AN INDELIBLE IMPRINT AS HUMANS? I HAVE FOUND ONE IMPARATIVE WAY TO ACHIEVE THIS, BE INDIVIDUALLY STIGMATISED AND CONSCIENTISED FOR SOCIETY. THE MINUTE WE USE OUR INDIVIDUAL ABILITIES AND POTENIAL IN OUR GROUPS, WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO OUR SOCIETIES AND THE BROADER SOCIETY, WE BRING A SENSE OF DIFFERENCE IN THE WORK WE DO AND THAT IS HOW WE ACHIEVE ADDING VALUE IN OUR ROLES, ESPECIALLY LEADERSHIP.
SOMETHING WE MUST UNDERSTAND IS THAT UTOPIA (SOCIETY WITH NO CLASS CONFLICT BETWEEN PROLETARIATS AND BOURGEOISIES) IS NEVER TO REALISE, HOWEVER WE MAY TRY TO ACHIEVE IT TO BETTER OUR CURRENT APALLING SITUATION. PEOPLE USUALLY QUESTION THE IMPORTANCE IN OUR DAILY LIVES, HERE I GO. ONE WAY TO MAINTAIN EQUILIBRIUM IS TO GET THE OPPOSITE OF THE UNDESIRED, -5+5=0. TO GET RID OF THE NEGATIVE FIVE I USED A POSITIVE FIVE AND THE EQUATION WAS AT EQUILIBRIUM FROM A MATHEMATICAL ANGLE. THAT IS HOW OUR SOCIETIES ARE, WE HAVE THE BLUE COLLAR CLASSAND TH WHITE COLLAR CLASS AND ONE CAN CLAIM EQUILIBRIUM AT THIS POINT. HOWEVER, WE DON’T HAVE UTOPIA BECAUSE THERE ARE STILL CLASSES AND THE STRUGGLE GOES ON TO MOVE TO WHITE COLLAR CLASS. WHAT WE ARE NOT AWARE OF IS THAT IN REAL LIFE, NOT MATHEMATIC APPLICATIONS, THERE IS AN AVERAGE GROUP, WHICH FLPATS BETWEEN BLUE AND WHITE COLLARS. THIS DISTURBS OUR PROGRESS TOWARDS UTOPIA AS SOME PEOPLE RESIGN AND LOSE THEIR JOBS, FROM A CORPORATE CORNER.
THE ONLY WAY OUT OF OUR APALLING STATE, WOULD BE TO UNLEASH INDIVIDUAL POTENTIAL FOR THE ADVANMTGE OF SOCIETY AS A WHOLE. HUMANS ARE SOCIAL BEINGS AND WE ARE OBLIGED (PERSONAL OPINION) TO BE SOCIAL ACTIVISTS FOR PROGREESION TO REALISE. ALSO, HUMANS ARE COMPLEMENTARY, WHAT I DO SHOULD COMPLEMENT WHAT THE NEXT PERSON DOES, ESPECIALLY IN THE SAME GROUP IN SOCIETY. WHEN I WAVE TO GREET YOU, YOU MUST RESPOND IRRESPECTIVE OF HOW YOU DO IT. THIS ALSO IMPLIES THAT MY WORK IN THE GROUP SHOULD COMPLEMENT YOUR WORK AND MUST FIT IN THE WHOLE BROADER SOCIETY, WHICH BARELY HAPPENS AS WE ARE OF DIFFERENT CULTURES AND TRADITIONS. WITH OUR INPUTS IN SOCIETY COMPLEMENTING EACH OTHER AS INDIVIDUALS WE ADD VALUE TO WHAT WE DO FOR OUR SOCIETIES.
ANOTER FACT IS THAT WHEN WE ATTEMPT TO IMPLEMENT OUR IDEAS AND THOUGHTS WE TEND TO COUNTERACT OTHER CULUTURES AND SOCIETIES WHICH ATTEMPT TO IMPLEMENT OPPOSITE OF WHAT WE DO. TO AVOID THAT WE NEED TO INVOLVE PEOPLE FROM OTHER GROUPS AND SOCIETIES IN ORDER TO ATTAIN IMPLEMENTATIONS THAT WILL WORK FOR THE BROADER SOCIETY.
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