Leadership crucible series

Today,1 July 2009 is President's Day in the Republic of Botswana.Naturally,there has been a lot of talk about leadership today.Moreso,because this is an election year.I had interesting conversations with a colleague KB an officer responsible for youth capacity building in an organisation in which l am currently attached to and seperately with my my good Professor Yeagan Pillay on leadership issues across Africa.Infact,KB and l are collaborating on some capacity initiatives for youths in Botswana.I like to call it 'capacity strengthening' because 'capacity building' somewhat implies that there isn't any capacity in the entity or group you are working with.Many atimes,the socalled 'capacity building sessions' are for people already in leadership hence any initiative is essentially a strengthening process!In my discussions with KB or Kabelo,l was sharing my conviction that personal leadership is the basis for people leadership.Often folks like to lead others when their lives are in shambles.You find someone with unbridled and unretrained appetites chastizing other politicians for 'excessive abuses'.It is easy to get bogged down on 'how to lead people' or 'how to influence' people and forget the centrality of the personal.As the adage goes,charisma can take you to the top but it is character that will make you stay there.
I want to do a series on the leadership crucible,that is the things that an aspiring leader has to go through or should become in the process of leadership development.I am a student of leadership myself so l actually learn from my own writings.Naturally my interest is in politics so l will use names of politicians whose qualities may best demonstrate the strength of a certain virtue or quality.Today l will look at no more than five qualities;

1. Leaders are readers;It is amazing how much reading one needs to do as a leader in order to keep in touch and in tune with emerging trends.We live in the Information Age.Infact,people are now talking of 'information overload';there simply is too much out there.I always joke with my friends at how difficult it is to come up with a theisis topic that has not be researched before.If you think you have found one,just google it and you might realise someone did that very research 2o years ago!However,if one ought to be a leader,there is need to know what is happening in the broader world.People rarely rise above their leaders.Infact your ceiling as a leader tends to become the lid for the goup you lead.The higher your level,the higher your gorup could go.Think of it,it is not common to see a level six leader to nurture level nine leaders.You cant teach or emonstrate what you dont know and your ignorance becomes contagious.The issue is not to compete but to know the context one operates in.If one is a politician,one ought to read what other politicians have done or are doing.Keep updated by newspapers,journals and magazines covering emerging issues of the day.This means each leader needs to have a robust library which covers 'wide and wild' topics.Read everyhting from your field to philosophy,economics,history and technology.Politicians especially need to be aware of several areas.In Africa,l have witnessed a medical doctor being appointed Defence Minister.Imagine if you have not been reading.One of my media mentors,Myles Munroe says he reads at least 2 books per week.You don't have to be like him but at least be an expert in your area and make sure you are updated on current affairs in your field.However,often people just 'read'.Take time to reflect on implications of what you are reading to programing or leadership.What does it mean?Does it mean l have to adjust a certain way of thinking?Does it mean l need to take up an issue as an advocacy point?Check out for meaning.World renowed leadership expert John Maxwell says that every leader should have an administrative office in which they 'work' but more importantly,they should have a 'creative office'.This office is a closed environment in which you withdraw from everyday hussles just to think.Create things in your mind.Plan.Reflect.Build.Destroy and rebuild again.Have you noticed how much we simply don't take time each day to think through issues and reflect.Often we 'think' as we are driving and rushing to work.Great leaders have always had ample time in their own creative offices.Consequently,set aside resources every month to boost your library.On a monthly basis,we remember to pay for our dogs,cellphone bills etc.Why not buy books,dvds and materials that stretch your thinking in the realm of leadership?Show me what you read and l will show you where you are going.Similarly, show me your creative office and l will show how far you will go.
2. Imagination.This seems pretty obvious.However,leaders ought to have a certain level of what l call audacious imagination.This is the confidence and ability to imagine the mindboggling.Your imagination must scare you!Imagine Cecil John Rhodes' dream of 'painting Africa red from Cape to Cairo'That imperialistic and unjust dream was fulfilled because he had audacious gut wrenching imagination.Thank goodness there are other folks with positive imagination.Remember leaders should spend time imagining things that a re just and advance freedom and prosperity for all God's people.Imagine Kwame Nkrumah's dream of a United States of Afirca at a time when other African countries were still colonised.At that point,some African leaders retreated to a cacoon and concluded that colonialism was impossible to break.Think of Fredrick the guy who dreamt as a student of the giant FEDEx company?How on earth could he imagine a worldwide overnight delivery mail service?How about Mandela?To imagine that he could walk out of prison and set a nation free?He needed a certain level of 'madness'.An imagination of the seemingly impossible.The reason why there is so much mediocrity is that there is too much smallness in our imagination.Leaders should stretch their thinking.A young Barack Obama should imagine being Presidnet of the US.Boldness surges after imagination and creativity is a function of sustained imagination.Anything great that you see in the world was created twice.First in the mind and then in the physical.Think big!
3. Conviction.This is an important aspect.Convinience often takes the place of conviction.After all we all want the easy way.Focus is only possible when one actually has a conviction of what they are doing.When challenges mount, many change positions and allegiances because they are fighting or doing something out of preference not conviction.Conviction is stubborness in public.Strive Masiyiwa the Zimbabwean mogul who owns ECONET had to survive a six year legal wrangle with government over a telecommunications license.If he didn't believe that he was supposed to specifically get into the telecommunications business and not any other business,he might have abandoned the case that so him go for broke and maybe chosen another line of business.Men and women who have built great things withered storms because they had the conviction of what they were doing.One online dictionary calls conviction a 'fixed belief'.How does one get to have 'conviction' over something?This is hard to answer because people are different.Some people naturally have set beliefs and they hardly change.Some it comes through a very strong experience that inspires them to work for a certain cause.Some with a more spiritual incilination see conviction as a product of divine inspiration.They see it as a burden or cause given us by God.This cause 'comes' as a gift or an unusual ability to do something.That 'something' usually has our undivided attention.Whichever way you explain the origins of this virtue-make sure you have it.Make sure you have a conviction of the cause you are pursuing.That's the only thing that will sustain your focus.No salary or prestige can break the will of someone with the conviction to do something.Its something you enjoy doing even without a salary.Don't force convictions.Many people out of sheer calculation pretend to love a certain cause.Sooner or latter,they change.Take time in your creative office to locate your passions and convictions.It is easier to become a great leader in an area of conviction.Interestingly,our genius is exposed when we work in our areas of strength or conviction.,The human brain tends to be stronger when it is forced to produce ideas in an area we hold dearly to our hearts.If you find that you seem to lack the intellectual fortitude or drive for a certain cause,you are unlikely to excell in it.

Unpacking the Ian Khama enigma

I am currently enjoying a month long stay in the beautiful nation of Botswana on a programme arranged between my university,Ohio University and the University of Botswana.I am enjoying working with a number of civil society organisations and of course seeing stunning places like Kasane and the spell binding Grand Palm Hote and conference centre.I will make sure l pass through the Okavango as well before l leave.As l travel to more and more African countries,l am amazed at how beautiful the countries are and the sweetness of the people in general.Of course there is always this guy who won't just get it! Such is the complexity of humanity.

Botswana is led by one Ian Khama,the son of the great father of the nation,Sir Seretse Khama who was the independence leader in 1966. I find Khama something of an enigma. He shocked all and sundry by declaring that he did not recognize the indomitable Big Man of Africa,Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.To the delight of many ordinary Zimbabweans,he called on SADC and AU to exert pressure to force Mugabe to accept the March 2008 Presidential elections which he lost.However,Khama got a bit too excited when he even called on nations to invade Zimbabwe and force Mugabe out.One has the sense that he maybe has a strong aversion for folks like Mugabe.What l found interesting is the sheer auacity to lambast and lampoon a President feared by his collegues yet he himself has been in power for only less than 2 years!He goes against the grain in so many ways.Born to a European mother,the man is not married and he is known to be ruthless with inefficiency and laziness in civil service.He is known to be a leader who 'gets things done'.A former Commander of the Defence Forces himself,he has no known training outside the army.

Khama has even declared that if the Sudanese dictator Omar Al Bashir sets his foot on Botswana soil,he would in an unprecedented move arrest him!He was saying that ahead of a trip by Al Bashir to Zimbabwe where he was strangely given a red carpet by Mugabe who apparently is desperate for visits by foreign leaders since he has been increasingly isolated for the past decade owing to his abrasive leadership style and controversial economic policies. As if not enough,Khama at some point withdrew from participating in the Johannesburg SADC summit in protest for what he felt was SADC dilly dallying on the Zimbabwe question.To his credit,the next summit had a more robust engagement on the Zimbabwe question.Interestingly,l would have been the last person to think that Khama would play this role of African statesman.He clearly is emerging as a lone voice in AU and SADC meeings speaking more pointedly against bad governance.Khama reminds me though of Mugabe and Mbeki.The three men have a distinct Western leaning in many ways.Khama's Tswana isn't great to say the least.Infact,as earlier stated, his mother was Western and his dad was knighted by the Queen herself.Mbeki and Mugabe are perfect Englishmen!Not that there is anything wrong about being an Englishmen;just that Mugabe and Mbeki often had very harsh words for Westen countries and their people yet their personal lives and tastes betrayed that hypocricy.These are men whose 'nature' is English though they like to lecture to everyone about being Pan African.Mugabe dresses in designer suits sometimes even to a rural political rally!

However,there are more troubling things about Khama.As a former military man,he already is showing signs of authoritarian rule which if unchecked,this can be detrimental to the health of the nation.The proposed Media Practitioners Bill has similarities with the Zimbabwean draconian media legislation AIPPA and this is a worrying sign.His tendency to take sides in his party's two factions in a way weakens the glory and respect of the Presidency.The BDP has two factions namely the Baratha-Pathi and the A-Team.Currently he is backing his sister's bid to be the Botswana Democratic Party' national chairman at the upcoming Kanye Congress.The sad thing is that his sister dismally lost for the contset to become a delegate which proves that the grassroots do not necessarily want her.Moreso he has publicly bashed current BDP chairman Daniel 'DK' Kwelagobe who is challenging his sister for the chairmanship.All things being equal,DK is poised for an easy win and its going to be interesting to see how it plays out.Khama has already indicated that he cannot work with DK if he is elected.He publicly bashes the Kwelagobe-Kedikilwe faction (Baratha Pathi) which opposes Khama's choice for Vice President.Khama has announced that the current VP,General Mompati Merafhe (A-Team) will retire and it is known that he wants to appoint his cousin,current Defence Minister Ramadeluka Seretse.DK is known to support either veteran Kedikilwe or a woman candidate yet unnamed or even himself!The fights are spilling into the public realm and if unchecked,the ruling party may lose votes owing to the in party's childish squabbling.The way Khama has handled the factionalism in his party raises more questions than answers.He doesnt seem to tolerate criticism.He also is slowly militarising government if one has to look at his appointments to date.Clearly,he wants to maintain the Seretse dynasty. This is sad.The essence of democracy is that people ought to be elected on the basis of merit and not heredity.He is unfortuanately routing for the Seretse dynasty.This will potentially cause problems.Not many people may tolerate his bypassing other veteran politicians who have served the party faithfully over the years.Should it be a crime to not be a Seretse?

Be that as it may,l see the BDP still winning the upcoming parliementary elections.Khama comes from the royal family and his fahter is still well loved.He is a chief and his policies tend to favour the poor although they may not be economically prudent in the longterm.As a Zimbabwean having seen how the 'Englishman' Mugabe has slowly militarised the country and brooked no oppostion and also carried out populist politicies,l fear for the great nation of Botswana.However,for now,the country is safe and prosperous.The air,water and land are all clean.Time will tell.

Tommorrow,l am buying a Motswana soccer team jersey and will vigorously support the Botswana national soccer team as they battle it out with Iran on Saturday.