These days it’s apparently almost impossible to succeed all by yourself, all on your own, without help or support from anybody. The world and processes have become more complex and sophisticated, expertise in many things and several areas have become critical for a dream or an ambition to come to pass.
In business, the various units and compartments that make up a whole, capable of delivering expected results can’t all be managed efficiently by a single individual. Different experts in different relevant fields are expected to man and manage the various functioning units of the enterprise for there to be substantial results and accomplishments subsequently.
Consequently, teamwork has become more relevant, imperative and necessary for there to be great results in anything these days. Now, a team is not just a group of relevant experts working together. A team is a group of relevant, united and efficiently integrated experts working together towards the same goal with the required level of passion and enthusiasm.
Finding experts these days that are truly passionate and committed to work – not solely driven by employment rewards can be quite daunting. What is even more difficult than that, is the possibility of blending these various professionals together successfully.
Many young working class Nigerians these days, as I’ve observed, and in my opinion are somewhat arrogant. I need to explain this. For reasons best known to them, when they come together with other people for certain reasons, for the first time, the first thing they do is compare themselves with everyone else in the group or team to see if they are competitive especially in class, in style, in looks, exposure and/or swag.
They quickly carry out a mental assessment of everyone else and draw conclusions on who they think they are, and how they’ll want to relate or interact with such others based on how they appear, without truly knowing them.
Any member of the team they perceive as superior, they choose to be nasty too; anyone they perceive as inferior, they want to be condescending towards – even without being sure of whom these people truly are. They draw conclusions on perceptions and personal interpretations based on what they assume, not the reality.
So as a team leader or business owner, even before your team members interact, they are already divided in their minds. They’ll have chosen who they will like or dislike, who they would rather work with and who they would not, whose opinion they would counter and who’s they’ll support all based on baseless assumptions, perception and vain contest.
Many judge others based on how they see them, not how they truly are. This simply means every team is born divided not united. Hence, a smart leader cannot take it for granted, the people in his team will work together without any effort to see to it that they will truly work together.
Many books have been authored, many lectures, training, courses and workshops organized to improve the quality of leadership not just in business organizations, but even in sports teams, learning institutions, social movements and governance the world over.
However, I personally think, there is a lopsidedness in how many of these messages and teachings are drafted, hence putting most of the responsibility on the leader, and exonerating or absorbing the followers from required responsibility as followers. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m convinced, in this life, there are bad followers as well. The success of a team, a project or an agenda is not just about the quality of leadership, it’s also about the quality of followership. When followers are bad, even the best of leaders can fail. A lion leading a pack of sheep may win a battle but the same lion leading a herd of stubborn goats may die in battle. Followers, in fact, have the power to fire a great leader they do not want. Followers do have their own power, simply because they are not robots. They can think, and they have the power to choose to support a vision or frustrate the vision depending on their mentality and personal interest.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are many complex factors that make leading people these days more difficult than ever before. Many leaders today, have to double their efforts in leadership capability to get minimal results. Their threshold for tolerating irresponsibility, selfish excuses, covert disrespect, feigned ignorance, laziness and irritating wiles from their subordinates must be really high for them not to overreact or act in ways unbecoming of a truly seasoned leader.
Leaders are expected to be looked up to and respected by subordinates based on perhaps experience, age, position, and role. But these days, some subordinates, as a matter of fact, compete with their leaders in vain matters of looks, exposure, trendiness, and background. For example, some subordinates from affluent backgrounds, or married to wealthy spouses or with other means of income other than their salaries are somewhat condescending towards superiors who perhaps don’t appear to have what they have materially.
Some subordinates also who perhaps schooled overseas hence have foreign certifications tend to want to challenge the knowledge, experience, and mastery of a seasoned leader who perhaps never schooled overseas.
Some younger subordinates, just conclude their leaders can’t teach them much and don’t know much, simply because that leader lacks much dexterity in the use of social media and modern internet applications.
Yes, being up to date and contemporary is essential for any leader, but being better than a leader in the use of modern technology does not mean that leader can’t lead successfully.
A great leader is not expected to know everything a subordinate knows, a great leader is expected to achieve great results through subordinates and followers who know better than him in their areas of expertise.
Followers or subordinates who mock leaders who are not as good as, or better than them in a field of specialization are ignorant.
Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps today, you are a team head and you’re discouraged and tired of managing immature and ignorant subordinates, perhaps you’re tired of coping with the shenanigans of subordinates who are still lost in arrogant witlessness, perhaps it is time to move from the zone of a positional leader to a true leader. Knowledge is not capacity. You may know about leadership but not have what it takes to lead effectively. It’s like knowing how a car works but not knowing how to drive one. Knowledge is not capacity.
Beyond the knowledge of leadership, perhaps it’s time you get the facts about how to really lead to achieve results.
The good news is, leadership is still ever powerful in driving any people to achieve desired results. But the key does not lie in just how you are as a leader, it’s also about how your crop of followers are.
You can’t lead people successfully based on how you are alone, you lead people successfully based on how they are as well. There are four areas of influence in this life, every subordinate is responding or reacting to. Truth is, they are not reacting to you; they are reacting to life based on these influences. These are; their temperaments – their natural tendencies. Their nurture – that is their upbringing. Their exposure; the environment where they were raised and where they live. And lastly, the generation they belong to. Are they the generation X, are the millennials, are they generation Z subordinates of employees.
Mastering them within these complex of influence would help you lead them better and not react to them in despair, discouragement and frustration. A true leader wouldn’t take things personal; understand these subordinates and deal with them as they are, not as you wish they were. Come on, be a true leader, go ahead and lead for greater results, best of luck.
