Are You Leading?

BEING A SPEECH DELIVERED BY TASLIM OKUNOLA AT THE 100 DAYS IN OFFICE INTERACTIVE SESSION OF 2014/2015 FUTA STUDENTS' UNION HELD ON 3RD AUGUST, 2015.

All protocols duly observed.

Good day ladies and gentlemen.

Our misconception about leadership is one of the problems we are facing in this nation. Our supposed leaders continue to think they are leading even when they are not. The problem did not originate from the top, it did from the bottom; from our level of leadership. That is why we really need to tackle it from here. Assuming a position doesn’t make you a leader; whether you became the president of a body or the chief executive officer of a conglomerate. What makes you a leader is your ability to lead.

If for you, it’s all about position, control, authority, technical expertise, talking, telling, giving orders, scaring people and being secretive; if you spend more time on politics than achieving a goal; if you assume that communication has happened, retain power, intimidate, drive, rely on reputation and look for short-term gain; then, you are not leading. You are simply a pseudo-leader and not a real leader.

It becomes more dangerous for the people if you are in the topmost leadership position of a body and you are not actually leading. Your team’s productivity reduces drastically and they will start forming cliques. Real leaders would be emerging to take over certain cliques and you will sometimes feel. Hence, the need to take charge and take responsibility; the need to lead!

I would outline the qualities of a pseudo-leader as Dr. Bill Donahue did in one of his writings.

1. You are in it for self-advancement: The success of a leader is not in the number of followers he is able to lead but in the number of leaders he is able to create. If you call yourself a leader and you are not impacting anyone, I'm afraid you are a pseudo-leader. As real leader is able to make impacts; able to create a sustainable chain of leadership and able to help others build their platform.

2. Decision-making is always pragmatic: When you make decision based on what works best for you and not what works best for the people you lead, you are a pseudo-leader. This is what we call parochial or personal interest. Taking decision without observing the wider context of your domain is not what a real leader would do. Remember, you are not leading yourself, you are leading a particular team or organization.

3. Ethical standards are compromised: Like Late Com. Dapo Awopegba said: "What is morally wrong can never be politically right". As a leader, there are ethics and due process you should always follow. Don't take your subjects with levity, involve them in everything you do. Do not take shortcuts to solving problems. Real leaders patiently follow laid down rules to actualize the dreams of their people.

4. Strategy takes priority over relationship: In other words, regardless of the damage a decision or path may do to the team, as long as we “win” or “realize the vision” or can say “mission accomplished” the collateral relational damage is chalked up simply as the cost of doing business. A real leader would rather combine strategy with relationship rather than allowing his strategies to cause relational hullabaloo.

5. Everything has a price tag: Pseudo-leaders believe they can “buy” everything – trust, votes, loyalty, performance, followers, relationships, customers, members, silence and compliance with their demands. Real leaders approach things with intellect. When you are trying to buy over everyone with money, you are not leading them. Instead, you are corrupting them. You may be so rich to buy all these but by doing it, you are definitely not leading.

So we must look at our own leadership habits, choices, motives and ethics and ask ourselves few questions like:

Who are we in this role for?

What are we leaving behind?

What would others say about my leadership?

I would like to end my speech with the word of Google’s Head of People’s Operation, Laszlo Bock when he was asked about leadership by CNN - "The idea is not whether you were president of the student body or vice president of the bank, rather: "When you see a problem do you step in, help solve it," and then critically, "Are you willing to step out and let somebody else take over, and make room for somebody else? Are you willing to give up power?"

Thank you for your time.

Taslim OKUNOLA

Public Speaker, Career Coach and Trainer

taslimokunola@gmail.com

+234 810 397 8338

www.taslimokunola.com

Owerri Agenda: Behind And In Front of The Scenes

Owerri Agenda might sound pretty familiar to my friends and might not to some. To those in dark about it, Owerri Agenda can simply be defined as a name created for everything related to the Digital Marketing part of CFi JAM Summit in Owerri this year. This blog post would probably earmark what went on before, all through and after the event. It was a success story worthy to be told.

The trio: +Taslim OKUNOLA, +Peace Itimi and +Joshua Josh 

It was March and I got a message from +Peace Itimi inviting me to join +Joshua Josh and her in a training event. Her fellowship organizes a summit annually which features syndicate sessions where students get to learn any trade of their choice. Obviously, Peace pushed it and they decided to add Digital Marketing to the list this year. The event was to hold in the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (244 miles from where I live) and I have never been to Owerri before.

I accepted this challenge as part of my GSA project. It was awesome planning how we are going to impact students before the event. I could remember Peace creating BBM and WhatsApp groups to discuss the agenda, curriculum, and the event at large. We got ourselves prepped for the days ahead.

A cross-section of students learning Digital Marketing

It was so awesome to get to Owerri and see lots of students interested in learning Digital Marketing. +Peace Itimi did an awesome briefing of the training and students were so thrilled. Indeed, modern technology is finding its way into the hearts of Nigerians with the help of advocates like Peace.

Behind The Scenes

+Joshua Josh and I would stay up late in the night in our hotel room to work on slides and other stuffs for the event. +Peace Itimi also stayed up late to send mails and coordinate the follow-up mechanism. We argued at some point just to ensure things work out.

After all, we also had fun. Josh and I played a prank on Peace even though it didn't really work out :)

In Front of The Scenes

+Taslim OKUNOLA handling a session

The training sessions were cool. At the beginning, we had hitches with sound, time and projector, we had to split the class into two to get the session going. We had an interactive and interesting class. They were eager to learn and asked so many questions to get things straight.

About Peace and Josh

I spent four days working with +Joshua Josh and +Peace Itimi and I learnt a lot about them. I would be summarizing all I learnt about them into a characteristic each.

+Joshua Josh and +Taslim OKUNOLA 

+Joshua Josh is a typical problem solver. He thinks everything is possible and he believe no problem is the worst. Just bring the problem and he would solve it.

+Peace Itimi handling a session

+Peace Itimi is a workaholic. She loves to work and she works a lot. She believes in impacting her immediate environment with quality hard work. She works so hard to get things done.

They are both inspirations. You cannot spend a day with them without getting inspired.

We were the youngest facilitators at the event and we trained more than 100 students about Digital Marketing and Google AdWords.

This is basically what we do as Google Student Ambassadors. We come in at any point possible to ensure that students get informed about modern technology. We travel as far as possible to impact and inspire students. I have come to know that we are not working for Google, rather we are working for our society.

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