Corporate Leadership

To begin this piece, let me tell you a true story. Recently I was talking to Dave; a security young man at a mall on a very cold Saturday morning. I was checking out a book to buy from one of the shops. Dave was going round to see to it that everything was going well around the mall. As he walked briskly alongside me, we greeted.I asked him about his present job, if he was enjoying it. He told me how happy he was. He said he feel so free and independent working as a security than as chef. Apparently, he was a fired chef. This former cook told me that he resigned from the job because of the way he was maltreated. He was being ordered around in the kitchen at his former workplace. So I asked why he is happy here as a security despite the higher risks involved with the security job? To me, securing lives and property when compared to cooking foods are two extremes when based on the associated risks. However, for Dave, the risks were nothing and the reason was quite simple. He has found an opportunity to bloom and blossom here as security than as a Cook. The chief chef had made life so miserable for Dave such that he had to quit. The reason is not farfetched. The initial plan of the creator was for man to subdue all creation. Man was never created to be subdued by his own kind. I have never admired any leader who made me feel so insecure and less important. And I am guessing that the same goes for you too?

The reason why people will settle for less paying job, less dignifying job sometimes is because of the leadership in those workplaces. Business leaders need to understand that their staffs deserved to be respected no matter how low they are on the organization chart. They should never be hauled, mauled or ruled. Staffs determine the strength of the organization and profits made therein. They are partly the powerhouse of the workplace. The longevity of the business depends on them. Hence they are important and must be seen as such.

If I may ask you at this point. Are you a leader or a follower? Everyone needs to know which side on the continuum they fall. If you are not a leader what kind of follower are you? What can you identify as the problems in leadership today? What do you think a corporate leadership should look like? What does a corporate leader require in a business sector? Have you ever worked with a business leader where everybody runs into hiding, pretending to be doing something serious or the other when he appears? What was your experience like? How did you see such “big boss”? What do you admire about him? What makes you envy him? What did you observe in his life that is so unique? If you are a leader? What kind of leader are you? Are you oppressive or supportive? Are you accommodative or a repellant?

What is Corporate Leadership?
“Corporate leadership is any business oriented leadership that believes in team work, harnesses the ability of the team in generating momentum; develops strategies in implementing models; maximizing potentials and building upon the strengths of the team in implementing projects to the intent of reaching exceedingly valuable and precise results.” –( Odunuga, 2009)

Using driving as illustration.
Driving on the highway can be synonymous with corporate leadership. Sometimes your speed on the highway can be determined by the speed of the vehicle directly ahead of you. And the speed limit, at which you travel, can be influenced by the person beside you. The speed, at which the person behind you drives, can also be determined by your speed. In a situation where you cannot overtake, when you have to follow a single narrow lane. You cannot over speed. When the person directly ahead of you is driving on 60km per hour. You cannot drive 80km/hr. If you do that, you would have hit him and you will have yourself to blame. The same principle of speed limit and limitation is observable in leadership. It is applicable in how driving a corporation towards a corporate goal can be a matter of team effort, team spirit, team work and team influence. As a leader, you will need to understand all these because they can impact you adversely if you don’t. They can determine how far your organization will go. They will determine at what pace your organization will go. They can determine whether or not, the people will grow or not.

Principles of corporate leadership.
In business, profitability edge does not come except by corporate leadership principles and more. When people identify with an organization, they work until such organization is strong enough to adequately pay their bills. They can stand by the organization even in recession. I have seen a situation where a business was about folding up and the staff refused to go on strike for not being paid simply because they understand and they have bought into the corporate vision, such that they would slog it out together through the crisis until the bad season is over. Loyalty is easily commanded in such situation.

There are certain conditions which must be present as prerequisites in corporate leadership. The best businesses that will thrive exceedingly well in the 21st century are the businesses that will rely on these principles of corporate leadership. These principles are as follows:
1. Strategy must be synergistic: they must continually be structured to build upon previous efforts and continually aligned with other team efforts.
2. Corporate leadership is a process. It must be seen as a process that can not be arrived at in one day. And we cannot graduate from the discipline thereof.
3. Indispensability: It is indispensable, if there must be a positive result in the organization.
4. Unison: Most business relies on the brain of the board of directors or the Chief executive officer. They usually feel the hardest blow when such leader leaves the organization either by resignation, death, or retirement.

A Case study of a corporate Leadership
I was privileged to visit one of the leading automobile companies in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. After a tour round their factory, observing and asking questions about regulatory standards, their corporate goals, their sales, social responsibilities, their best practice, their new management plan on marketing, their newest strategies and more. I asked a twisty question in an interview session with their president. Having been aware that his predecessor failed and the company was nose-diving when he took over the leadership. I asked: “How were you able to turn this business around? What was the secret of your success in this company?” He humbly said that the credit goes to all the people on his team. “Team work did it!” he replied. He was a man who understood how to redirect praise and give credits to others. Some CEO believed that people should not be praised because they will stop putting in their best. They don’t want their people to think they have arrived. The contrast is true. People want to be seen as priceless despite the fact that they are receiving salaries from the organization. They don’t fancy being equated with their paystub. Appreciating people who worked with you to make things happen will encourage and inspire them to do more. The president of that automobile company I mentioned refused to allow his picture appear on any column or magazine profile page dedicated to heroes in their industry. As the one who deserved the credits; he shared the glory with the average people on his team. It was the picture of a team of people who worked on the tool benches, sits on the security table, answered the telephones at the reception, and typed on computer in offices; that appeared on the profile page of the popular magazine column. These were the heroes! This was the secret. Little wonder they were all smiling and feeling accepted and happy with their job regardless of what happens.

Acronym of the ethics of corporate leadership:
1. Commitment: the leader is committed to fulfilling his promises to his team once he pronounced it. Broken promises breed doubts, discord and discouragement. It wanes people’s strengths.
2. Outstanding: The leader is exceptional. He is extremely result oriented.
3. Resilience: the leader is able to weather the storm for the organization rather than seek a bail out. He is not a quitter.
4. Productivity: he is effective and industrious. The people take a cue from him. He never loiters around the corridors or stays longer on break.
5. Openness: the leader is very transparent and accountable.
6. Reward: the leader sees win-win for all on board per time. He tries to ensure the team gets their raises at the right time.
7. Affirmation: the leader gives approval and acceptance. The leader understand that the mind of man is able to conquer any form of obstacle or challenge where there is a force of encouragement in guise of a pat on the back from the leader.
8. Trust: The leaders have faith in his people. In cases of unexpected melt down, in the face of bankruptcy, in times of mergers and acquisition; he tries to protect their interests.
9. Effective: the leader is able to bring success through. He maximizes resources in the organization.
10. Loyalty: the leader is the first person to sow the seeds of loyalty before he reaps it from his team. When the people see that he can be relied upon they follow him all the way through thick and thin.
11. Eloquent: the leader is well expressive. He has the ability to move an audience back to work in cases of union strike.
12. Ambitious: the leader is a go-getter. He is optimistic. Always seeing the positive side of things.
13. Determined: the leader is strong minded, unwavering. Once the target is set, he makes sure that the result is delivered on the due date and not excuses.
14. Extraordinaire: the leader is excellent and outstanding in his work.
15. Retention: Usually it is the man behind the big desk who decides if the people will stay or go. The leader believes in investing in people, developing people rather than laying them off.
16. Service: he sees his role as a servant leader. He is not bossy or oppressive.
17. Humorous: the leader is entertaining, he is able to slow down and play in the face of tension. He is able to handle a stressful situation with wits. He can easily accommodate people and he can go along with the team as well as the public.
18. Intelligent: the leader is smart. He is a thinker.
19. Persuasive: the leader is able to persuade, win sales, negotiations and deliberations for the corporate good.

WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU HAVE TO GROW GREY HAIR BEFORE YOU ARE HEARD?

I’ve always said it time and again. That action is one indispensable part of success. Any great man you read about took action. They had a drive to pursue their goals and they did. And the rest is history. I can’t overemphasis the essence of putting one leg in front of the other and making your way out of the house each morning towards the place where opportunities are waiting to be plucked. There is need to just put your leg in the door anyhow. Half of the job is done once you show up. It’s vital to show up even when you don’t feel like it. Even when it seems that you’re unqualified for such opportunities. It is vital to hang in there. There is a need to stay put to the threshold for things to happen. There’s need for persistence for results to be birthed. You will be surprised how things will answer for you. The reasons why great people made it were not because they were smarter. Rather, they were able to make it because they took bold steps despite their doubts. They went deliberately after their opportunities and they stayed through thick and thin to pluck it, and they were made. In this same spirit, it’s important for us to walk up to our desires, to move intentionally towards our dreams and areas of interests.

I will remind you how Nelson Mandela got the national victory for South Africa. You remember that the oppressor weren’t planning to leave? Apartheid would have become normal up to now, if he had not stood his ground in the face of imprisonments, intimidation. The hopelessness of the South African situation was enough to discourage anyone. But then, this one man; just stood his ground. He refused to shift. And the rest is history today. What about the Montgomery bus protest? I mean the well known civil right movement? How it began? You remember that the non violence protest, with series of events unfolded after one woman refused to give up her seat on bus to a white passenger? The struggles began, because someone was just fed up of it all. Then, a well positioned Pastor was also around the corner thinking of extraordinary life beyond the four walls of the church. He was thinking of influencing more lives than just clapping hands and singing religiously every Sunday. He decided to break the walls of the religion holding destinies back. And within the four walls of the church came the victory for the American black people. Martin Luther King Jnr. Led an already uncomfortable crowd out of racism. The victory was discovered. It was signed, legally stamped, and delivered. Racism was wiped out of the fabric of the American people because a woman acted, a man also did his part and there was a group and then a whole city, then a state and then a nation was affected. He was just one man. She was just one lady. They decided to act! They acted first separately at the beginning; then later as a team.