because others had made similar mistakes before us . The wise learns from the mistakes of others while the fool insists on making his own .
We are living in very interesting times in Kenya and indeed across the continent . We have a crop of politicians who do not know the struggles and the blood that was shed to create the space where they can be in office . Because they do not know the history or have chosen to ignore it , they repeat the mistakes of the past and squander the power and goodwill they once had just like Omar squandered the family wealth . How do leaders squander goodwill ?
When Resonance Evaporates
When Robert Mugabe came into power , people rejoiced greatly because there was a new hope in the land . When he left office , people rejoiced again and hit the streets dancing and singing . Similarly , when Abacha announced the end of Shehu Shagari ' s regime as president of Nigeria , there was a lot of joy , but by the time Abacha died , there was also a lot of rejoicing on the street . The same story sustains for Idi Amin Dada of Uganda .
What happened between the first round of rejoicing and the next round of rejoicing when they left office ? They lost relevance . Now , what is relevance ? To understand this , you need to understand the word resonance . Are you resonating with those you lead ?
In leadership , the view from the top is strategic , while the view from the bottom is emotional . At the top , you have context , which gives you a strategic view , but from the bottom , all that is needed are basics - rent , food , fees , etc . So , at the top , you see realities that will never be seen at the bottom . You read reports and analyses , but at the bottom , they read you . Great leadership is the ability to make strategic decisions with emotional considerations .
Remember , what makes you a great leader is not that you occupy a leadership position . It is that you resonate with those led . If you say you are a leader and people follow you only because there are consequences for not following you , you are simply an office holder and not a leader . The greatest tragedy , like those mentioned above , is when you start off as a leader but end up as an office holder because you stopped resonating . How do leaders stop resonating ? They stop considering the emotional in their decision-making process . They lean
Wealth can be fleeting if not held with care and wisdom . Hard times create strong men , strong men create good times , good times create weak men , and weak men create hard times .
only on the strategic . This is leadership suicide . So , for instance let us take the case of political leadership and Kenya in particular . What is the strategic view ? The country owes a lot of money . The decision makers have access to the facts and the figures . The average and even the not so average man has no clue how much we owe , who we owe , when it is paid and where it is paid . Now if the average and not so average are in this zone imagine the fate and mindset of the below average and this are the majority .
They have no access to the data or any facts . All they see are the decision makers and what they see bears no resemblance with what they are being told . They are being told that we are poor and we owe money but they see a level of opulence that even the most prosperous nations of the world do not have . So what leadership is saying and what leadership is doing are totally different . Remember that these guys have no access to data so all they can read is the leadership and from what they are reading , there is no need to declare austerity measures or raise taxes . This is what happens when leaders make strategic decisions without consideration for the emotional positions . Once this happens , they lose relevance because they stop resonating .
When Communication Halts
Once resonance is out of the window , then things get many notches higher . The whole world was stunned by the images of young people killed and beaten by the police over the last few weeks . How did we get here ? I believe that the greatest of all leadership skills is the ability to listen . Without it , trouble is inevitable at home , at work , or even in a nation .
People listen in different ways . Some for the sake of it , others so that they can have a good response and good argument , and then there are those who listen to understand - people who are secure enough to change position if they discover a higher logic or a more intelligent point of view .
The measure of a person ' s intelligence is not in how well they speak but in how well they listen . Steve Jobs said that as leaders we do not hire smart people to tell them what to do . We hire them so that they can tell us what to do . We hire them to listen to them . A CEO of a FORTUNE 500 company once told me that some of the best ideas that took the company forward were not from leadership . They were from people at much lower ranks of the company . The secret ? They were listened to . For the absence of listening to understand , homes have broken , friendships have been destroyed , and nations have been plunged into lawlessness .
Idealists are people who say it is either my way or the highway . Such people rarely make it to the very top in an organization and if they do , staying there becomes a herculin challenge . Pragmatists , on the other hand , say , " I know this is how it should be , but under the present conditions , this is how we can make it work ." Such people ultimately make the greatest leaders .
In listening , we learn , we achieve , and we grow . Listening does not take anything from you as a leader . Instead , it actually elevates you to the status of great leadership .
As mentioned earlier , great leadership is the ability to handle the strategic with an understanding of the emotional . This is where the legends reside ! The more listeners we have at the top , the greater companies and indeed societies we will build because such organizations have democratized the idea space and , as such , they will enjoy the benefit of harvesting great ideas from different levels .
You will be amazed at how supportive people can be when they know they have been listened to . Knowing that you have a voice which can be listened to is more gratifying to most people ( especially young people ) than a lot of leaders appreciate . This is why they will often opt for a lower paying job where they have a