It is in times of crisis that the true metal of men and women are tested. When confronted with natural disasters, economic crisis, accidents or war it is the quality of leadership that usually results in beating the odds by motivating ordinary people to achieve incredible things.
As a consequence I have often wondered why more emphasis was not placed on developing the art of leadership in management and business schools or in the work place training curricula. Certainly it gets short shrift as we discuss the need for better management skills, improved organizational structures and enhanced infrastructure of equipment to achieve specific objectives of businesses, government departments or non-profit organizations.
We often get trapped into thinking that technical management skills of accounting, scheduling and material management are enough to do the job without paying attention to those leadership skills that weld people together into a team and fill them with enthusiasm to achieve beyond anyone’s expectations. Granted, this is a tall order in a society that seldom places the words “work” and “enthusiasm” in the same sentence, or where many are conditioned to reject taking responsibility for anything.
When economic conditions are favourable, hurricanes absent and warfare relegated to distant lands, good management and proven systems are enough to keep things on an even keel. True there are isolated incidents of crisis when flood, fire or accidents endanger life and limb and our fellow citizens display spontaneous acts of heroism and initiative to avert disaster. By their example they lead others to assist in rescue and other actions that benefit the whole community. These are tactical examples of leadership that demonstrate the innate leadership capacity of people from all walks of life and widely diverse educational backgrounds.
Strategic leadership encompasses much more. It provides a vision for a country or organization and mobilizes people to embrace that vision with an enthusiasm to achieve great things, often at significant personal sacrifice. Such leaders make the difference between victory and defeat in times of great national peril and in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
Such was the achievement of Sir Winston Churchill who rallied the British in the darkest days of the Second World War as they stood alone against Hitler after the collapse of France. The French generals advised their government that in three weeks England would have her neck wrung like a chicken. In an address to the Canadian Parliament more than a year later, Churchill was able to say, “Some chicken! Some neck!”.
Today we are not faced with a military threat, but with the threat of great financial peril as the global economy gyrates through its greatest period of turmoil in living memory. We first chose to ignore the threat and now we are bewildered by it. It is clear that we cannot continue as we have in the past but there is no articulated vision that would point us in the direction of future success. There has been an abject failure of leadership these past few years as we stumble from one crisis to another.
It is time for the government to grasp the nettle of leadership, level with the people of Barbados about our true state of affairs, and chart a path to economic recovery that would require a cultural change in the attitude to work, productivity, discipline and self reliance. It is not easy, but then again nothing worth doing is easy.
Certainly it is not a time for government departments or agencies to be in a public dispute over critical statistics relating to economic growth or decline, as well as rising unemployment levels. This only sends signals of confusion and denial and a clear sign that solutions are beyond the grasp of those at the helm.
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