A personal money-management and business expert, Dave Ramsey, has advised against regular use of power by leaders, indicating such practice tends to make them bossy over the people they lead.
“As a leader, one must have power but seldom use it,” he said during a leadership growth conference in Accra hosted by the Centre for Transformational Leadership in Africa (CTL Africa).
The Live2Lead conference featured renowned world class speaker, John Maxwell in Atlanta in the United States but simulcast in 300 locations and in over 30 countries including Ghana. His presentation was streamed live to Ghanaians at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra.
It addressed different aspects of leadership concepts and equipped participants with the qualities required to lead and create change with renewed passion and drive. Speaking at the event, Mr Ramsey argued that the use of positional power does not make one a leader, and underscored the need for leaders to adopt what he termed pusuasional leadership approach to be more effective.
True leaders, he added, ought to have a “servant-like mentality” and be approachable, visionary, honest, passionate and determined.
“There is one common thing that runs through all leaders; which is they see more than others do and they see before others see,” he observed.
Mr Ramsey recognised that people ought not to be born leaders to be able to lead, indicating it takes training and capacity building to develop their creativity to become true leaders
He noted that leaders have to be creative in providing leadership to their subordinates.
Further, Mr Ramsey observed organisations are not limited by their opportunities but by their leaders, adding that as a leader, one’s education, character, capacity and vision could impede the organizations’ progress. Chief Executive Officer of CTL Africa, Mr Samuel Ayim, said the issue of leadership is always fingered in discussions on Africa’s development, and that people always cite Malaysia, Singapore and recently Rwanda among others, as countries exhibiting leadership with a difference.
Quoting the renowned international leadership expert John Maxwell, the true meaning of leadership is influence and as a true leader, it is important that you add value to others.
“True leaders do not serve their own personal interest but true leaders make a difference in their societies and in the lives of their people,” he stated.
He said true leaders aim to change the circumstance of their communities for the better, noting that as a country we needed a new concept of leadership that indicated each and every one of us could lead.
This, he said, is concept of leadership that “we should begin to adopt and inculcate as part of our national culture and attitude, we should begin to introduce this concept into our educational system from the basic level”.
Former Rector of GIMPA, Professor Stephen Adei, said the essence of leadership is to serve the people one leads. He recognised that every individual has the duty to develop the qualities of a leader in the sense that everybody is a leader in his own rights.
“We should start thinking together [as Ghanaians], how we can develop our leadership qualities in readiness to lead the country into prosperity,” he said.
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