South Sudan national leaders are not leaders with followers but bosses with workers
3 min read
By Tito Tong John, Nairobi, Kenya
Wednesday, May 10, 2023 (PW) — When people think of the person they report to, there’s always an underlying, most often unspoken, question they ask themselves from the moment they are hired until they move on, “Do I matter to you?” We all want to know if our leaders in South Sudan care about us. We don’t want to hear it. We want to feel it.
When team members aren’t cared for, they usually don’t care. They tend to follow their leader’s uncaring example. Leaders who don’t care about their team are constantly surrounded by a team that doesn’t care about their leader.
These leaders lead from a position of weakness, not strength. They are not leaders with followers but rather bosses with workers. Followers show up to make a difference. Workers show up to make it through the day.
Low-impact leaders who don’t care for their team members add tremendous costs to their organisation or institution. Most often, the people on the front lines are blamed. They are blamed for being disengaged, for low productivity, and for lack of loyalty turnover.
High-impact leaders know the people are exactly where their leaders have led them. High-impact leaders don’t look out the window and blame the people. They look in the mirror and accept responsibility for improving themselves to improve the situation by improving the team.
The leaders at all levels are responsible for attracting, retaining, and developing the team members. Therefore, the character of the leaders above determines the character of the team members below. It is also the character of the leaders that determines those who are attracted to joining the team.
Whether at the individual level or the organisational or institutional level, who we are is who we attract. As leaders, who we are at the core, our character determines whom we will attract and retain once they know who we are.
Ultimately, low-impact leaders have a low-impact team. Leaders who don’t trust their team have a team that doesn’t trust their leaders. Frustrated leaders have a frustrated team. Reactive leaders have a reactive team.
High-impact leaders have a high-impact team. Leaders who trust their team have a team that trusts their leaders. Motivated leaders have a motivated team. Proactive leaders have a proactive team.
In conclusion, I help leaders engage the front line to improve the bottom line. Common sense clearly reveals, “If we improve our leaders, we will improve our team.” However, what is common sense is often rare practice. Why? Because having common sense only means we understand something should be done.
However, doing what we know should be done often requires “uncommon” sense, a higher intellectual understanding far beyond common.
The author, Tito Tong, holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. He is pursuing a Master of Business Administration in Human Resources specialization in the same academic institution. Previously he worked with different radios institution under Catholic Radio Network in South Sudan and is currently an opinion writer at Dawn News Paper frequently. He can be reached via his email: <tongkhamisa446@gmail.com>
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