A leader, like every worker, deserves a break

Everyone can only carry so much, explaining why they need to take a rest and reorganise themselves to think and execute for results. PHOTO | FILE 

By PETER MUTUA

“And He was asleep in the hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow: and they awake him and say to him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?” Mark 3:38 KJV.

The attack on Kenyan citizens more than a week ago in Mandera was an unmitigated tragedy.

For a group to execute unarmed individuals purely on the basis that they are of a different faith is an act of cowardice that ought to be condemned and responded to fast by the relevant government forces.

This scenario, unfolding as President Uhuru Kenyatta was out of the country and seemingly out of touch, represents the nightmare that confines many leaders of family business to a case of continuous toil at their works tat ions.

They are constant fear that something will go dreadfully wrong in their brief absence from work and that they will be solely to blame for the state of affairs.

It is this fear that has led to the burnout of many a leader of family business as they insist on working round the clock with some developing chronic illnesses as others die of sheer exhaustion from the pressure of leadership.

Even as family members and staff demand that the leader take a rest, they offer little support for those left in charge.

Leaders of family business are, therefore expected to be continuously on call to deal with fires, robberies, bereavements and any other issues that affect the business.

When they are absent, people assume quickly that they either care little about the venture or stakeholders; that all they care about is their own selfish interests.

While examples abound of greedy selfish leaders who care about nothing other than profits, there are those who, unaccustomed to continuous heavy burdens of responsibility, need to regularly take time off in order that they maintain a level of sanity.

To demand that such leaders personally perform even in their poor physical condition can lead to disaster.

All leaders should have a clear idea of their limitations and enable those around them to alert them when these boundaries are reached so that they may quietly withdraw and replenish their internal resources. But they should appoint competent individuals to sit in their absence.

Because Murphy’s Law seems to apply universally, leaders of family business should be prepared to deal with the flack that arises when things go wrong in their absence.

They should soberly realise that they are not deities; that they could not, in all likelihood, have been able to avert the disaster by their sheer presence and those left in charge did their best.

Leaders, their families and their staff should realise that none is either super human or divine