Business owners must ensure that they have the right people to implement
their decisions or else they may end up with ineffective praise singers
and gatekeepers. FOTOSEARCH
By Peter Mutua
Leadership operates in teams chosen for
excellence in performance rather than loyalty and being on the boss’s
wavelength which are insufficient qualifications.
-John Gardner
-John Gardner
Sometime in July 1440 BC only a few weeks after
leading more than a million people through what was a dramatic, action
packed exodus from Egypt, Moses received a visit from Jethro, his
father-in-law. After relating all that had been done in the course of
releasing the nation from captivity, Moses went back to his
ecclesiastical duty of “leading” the people.
From morning till night, Moses sat determining
disputes and issuing directives regarding a variety of issues ranging
from quarrelling spouses to matters of national policy to conveyance of
divine instructions.
Needless to say, by the end of every day Moses was
exhausted while the individuals whose problems he had not been able to
solve were frustrated. Till then, all power was concentrated in the
hands of Moses, his brother Aaron and their sister Miriam.
After observing scenario, Jethro offered counsel —
that Moses appoints “capable, God-fearing individuals of integrity who
hate dishonest gain” with whom he could share the load of leadership.
While Moses remained the arbiter of last resort, all minor matters were
quickly and efficiently dispensed with by these trusted individuals.
Being eager for solutions, Moses immediately put Jethro’s advice into practice.
Not surprisingly, there were found within the
multitude men who fitted these exact specifications, the vast majority
of who were completely unrelated to Moses. Following this handover, he
became a more effective leader and the people were content and
satisfied.
Not all leaders take so easily to delegation. For
some strange reason membership of the library in Kenya’s largest and
oldest public university must be sought from and personally approved by
the vice chancellor.
Given that this public institution has a student
population of 84,000, more than 5,300 staff and assets worth more than
Sh102 billion ($1.12 billion) it is tragic that the leader’s time is
spent on such relatively mundane affairs.
Many leaders of family business resist the need to
delegate authority to subordinates for fear that the people assigned to
the tasks will prove untrustworthy, that responsibilities handed down
will not be executed as well as possible or because the leader is afraid
of being overshadowed or outperformed by their appointees.
Other leaders who relinquish some of their
responsibilities do so only reluctantly to those who are of
unquestionable loyalty, close blood relations or sycophants who speak
sweet words into the leader’s ear.
Such leaders make the mistaken assumption that
loyalty is superior to competence, forgetting that the ability to
perform is more important than congruence of thought.
How then can business leaders tell those who will
be dependable from all the hangers on who form part of the entourage?
How can they discern those who can be entrusted with responsibility from
those who can’t?
Every family business rises and falls on the
quality of the staff it engages, particularly those who interact
directly with the leaders and who are responsible for translating vision
and strategic objectives into day-to-day activities.
To fall prey to the temptation to assign these
important ranks to chorus singers and other types of sycophants rather
than the true servants who have the interests of the leader at heart is
to plunge the venture into chaos and confusion.
