Inspiring Leaders for Change

Mary Nnah

A roundtable Leadership Session organised by the 1000 Leaders Global Projects Group, with the theme, “The Impact Of Excellence Leadership and Followership: The Change Elements” to mark her 10th Anniversary, held at WhiteHouse, Ikeja, Lagos, recently.

It attracted young leaders from all works of life who were passionately inspired and poised to make impactful difference in their individual fields, and in the process bring about the much desire and change.

The project also brought together eminent leaders among whom Dr. Basil Ibeh, Director General, DEAL Institute of Leadership, Nigeria, served as the keynote speaker.

This came on the heels of the virgin edition of the 1000 Leaders Women Meeting with the tag, ‘Breaking the Leadership Glass Ceiling”, which had Mrs. Comfort Coleman as a keynote speaker.

The event was moderated by the Chief Executive Officer, NECCI Consulting Limited, Mrs. Nkechi Ali-Balogun.

In an opening remark presented by Programme Coordinator Women Forum, Ms. Ebun Mkpoida on the lack of sustained genuine corporate support for novel causes of this genre compared to what is enjoyed by the entertainment sector without recourse to the import of deliberate leadership development on sustained nation building.

She further revealed that the 2019 event is to prepare the stage properly in line with her true essence raising selfless global leaders with the bond and zeal to discover themselves, maximise the opportunities they would be exposed to, through which they are found to make impactful progress for greater advancement of the human society and better themselves.

President WhiteHouse Group, Dr. Austin Eruotor, who chaired the event, stressed that it was not that Nigeria in particular lacks people, but is in dire need of leaders whose desire to serve in any capacity is driven by invoking the much anticipated change.

“The human society, particularly, our beloved country Nigeria is in dire need of an endurable paradigm shift in attitude and values, if she must move forward”, Eruotor said.

He called on the youth not only to clamour for change but to embrace with both hands the opportunity of the not too young to lead idea and ideals of the government peacefully with well-articulated plan of action and mobilisation strategy to participate actively in governance.

In his highly thought provoking delivery on the theme of the meeting, Mr. Leslie Oghomienor, arrow head Blaugrana Group International, himself an acute leader and follower who as an employee and employer of labour has transcend divers sectors of the global leadership and economy from entertainment, to consultancy to oil and gas, sports, education, service provider and merchandising to mention a few, argued that if the followership, which is the primary pillar of the society’s leadership quality, is faulty, then expecting something different is worse than trying to prove that the sun would not come to town tomorrow no matter the storm.

Outlining the basic of the elements, he stressed that there are lots of factors that are primary determinant of the quality of leadership an entity – a commercial concern, charity, or a country.

These includes values, culture, acceptable norms informed by interests, affiliations, external influence, laws and the most sensitive being religion, and perhaps the concern’s taboos. All the above mentioned, he argued, are laws.

He equally said compliance provides a well matured ground for seeds of an excellent and impactful two-way-leadership to flourish, where the leader and follower see each other as indispensable partners.

From this analysis he said, “It is impossible to build on nothing. Thus, any attempt to pretend to give what you don’t have is the height of defrauding the unity in the picture. Therefore, we need to make the teaching of excellent leadership principles a part of our educational curriculum so that these values would be imbibe in our people right from a very young age. Continuous development and growth for leaders should be like breathe to life because without it the human soul is nonexistence”.

The well attended event was highly applauded by guests who came from all over the country, who themselves are seasoned professionals making huge impactful contributions in various sectors of the economy.

Related Articles