Leaders must be capable of leading across groups at the juncture where wide ranging experience, diverse expertise and varied identities intersect, writes Anya O. Anya
over the last 30 years, management science pioneered by the Centre for Creative Leadership in the United States has developed strategies that have enabled us to manage diversity in multi-national and multi-cultural organisations in a manner that builds trust and fosters co-operation within the relevant organisations such that efficiency is optimized while an atmosphere of peace, order and understanding prevails. We can apply these strategies to our current national situation. Most adult Nigerians would admit that our nation has not been this divided even in the worst period of the civil war. We have insurrection in the North East, banditry and kidnapping within our territory in the North West. In the North Central zone as well as in the Southern Zones we have kidnappers and the rampaging Fulani herdsmen. All the indicators suggest we are currently at war but without the social consciousness that goes with a war situation.
Nigeria is a multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multicultural conglomeration of nationalities. In such a society two countervailing social forces are likely to collide: the need for differentiation, divergence and uniqueness in contradistinction to the need for integration, convergence and belongingness. Inherent in such a situation is the emergence of the great divide – between Us and Them. The core issue here is about identity.
With the definition of our identities comes the welter of phenomena encapsulated in our core values and our belief systems: how we define ourselves and how we fit within our society become relevant. Hence our identities delimit the boundaries which define us and them. While historical boundaries which define the limits of identity emerge in societies either in the promotion of social structures within the organization or societies, the boundaries which matter most today are often psychological and emotional. Consequently these become part of the inner dynamics found in human relationships, namely, lack of trust, lack of respect, lack of a common purpose, need for safety to overcome threats and lack of ownership. These problems arise not from what people do or how they do them but on who they are. Thus identities and thence cultural imprint matters. So where do we go from here? we ask again
It is important to note that boundaries may be borders that limit human potential, circumscribe creativity and innovation thus hampering social change. Boundaries may also represent frontiers where the most advanced thinking and breakthrough possibilities reside. The difference between limiting borders and limitless frontiers can be transformed by leadership. The challenges of boundaries may require extending beyond present boundaries and pursuing new frontiers where groups collide and intersect. Hence the need for new ways to bring together new groups which often includes new ways to approach leadership. For example, when functions or societies operate as silos with little trust and respect for each other, any defined common goal cannot be achieved. A leadership that can span the boundaries becomes an effective remedy, giving leadership across the groups. Their effectiveness under such circumstances can be enhanced when they show direction (understanding, common goals and strategy), alignment (coordination of resources and activities) and commitment (pursuit of collective success beyond that of any single group).
It was the late Albert Einstein who had observed that problems cannot be solved at the current level of awareness that created them. We had observed earlier that we are presently in a state of war without the consciousness that goes with this state of affairs. Hence we need to create a new kind of leadership. Boundaries spanning leadership has been defined as the ability to create direction, alignment and commitment. Given the welter of colliding forces that have shaped and continue to shape our relationships in the modern world including advances in technology, changes in global climate and demographics in the new environment shaped by expanding globalization, we should not be surprised that old boundaries are being dismantled even as new boundaries are being erected. It should be clear that in the emerging new world gone are the days when leaders and followers work within intact groups where both share culture, values and interests.
The leaders for these times must be capable of leading across groups at the juncture where wide ranging experience, diverse expertise and varied identities intersect. Such leaders must learn to manage boundaries, forge common ground or purpose and discover new frontiers. We should remember however that the first step in spanning boundaries is to create and strengthen existing boundaries because you need to see boundaries clearly before you can bridge or span them.
Finally, boundary spanning leadership is an instrument for the transformation of societies. You need to create the environment for transformation and in the pursuit of this goal, three objectives need to be pursued, namely, create opportunities for interaction between the groups with a focus on creating a different future, identify and understand identity-based values, beliefs and perspectives that can lead to transformation if changed; and create opportunities for renewing, revisioning and reimagining change in themselves and their environment.
As Edmund Burke observed, “a nation is not governed that is perpetually to be conquered”. Nigerian leaders of an earlier generation agree with him. The late Tafawa Balewa suggested that Nigeria existed as one country only on paper. Indeed, he refers to it as a British intention for the country. Indeed in the view of the late Obafemi Awolowo, Nigeria is merely a geographical expression. So the Nigerian nation is yet to be built. There lies the challenge before us all which is to build a nation where trust, sincerity, justice and equity are domiciled and where each citizen’s life and property are protected. Given the fissiparous potential of this putative nation, the boundary spanning leadership model seems most appropriate. In the pursuit of this vision and national goal a number of tasks needs to be tackled. The first is to tackle the problem of restructuring and devolving power to the sub-national levels of authority so that problems are tackled expeditiously at the levels where they occur.
It has been said that great things will happen as long as no one cares who gets the credit. So, it is with Nigeria’s effort at restructuring. The implementation of the report of the 2014 National Conference should be the beginning of Nigeria’s march into nationhood. For embedded in the bowels of that Report is a brand-new constitution for our new nation. If our new leaders can find the courage to unveil the embedded constitution and present it to the Nigerian Peoples in a referendum the first blocks in the architectural foundation of the New Nigeria would have been laid.
We need a new leadership cadre to drive the Nigerian vision and liberate the Nigerian Peoples from an emerging totalitarian oligarchy-plutocracy wrapped in the swaddling cloth of corruption and rampant poverty that our politicians are determined to drive us into – a no chance cul de sac. These new leaders must be driven by a vision that incorporates the seven virtues in a national code of values, namely character/integrity, competence, conviction, courage, charisma, commitment and compassion. The emergence of such a creative leadership is the challenge facing the new Nigerian leadership elite incubating in the womb of the new youth movement.
