LEADING CHANGE THROUGH VISIONARY LEADERSHIP

Linus Okorie canvasses the need to create institutions for grooming visionary leaders in Nigeria

All over the world, change has become a constant. According to Boyd (1992), “an organization’s vision is an important component in the change process.” As organizations face the challenge of creating interventions that will change existing cultures, implement a new survey result, initiate a work improvement campaign; the starting point of the success of the change process is a clear vision. Visionary leadership plays a major role in the facilitation of the change process.

According to Cummings & Worley, C. G. (2005), “organizations can use planned change to solve problems, to learn from experience, to reframe shared perceptions, to adapt external environmental changes to improve performance, and to influence future changes.” It requires visionary leadership to go through pain, challenges, obstacles and use the feedback that comes from such a process as learning experiences that can guide the organization to achieve set goals. (Nanus 1992) says, “Vision provides guidance to an organization by articulating what it wishes to attain. It serves as a signpost pointing the way for all who need to understand what the organization is and where it intends to go.”  Vision is more than an image of the future. It has a compelling aspect that serves to inspire, motivate, and engage people. To assist leaders in developing an appropriate vision, (Nanus 1992) says, ‘right vision’ has five characteristics: attracts commitment and energizes people, creates meaning in workers’ lives, establishes a standard of excellence, bridges the present to the future, and transcends the status quo.

The responsibilities of visionary leadership are to ensure that whenever a new technology is utilized to generate feedback in the organization, the moment the results of such surveys are released as action point and interventions that can save the organization, it will be the responsibility of the leaders of that organization to implement the interventions by attracting the commitment and buy in of the people, establish standards as well as build bridges that transcend the pain. If the ability to execute becomes a culture, then such organizations can grow to become global brands that will attract people of different races and backgrounds.

I can never forget the day Prof. John Adair, the first professor of leadership in the world, and the chairman United Nations Leadership system said while we hosted him in Nigeria during our 2010 Emerging leaders Conference in Abuja. “Linus, the greatest need facing Nigeria and the African continent is the task of grooming good leaders and leaders for good.” In my own words, I would say that the greatest need facing Nigeria is the task of grooming and raising visionary leaders.

Visionary leaders are so important to organizations, societies and nations. One of my greatest hobbies is to observe human activities. I like to watch people talk and work. I see people display no sense of urgency at times when it matters most. I have seen people engage with life with so little sense of purpose. It frightens me that somebody will wake up and seek to be elected or appointed into public office or position of responsibility without a sound vision for his or her life.

The very essence of successful leadership is the ability to grasp and hold a vision. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. It becomes very imperative for every individual who desires to play any significant role in shaping society to as a matter of necessity develop a great sense of direction because for the person who does not know where he wants to go to, there is no favourable wind.

Leaders are dealers in hope. I know with all certainty in these times of uncertainty that Nigeria needs men and women who are driven to succeed; men and women who will have the courage to dream of things that never was and find the energy and commitment to make them happen. It will require vision to mobilize the people of this great continent to rally behind leadership to pursue a common cause of achieving greatness in all aspects of our lives. The heart of this work will be to make a case for creating institutions that will be responsible for making the grooming of visionary leaders in Nigeria possible.

Dr. Myles Munroe defined Leadership as the ability to motivate, move, drive, influence people towards a particular direction through inspiration and not intimidation nor manipulation. Leadership could also be described as the skill of motivating, guiding and empowering a team towards a socially responsible vision.  Leadership is foundational to the functionality of any human system especially countries. Everything rises and falls on leadership. The practice of ideal leadership in any system is central to building effective systems and a veritable asset for sustainable success. The degree of leadership capital any system possesses is directly proportional to its progress.

Leadership is, arguably, one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.  The poor understanding of the concept and practice of leadership is the primary cause of the challenges of governance across the world. The increased reoccurrence of failed governmental systems around the world and deepening decline in the indices of development have revealed the significance of leadership to nation-building.

Nigeria is a diverse country with wealth of human and natural resources. Nigeria should be poised to take her place in the league of nations.  However, lack of visionary leadership over a long period of time has led to uprisings and proliferation of small arms around the country and contributed largely to the present-day reality of insurgency. This has also become a nagging challenge and set back to the developmental potential of Nigeria.

Corruption is another recurrent problem in most African states. Corruption is a pervasive problem in both the developed and developing world. In recent years, the problem has gained much interest due to increasing awareness of the cost of corruption throughout the world and the practical and economic changes many countries are undergoing. In Africa corruption is a development issue and is at the root of the challenges already highlighted.

One major reason Nigeria has been enmeshed in several challenges and has been overwhelmed by them is the absence of a system for leadership training and appraisal of governmental structures. For the most part, countries in Africa have maintained a certain model of leadership over the decades and have adopted a rigid disposition to the dynamic nature of her challenges.

There is no better time than now to change the narratives. Only visionary leaders have the capacity to understand current realities and create a vision, transfer the vision and execute the vision in such a way that will lead to complete transformation.

No nation of the world that has become a developed nation, would have done so without the emergence of visionary leaders. Visionary leaders with a resolve to change things for the better must emerge in the political space of this great country. The people of Nigeria must catch a vision of electing only men and women capable of dreaming big dreams and executing them as leaders at all levels.

Great people of Nigeria, you must remember, if a person does not have a purpose for waking up, sleeping becomes interesting.

Linus Okorie is a leadership development expert spanning 27 years in the research, teaching and coaching of leadership in Africa and across the world. He is the CEO of the GOTNI Leadership Centre.

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It becomes very imperative for every individual who desires to play any significant role in shaping society to as a matter of necessity develop a great sense of direction because for the person who does not know where he wants to go to, there is no favourable wind