WHAT IS EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP?

Gebru Abraha was born in 1968 in the northern part of Ethiopia, in the town of Axum. He is a graduate of Addis Ababa University where he earned a BSc degree in Chemistry. Mr. Abraha then worked as a secondary school teacher for several years. Some years ago he left teaching and took a leadership task and is now working in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia as government employee. Three years ago Mr. Abraha earned a Masters degree in Christian Leadership from United Graduate College and Seminary International.

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Even though leadership as a field of study has evolved recently, we find quite a lot of definitions of the term leadership in literature. Plainly these descriptions are more or less similar in connotation or spirit.  

Leadership is a process of influencing a group of people to accomplish a certain task. Leadership shows the direction towards the attainment of pre-destined goals. By its very nature leadership is influencing the behavior of others while fully respecting the liberty and dignity for each individual. This is so because individuality is sacred.

When it comes to effective leadership, it is the ability of moving a group of people or a society towards a vision by changing the way of thinking of the people about the future possibility. Effective leadership begins with having internally the compassion or love of the human kind. Love and concern are the most fundamental or imperative elements of effective leadership. Without love or compassion effective leadership is unthinkable. Thus the sole and everlasting foundation of effective leadership is Love of those we lead. Without love neither the physical nor the spiritual powers will develop.

There are also other issues that add value to leadership effectiveness. Characters such as enthusiasm, credibility, honesty, staying power, vision and courage do have contribution to effective leadership. Leadership success starts with creating vision. For a leader to be a direction indicator, he has to have a clear vision. Therefore a true leader is visionary. Honesty is also an integral component of a true leader because it invites others to follow your path. Courage is also important to utilize fully one’s own potential. An individual realizes his full potential in the absence of fear of making mistakes and fear of risk.  Thus effective leaders are not susceptible to criticism and admit their mistakes. This makes an effective leader always a learner.

Since effective leadership is all about stimulating people, it shows others that anything is possible. Effective leadership is capable of showing its followers a distant image of good health, prosperity, and a bright future soon to be reached.

The principle ‘‘lead by doing’’ is also another fundamental aspect of effective leadership. True leaders do not give command, nevertheless they lead by doing and this invites followers to shoulder their responsibility and others to come along and join the group.

In all levels of human relations, leaderships prevail. There is leadership in a family circle at a small scale. And leadership at larger scales are group or team leadership, organizational leadership, religious leadership, leadership at society level, etc. They all in common require the skill of leadership, even though the deal differs. Many of the leaderships in family circles are effective. The secret of leadership effectiveness at the household level is love and concern of leaders (parents) for their family members.

Leadership determines the success of an organization. An organization is exactly the mirror image of the leader. This means that a group, a team or an organization takes on the personality of its leader. That is why it is said that ‘‘the pace of a team is the pace of a leader’’.

Leaders are few and followers are many. Unfortunately we humans are followers. So we need someone to show us the way forward to reach our destinations. In periods when there is no leadership society stands still. Good leadership encourages people to go forward and that is why we say good leadership is the fuel of progress. This makes developing leaders of future times (legacy) an essential part of wise leadership.

                                                Let God be with all of us!!