THE habit of measuring a President’s first one hundred days started in the USA during the term of Franklin D Roosevelt, who assumed office at a time when that country was in the throes of the Great Depression.
OPINION BY THEMBE KHUMALO
At 42 he was the youngest man to assume the office of President in that country, and he set about his task with youthful vigour, taking the country in a whole new direction.
“This nation asks for action, and action now,” are words included in his inauguration speech, and act is what he did.
During his first one hundred days he signed 76 bills into law, and held press conferences and Cabinet meetings twice a week.
Incidentally he also made history by being the first American president to appoint a woman to his Cabinet.
Since his inauguration last week, all eyes are on President Emmerson Mnangangwa and the anticipated new era that he is ushering in.
Expectations are soaring, and his every move attracts a flock of tweets and retweets as the nation, the continent and indeed the world watches to see if and what he will deliver.
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In this age of fake body parts and fake news, one can’t quite be sure what is real and what is not, but if the stories I’ve seen circulating on social media are an indication of the President’s true activity, he surely must be applauded.
In a matter of days he has made clear his leadership manifesto in away that no printed vision or mission statement ever could.
He has communicated through execution. As any leader knows, actually implementing the parts of a mission that will deliver strategic intent is a process that vexes even the most well-meaning among us.
We inevitably find that the ideas that were exciting in conception are so much more complicated in execution.
The immediate actions a leader takes when he assumes the leadership role are critical to his overall success.
The Italian general, Giuseppe Garibaldi is quoted as saying, “A bold onset is half the battle.”
It is no surprise that a man with such a motto would be called a “hero of two worlds” and be incredibly popular at home and abroad. A bold onset applies not just to presidents and generals but to any leader taking on a new role. It applies to you and I.
A leader who is tentative in his approach is a danger to himself and others. He risks confusing himself and the people who follow him, and he compromises the confidence that will have been placed in him by appearing unsure of himself as well as his plan.
Setting the tone does a number of useful things for a new leader.
Firstly, it gives the leaders under him a blueprint for how they should handle their teams.
Your boss’s boss is the one who indicates to your boss how he is supposed to go about the process of bossing. He gives a signal as to whether we are going to take a tough stance or a gentle one, whether we are going to deliver at a fast pace or a leisurely one; and whether we are going to adopt an aggressive tone or a conciliatory one.
The tone must be set at the top, and only at the top. And it must be set swiftly.
President Mnangagwa has done this in a matter of a few days and a limited number of public appearances.
As Zimbabweans we love to observe what leaders are doing from a distance, and to criticise it. We do this, not just with leaders, but with anyone who is standing even a short distance from where we are.
Why did Mrs So-and-so wear that outfit, we murmur among ourselves, and did Mrs Such-and-such really intend to leave home with her hair like that?
Why did this one not say that, and that other one do the thing which we would not have done. We do this murmuring with no intention whatsoever of taking action ourselves. But the less direction we are given from the top, the more we murmur.
Setting the tone at the top restores confidence, giving people a clear picture of what they can expect.
It is not change which causes discomfort and distress, but ambiguity. When a leader is clear about his priorities from the beginning he quashes scepticism and clears the path for effective execution.
In observing our new President, and at a time when we are preparing to end a traumatic year (I’ll write about this trauma in the near future) we have the perfect opportunity to take a leaf out of his book and think about our own leadership journeys, and how we might employ the first one hundred days of 2018 to deliver better dividends not just for the remainder of that year, but for our entire lives.
This morning, I listened to an old broadcast by Earl Nightingale, and I was struck by the importance of intention, and the statistics about how many people don’t set an intention for their work, their income, or their lives.
If we are to get the full benefit of the changes which have come to our country we will need to be intentional about it in 2018.
Our intention serves not just ourselves and our personal ambitions, but also the people we lead. Our leadership will go a long way in supporting the national vision and making a reality of that new era that we have dreamed of for so long.
