Twenty-first century leadership needs more than just having a qualification, but special skills that one can work on. Leadership is complex to those who lead from a control or autocratic standpoint. It’s rewarding to those who understand people, communication, learning, serving and other soft skills. In my forthcoming leadership book, titled Transfomative Leadership, I have defined leadership as follows:

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“Leadership is the influence and motivation or drive to exploit individual latent abilities, improve one’s surroundings, fulfil obligations, purpose and the passion to help other people live their best lives. It is being active and impactful on the forefront of development.

“This development could be individually, intellectually, ideologically and institutionally realised and it may transcend the lifespan of that leader. True leadership offers hope, help, insight, foresight, and intuition through pioneering, modelling, mentoring, modifying, monitoring, motivating, mind development and influencing.”

The above elements that constitute leadership show us that if one is to be an effective leader they have to develop special skills. In an interview recently with Busisa Moyo, the current president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and the CEO of United Refineries Limited, he said: “In order to be a winner one has to have tenacity, dog-head determination, unflinching desire to win, be innovative and creative. One must believe in the goal and in what you want to achieve. Belief is probably one of the most important things.”

He further said that the leader has to be to be fluid in the face of change whilst maintaining certain moral principles and core values. “The values might be the same, core concepts might be the same, but the methods must be allowed to change. Being fluid and flexible is very important for a leader.”

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The leader should enjoy the ride as a leader, but he must not forget that there are issues that we have to deal with decisively. At times we are not taught at university about how we can deal with such situations. For instance, one reader of the column called me to ask how he could deal with a conflict issue that he was facing against the leader. The leader was resorting to force and his authoritarian stance, but to the demise of the morale at the workplace.

The environment for leaders is volatile, but vivacious and at times violent to the person who does not take risks, is ill-prepared and has a rigid mindset. It’s a mélange of situations. At times a one-time stroke cannot be enough, but those that are lucky made that one-time- stroke and broke through into a windfall of benefits and unparalleled opportunities. As a leader, you ask yourself: What do I do in such an era as this? It’s by gone to blame our problems on the economy.

Leaders need to be more than what we used to see in the past. We need social transformers and pathfinders.

It’s an open secret that we are being confronted by new realities, technological alterations, economic upheavals, climatic uncertainties and new social set-ups! We shouldn’t be caught on the wrong side of things. The most dangerous and unfortunate aspect that some companies should confronthead-on are so-called “bosses” or “managers” towering above like dinosaurs, but unequipped to survive and salvage this kind of atmosphere we now live in. All these need skill and conducive mindset. I will employ Henry Mintzberg (1973) for his top leadership skills that leaders need to deal with issues:

Skill #1: Conflict Resolution

Conflicts are inevitable and they are the ones that bring psychological stress. The leader should be on a stand to mediate and calm down disturbances. This could happen at a worker-to-worker level, worker-to-leader level, at worker-to-company level or company-to-company level. Conflicts if improperly handled could spill into lawsuits. They take creative and careful thinking.

Skill #2: Decision-making

A leader’s major role is to make quality and beneficial decisions. Problems come up and the leaders at times have to make risky decisions. The leader has to find solutions to problems that have arisen. When those decisions don’t bear fruit, the leader has to take full responsibility and be prepared to revisit his decision. Skill #3: Resource allocation Every organisation has resources. These could be human resources, material recourses or monetary resources. The leader has to decide, among the alternatives, what to use and where to use it.

Skill #4: Peer relations

The leader has to have the ability to start and retain networks with peers. With peers, the leader gets a chance to share aspirations and even problems with people of like mind. For sure, at the top it’s at times lonely because there are few people and the leader has to have other leaders to liaise with.

Skill #5: Information processing

Information is the backbone of a company. The leader has to have appropriate information, interpret the information and disseminate it timely to all relevant recipients or stakeholders.

Skill #6: Introspection

The leader needs the skill to assess and understand the impact of workers and leaders to the organisation. That will determine the effectiveness in execution of duties. Similarly, self-introspection is a must. This is an analytic relook at the whole activity of the organisation. How is it performing? Why? The people and the processes. What should have been done? How do we go forward?

Skill #7: Entrepreneurial mindset

Today’s leader needs to be creative and inventive. An entrepreneurial mindset helps to be ready for change and take sensible risks. Profits are possible when there is an entrepreneurial spirit.

Skill #8: Leadership

This is the heartbeat to the whole maze of leadership. Lead! Lead! Lead! Lead! And Lead! It takes a skill to deal with subordinates, team players, or partners. Power and authority comes not only with money, but the responsibility to handle it appropriately. This is the power to empower others.

Parting Point: Jeffrey Pfeffer in the book Leader to Leader (1999: 285) says: “In today’s world, knowledge and capability have become keys to success because everything else — product offerings, marketing, strategy, sourcing schemes — is easily acquired or imitated. Putting people first, or at least taking people issues seriously, is more important than ever. But implementing high-commitment practices requires a different view of management and competitive advantage. From this perspective, leaders build systems — systems that build distinctive competence and capability and that, because of their internal coherence, are robust even as the competitive landscape and the macro-economic environment change.”

Jonah Nyoni is an author, success coach, leadership trainer and public relations consultant. Tel: 0772 581 918. Email: feedback@newsday.co.zw
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