Today, I will serve you with the concluding part of the paper I delivered at the 2019 Professional Managers’ Forum/Award Night of the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered), Port-Harcourt Chapter on Friday 22nd November 2019 at Atrium Event Centre, Port-Harcourt, Rivers State on Small Arms and Light Weapons Proliferation and Development Issues in the Niger-Delta: The Managers’ Perspective.
5. THE WAY OUT
• ‘R’; Professional Managers must be responsible to themselves, their families, their environments and the nation at large.
• ‘E’, we must lead by example. We have to begin to walk the talk and not only talk the talk. We must demonstrate management professionalism in the way we
act, think, relate, and do things. We must be courageous enough to ensure that our deeds reflect our creeds and make sure that our video is in sync with our audio.
• ‘D’, and above all, as professional managers, we must exhibit deliberate leadership.
Deliberate Leadership is about being self-aware enough that you can be purposefully wise, diplomatic, and intentional with competence. It is about embracing the values (and behaviours) of accountability, reliability, and responsibility. Deliberate Leaders lead by personally modeling the behaviours or ways of thinking that they desire while encouraging others to courageously take the initiative to be independent in their reasoning and in doing so, transfer ownership and responsibility to others.
Deliberate Leaders are teachers, mentors, and role models – and they accomplish the majority of their results through the power of influence, not authority. All of these aspects of influence are essential for us as professional managers to ensure that the government, our colleagues, young boys and girls in our environment respect us and the decisions we make. This will enable us to have the capacity to deliberately persuade those within our own areas of influence (through our actions) to believe that we are “Credible.” Credibility is at the heart of influence!
Fellow Professional Managers, before we can build trust and influence as deliberate leaders, we must understand who we are, what we need to change, and how to go about it. When we are not self-aware about our own preference, gifts, talents, and tendencies, it is impossible for us to act trustworthily, and influence deliberately.
Becoming a deliberate leader starts with developing all of you. Several factors make up what you bring as a leader to the playing field. To be a successful leader means deliberately developing the whole person. But how do you go about doing that? Well, it starts with learning the art and science of digging deeper into understanding yourself and at the same time, you learn about the others you are leading. Deliberate leaders communicate with clarity, promote disciplined analysis and provide sense of stability. Deliberate leaders tend to be systematic, cautious and analytical. They are comfortable working independently and collaboratively at a disciplined and moderate pace, ensuring accuracy in their craft or profession, deep in analysis and planning and solving complex problems.
6. OUR CREED
Ladies and Gentlemen, as managers, we can’t continue to complain, yes we are tired of small arms and light weapons proliferation, but complaining is never a winning strategy. We need to create a new order, new orientation and new direction which are encapsulated in “TIRED” as explained above.
We do not want this lecture to just be one of the futile lectures we have listened to in the past, that is why the following creed is necessary;
That as professional managers, because we are tired;
• We are going to henceforth teach and train others to be better
• We will influence our environment to do what is right, influence the government, and preach the NIM code of conduct.
• We will be responsible to our environment; in the office, in our homes (we will ensure that none of our children will stray away to take to crime as a profession, we will not lay eggs we can’t cater for.)
• We will live by example; we will not only talk the talk, we will work the talk.
• As professional managers, we will demonstrate deliberate leadership.
7. CONCLUSION
OUR TAKE AWAY SONG THAT CAPTURES OUR RESOLVE AGAINST SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS PROLIFERATION
I AM TIRED, I AM GOING TO TAKE ACTION, I AM GOING TO TEACH AND TRAIN, AND BE RESPONSIBLE, I AM TIRED, I AM GOING TO TAKE ACTION, INFLUENCE MY ENVIRONMENT, DELIBERATE LEADERSHIP.
AM TIRED, I AM GOING TO TAKE ACTION, I AM GOING TO TEACH AND TRAIN AND BE AN EXAMPLE, I AM TIRED, I AM GOING TO TAKE ACTION, INFLUENCE MY ENVIRONMENT, DELIBERATE LEADERSHIP.
The End
Sunday Ade Bello is a multi-talented and an analytically inspired management trainer, writer and examiner. He is the CEO of WorkLife Training Professionals, Lagos.
