Good leadership vs power hungriness The late Muhammad Ali ones said: “As leaders, it’s important to cultivate self-belief as well. It’s crucial to not just think, but know that we are more than capable for the task before us. Before you can achieve victory on the outside, you have to achieve the victory on the inside.” This is one of my favourite quotes that speak not only to sports people but to people in general. And I am pointing this out because my emphasis in this column will be about good leaders and power hungry leaders.
We have heard people say, the leadership in different sport codes must resign and so on, but have we ever asked ourselves if failure is one of the things that determine one’s leadership qualities.
Well, sometimes you just sit back and watch how people run their affairs and it’s quite shocking. If I may just share something, I visited some sport office this other day and the way the head was shouting at the staff just didn’t seem right. Yes, this is my opinion of why I feel that it was not right.
Sometimes the leaders of different sporting codes need to understand that one does not wake up a leader, neither does your experience make you a great leader.
Good leadership does not happen overnight and if one ever wants to succeed, it should start from within. Be the driver of your success and do not sit back and demand others to make you successful and later claim popularity which you get because of other people’s hard work.
It is always important as a leader, to set personal goals and only when you meet your personal goals, you can call yourself a leader who has succeeded.
But again, reaching your goals is not all that can determine how successful you are in your leadership, but your power of influencing others. Passing on the knowledge you have and engaging those that you are leading to be successful is crucial.
There are so many people heading different sport codes and academics that fear criticism and that situation is really worrying to me because when you get too relaxed because you think you have achieved so much, then you block your chances to improve.
It’s as if such leaders keep saying to themselves: “No weapon drawn against me shall prosper.” Well, sometimes when people criticise your work, it is not because they want to downgrade you or that they do not appreciate the good work that you do, but they are basically telling you that there is a need to up your game.
What I see in some of our people leading sports, is that they are so hungry to be in those positions, they are so hungry to be seen in newspapers, they are so hungry to be seen on TV, they are so hungry for travelling allowances but, that should not be the case.
I can literally link the kind of leadership in sports to a political phrase I learned at university and that is “Politics of the Belly.” Our sports leaders not only seem so hungry for positions but for the bucks they make from kick-backs and that are a pity.
I hate to talk about internal issues but what we have been reading about the challenges faced by boxing promoters and the “On a mission” board of the Boxing Control Board, is an ugly turn of events that in my own judgement, boils down to good leadership and power hunger.
Sometimes I think it is always good to do a retrospection of yourself and really understand where you are coming from and the relationships you have built.
It is great that such a board has a veteran administrator who has been in the boxing fraternity for years and that not only gives him a great position to influence his fellow board members about the challenges facing professional boxing, but he is also able to foster the relationship between the boxing leaders and the promoters.
At this point in time, I am sure boxing fans hate the way things have turned out or have been since the new board was appointed, but let us not sit here and conclude that it will be the worst board the control board has ever had.
It is great that the aggrieved promoters have come out to express their dismay, and even great that we heard the side of the leadership. Just a friendly advice; there is nothing wrong about still coming together with the aim of making professional boxing greater in the country. Personal egos don’t build a house; they break what others have tried building.
So, aim to first succeed as a person then make a difference in the next person’s life and claim popularity later. For now deliver what you have been entrusted to deliver and let us all aim to make Namibia a top sporting nation.
kaino@namibiansun.com
KAINO NGHITONGO