Leaders Development: The Panacea to Organizations Growth.

LEADERS DEVELOPMENT: The Panacea to Organizations Growth.

Perpend the following:

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52)

“Whoever does not add to his knowledge diminishes it”  The Talmud

The government, business, political, social organizations, faith organizations like the church, the family are facing many challenges and experiencing a paradigm shift. They are in dire need of a leadership that is proactive, productive, effective, efficient, relevant, result-oriented, and up to date. It is recognised that the growth of any organization depends on the leader, having the relevant skills, knowledge, and competencies.

This is the reason why organizations emphasize “Human capital development.” If the organisation must grow and fulfill her mandate, there must be an intentional focus on the development of her leaders.  Without well- developed leaders, the government and organisations won't thrive.

To be fit for leadership, development is essential. In fact, the need for development undergirds a lot of the training and retraining exercises we see in both the public and private sectors of all climes. People go to school to be developed for impact. This is what today is referred to as knowledge economy. That is, what you can do with your knowledge. So, development is aimed at enhancing capacity.

Human institutions are complex and to be able to lead any human institution or organization one must be prepared for the task. Jesus Christ acquired the necessary training for service to God and humanity. As quoted above, He grew in stature (Physical development) and in wisdom (mental development) and had favour with God and man (Social development). He also grew in spiritual authority to the point that the waves and the winds and demons obeyed Him.  Christ also grew in moral integrity and that was why   Pilate said, “I found no fault in Him.” From the life of Jesus Christ, our Great Shepherd, we see development in terms of spiritual, moral, physical, social, mental/intellectual, and so on.  

For our discourse, we shall define development as a state of improvement. This improvement is the product of a positive change. And anybody can improve. It is commonly said that the greatest room in the world is the room for self-improvement. This implies that anybody can learn any skills and become useful to God and the society. Development involves policies, practices, processes, and procedures strategically designed to ensure that leaders are well prepared for leadership and to perform optimally. It involves analysing, evaluating, and acquiring of skills, knowledge, and competencies to increase effectiveness and efficiency.

The overall development of the leader is a predominantly educational process, a continuous and life-long process. It is not like training as a one-shot programme but an on-going continuous programme throughout the leadership period.

Kindly perpend the following benefits of a leader’s development:

• It makes and prepares the leader
• It builds capacity for the work you are given. 
• It prevents stagnation by exposing or keeping the leader abreast with trends and latest concepts and techniques of administration and management.
• It helps the leader to identify his potentials and make him fit for new assignments. 
• It enriches the leader with greater understanding of the various skills to enhance or improve leadership.
• It enhances effectiveness. It will help the leader to develop his leadership skills so that he can possibly be the most effective leader.
• It is an avenue to update what the leader knows or add to what he already knows. It keeps his memory alive and active.
• It gives the leader current information on ways of doing certain things.
• It improves existing strengths of the leader. 
• It prepares the leader for succession in case of contingencies as and when these arise in future.
• It improves the leader’s thought processes and analytical abilities. 
• It provides opportunities to the leader to fulfill his career aspirations. 
• It helps the leader to understand the problems of human relations and improve human relation skills.
• It improves performance: It helps the leader to do much better in those areas he is already good at.
• It makes for quality and consistency.
• It develops self-confidence. Self-confidence comes from an internal trust and belief in one’s ability to do things well and that assurance is developed through capacity development process.
• It gives the leader the opportunity to assess his performance.
• Development makes the leader’s work easier.
• It helps the leader in performance appraisal and possible reinforcements  

If the iron is blunt, then more strength is required, but skill will bring progress (Eccl. 10:10).  No wonder a man said, “if I have 10 hours to fall down a tree, I will not mind spending 6 hours sharpening my axe.”  According to the Talmud, “whoever does not add to his knowledge diminishes it.”  So, if the leaders is not developing in knowledge, he is diminishing.

Worthwhile development processes and options include Education (formal and informal), Relationship Training/Relationship Skills, Mentorship, listening to podcast and tapes, watching a web seminar (Webinar) and videos and subscribe to a few Leadership Blogs.

Some of the challenges to development are Pride, Laziness, Misplacement of Priority. Apostle Paul said, “If a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the master’s use and prepared unto every good work.” There must be intentional and deliberate effort to develop and the readiness to pay the price to be developed, for you to be suitable for leadership. 
Like Martin Luther King Jr. said "If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving.

Leadership development is about adding or improving on yourself or on what you have.

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;  and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love”  (2 Tim. 1:5-7).

PERPEND!

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