Nigeria is currently in the middle of an electioneering circle, the outcome of which new Leaders at State and National levels are set to emerge. Indeed, we had the Presidential and National Assembly elections last February 25, and, the concluding segments, elections into the offices of Governor and members of the Houses of Assembly of the various States is scheduled for March 11, 2023.
It has been said that about the greatest evil bedeviling our public space is the deficit of credibility and trust between leadership and the followers. Leadership at all levels appear to be disconnected from the followership. And, I refer to leadership both in the private and public spheres. There is total distrust. Trust and Credibility are mutually inclusive. No wonder Barren Bennis said “leadership without mutual trust is a contradiction in terms”. Credibility qualifies trust. Once a leader exudes high credibility he does not beg to be trusted.
It is important to clarify at the outset that leadership in our context is not necessarily synonymous with and limited to public sector leadership roles. The head of a family unit is as much in a leadership role as the head of a Township, College School prefect, Labour Union officers (like the NMA), Churches and Mosques management committees, leadership of Legislative, Judiciary, and Executive arms of Government etc. In all of these examples, leadership is bound to fail unless it is credible and nurtured continuously by mutual trust.
We should also remind ourselves even at this very preliminary stage that leadership is more likely to be credible and trusted if it evolved creditably and by consent or affirmation of majority of the followership. In other words, whether leadership in any particular instance will be credible is both foundational and structural. How did that leadership come to be in the first place? And, after it has come to be, how much of public trust or trust of the followership has it courted and earned? What mode of engagement did leadership choose? “The death of a thousand good men is not as TRAGIC as having an unfit man in a position of National leadership” so counseled Usman Dan Fodio of blessed memory.
Coming nearer home, we will seek to examine the peculiar leadership and trust issues in Labour Associations using the medical community and Nigerian Medical Association as our compass. The most important duty of Trade Unions and Labour Associations is to cater for the welfare and protect the interests of its members and Stakeholders. Oftentimes, your leadership will routinely engage other Stakeholders, particularly the Government of the day on myriad of issues that touch and concern your Association and its component or individual members. To carry out this mandate, sometimes hard decisions that may not be immediately popular within the Association rank and file will need to be taken. To be effective and result driven, a large dose of confidence and trust must exist between the followership and leadership. The general membership of your Association, for instance, should be on same page and in sync as regards the short-, medium- and long-term objectives and particularly the way, manner and mode of engagement with outsiders as the leadership work to achieve the corporate objectives of the Group.
Building is derived from the word `build` which means to erect or set up. However, in this context, it means a process of developing or to give form to something according to a plan or process.
On the other hand, `maintaining` is to continue to have, to keep in existence or not to allow to become less or to express firmly your belief that something is true.
Trust is assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, truth of someone or something while credibility is the quality or power of inspiring belief or the fact that someone can be believed or trusted.
Leadership is a process of social influence which maximize the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal or it is the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistance.
Role refers to the position or purpose that someone or something has in a situation, organization, society, or relationship.
Building Credibility and Trust for Leadership
Leadership is multifaceted and multidimensional. It extends beyond the narrow prism of political leadership. We also reminded ourselves that both foundational and structural components are critical to building credibility and trust.
Emergence
Very critical to the discourse is how the leader emerged in the first place? This alludes to how the leader came to office. Was it imposed? Did he bully his way through? Did the people, the followership have a say on who becomes their leader? These are foundational issues that speaks to a leader’s credibility. If the followership had input in the election or selection process, trust and credibility will be easier to build.
Preparation
For every type of leadership, political or otherwise, it is important for the leader to prepare for leadership. One of the critical gaps in our polity is that there is no conscious preparatory ground for people who get elected or appointed into the high offices they occupy. As such, when they get into these leadership positions, it will be trial and error leadership. At all levels and strata of leadership, this is one major lacunae that deserves to be further interrogated and sorted out.
Critical Nuggets of Leadership Trust and Credibility – My Personal Experience
Between 2011 and 2019, I had the privilege to occupy the leadership position of Secretary to Ogun State Government. The office is called ‘Akowe Agba’ or Chief Scribe in the public service set up. By all standards, the office was/is high public service leadership position.
Though I came into that office without any previous public service leadership exposure or experience, I set two goals for myself. The first was to do everything in and about the office to honour Almighty God in appreciation for the undeserved elevation. The second was to work hardest and do everything within my power and control to justify the confidence reposed in me.
Drawing from my personal experience, I take the firm view that for any leadership to be impactful, and, ultimately to earn the trust of its stakeholders and be credible, there are minimum parameters to guide leadership.
Character
There can be no leadership in vacuo, leaders must also showcase enviable and admirable character traits. Effective and impactful leadership must evolve from a set of background and foundational attributes and characteristics. The followership will more readily be inclined to trust a Leader whose growth trajectory and claims to leadership can be scrutinized, validated and authenticated. What kind of early life did the Leader experience? What manner of educational training? What kind of personal discipline and noble or ignoble antecedents do the Leader parade? Before attaining the position of Leader, what personal accomplishments can the Leader point to? The very best example that readily come to mind is Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, GCFR, our leader for all times. He continues to be trusted and revered, several years after his death. The totality of his life, training, personal discipline, held values and inspirational leadership traits have continued to both inspire and challenge generations of leaders and pseudo leaders after his demise. As they say on the streets ……’Bibire ko se fowo ra, (and, I will add), …. ko se fi ipo ra’. The Holy Bible also alludes to the character of leadership in Proverbs 29:2- ‘When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, the people groan’ (NKJV). Your guess is as good as mine as to whether anyone can say the same for today’s leaders.
Be more people oriented
A leader who wishes to succeed and earn the trust of his followership must learn to listen to his people. It was John Maxwell who opined that people development is a level of leadership that requires sacrifice in raising more leaders. Leadership should be selfless. Leading is not same thing as bullying. Leadership is far to be trusted when it is inspirational, humble and honest.
Being an example
The easiest way to lead is by setting the standard ourselves. Cory Booker puts it this way “leadership is not a position or a title. It is action and example”. The first person to conform to all the rules in an organization should be the leader himself. Becoming an example is to be a servant leader and communication & compliance becomes easy when the leader portrays and represents what he wants.
Transparency equates to being open, accountable and honest
A good leader who is desirous of building trust must be open with his team and subordinates. When people do not have full information, they are left with the thought to fill the gap themselves and may breed rumor peddlers.
Respect
Respect begets respect. Leadership is neither about title nor position. Every leader that must built trust and credibility must learn respect as a courtesy. Understand that your stakeholders and followership have special endowment that will grow the association, to recognize same is a way of giving respect to them. The crux of this gist is that every follower, team member, juniors have profound potentials resident in them. You must give them that respect of value required to horn such enviable deposits. Every genuine follower that you respect would ensure that you receive a huge more in return.
Have a clear vision
According to an old Japanese proverb, vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. Vision is cardinal to building trust and credibility in leadership. People will not trust who is visionless. Also, a visionless leadership has already defeated the essence of credibility. Leaders must have vision and foresight to lead their subjects. The issue of leadership in African and other third world countries is always fraught with the challenge of vision. Vision is a clear picture, model of every organization. How do we change this narrative?
Consistency
Leaders should stay consistent with their commitments. Beyond the extent to which you allow your subordinates to know about you, they can probe further to know whether their leader represents what he claims to be. Their finding would determine whether you can be trusted and if the association can grow while you are at the helm of affairs. When people see a leader who has a consistent demeanor and a good record of getting things done, they become more willing to trust their leaders. Consistency shift from words to action. Leadership demands can be tasking at times but you must stay true and committed. It is from what you consistently do over the years that you would win your followers’ trust, and that speaks volume of your credibility.
LEADERSHIP WITHIN THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY
So much about discussion of leadership generally. This is medical community conference and we should talk about the NMA and other components of your community specifically. Permit me to start by expressing our gratitude, the world over, to members of the medical Community in general, and Doctors more particularly for your strenuous and decisive efforts in tackling the scourges of Ebola and Covid-19 outbreaks. We may not say it in so many words. Truth is-the world owes our corporate survival from these scourges to the sacrifice of the medical community. That was leadership in action, and, we cannot thank you enough.
For most of your members and the larger medical community, the yardstick for measuring the success of NMA leadership at any given time will invariably be how much advantage, concessions and positive fruits of negotiation with Government and other Stakeholders inures to the benefits of members and the general followership. Let me use two examples.
Very recently, I read in the news that the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has again threatened to go on strike if the Nigerian government fails to meet its demands. Amongst the several issues raised in the ultimatum is the upward review of the Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF). I am not sure how the dispute was ultimately resolved.
Permit me to recall the Doctors Village initiative by your Association during our time in Government. There were issues of title documentation, concessions in fees payable and request for fast tracked processing. The NMA wanted a fairer deal for its members, but, Government wanted more money. Conflict was imminent. Thank God we were able to meet ourselves halfway somehow.
The ‘Relationship Manager’ of the NMA in Government circle and Lead Negotiator is the Hon Commissioner for Health (at State level) and Hon Minister at the Federal. This Government appointee is a doctor first and foremost. It is important for the NMA to ensure that such Chief Negotiator and ultimate Union spokesperson remains an active member of your Association even during the tour of public service. It makes interface easier and rather more fruitful.
There should be increased level of engagement between NMA and Government. It is permissible and you should consider the engagement of doctor/ lobbyists to press home group demands. Although the medical labour unions have and can explore the right to strike as captured in Section 48 of the Trade Disputes Act, 2010, downing tools should always be the very last option. Strike is invariably counter-productive and the lesser recourse you have to this negotiation tool, the better for all of us. Incessant strike action may also result in unwitting breach of your Hippocratic Oath which obliges both the leadership and members of your Associations to put the interests, wellbeing and welfare of your patients first.
The labour movement, and particularly NMA should steer away from making unrealistic demands. In the same way, the followership should not harbor unrealistic expectations from the leadership. When labor organizations put forward unachievable demands, the tendency is for Government to ignore such requests. The challenge before NMA leadership and its success or otherwise will rest on how much you are able to align these conflicting expectations of your members with those of other Stakeholders.
I wish to close by reminding us all that Leadership comes with its benefits, responsibilities and burden. I know from experience that the burden of leadership in this part of our world nearly outstrips its benefits. As leaders of the medical community, you should be prepared to accept both benefit and burden in equal measure. We live in a rapidly changing world, and, more than ever before, leadership at all levels must work harder to build, and earn the trust of its followership. Credibility naturally follows trust.
– Adeoluwa is team lead and managing partner, Taiwo Adeoluwa & Associates.
