Intersection of Leadership and Sustainable Development
The Intersection of Leadership, sustainable Development, and Social Stability
The intersection of leadership, sustainable development, and social stability is so deep that many people do not bother to interrogate it.
Leadership is what powers systems. Systems are driven by leadership towards sustainable development, which secures social stability.
At every sector or segment of society, the impact of leadership is evident, in the negative or positive.
In the political space, leadership determines our prosperity, peace and security, including physical and food security.
In the health sector, we see the consequences of low quality leadership. The same is evident in academic sector. In the corporate world, low quality leadership mars the corporate systems.
I give a few illustrations to validate this point. Have you wondered why our educational institutions are in state decay? What about the Health system? You might be quick to point at neglect and low funding from government. You are right, but that it a small part of the problem.
Here is the real issue. In the educational institutions, we have eminent academics who are experts in their fields of study with years of experience who take on leadership positions as Heads of Departments, Deans of Faculty, Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Provosts and Vice-Chancellors who have no leadership training. They are first class in their fields, but they lack visionary leadership capacity to run the system entrusted into their laps.
They fail to realize that there’s a wild of difference between being a first class professor or academic and being a leader in the education sector. They become what are by reason of upwardly mobile promotion that has nothing to do with being educated in the art and science of leadership. This the major.
The same is applicable in the health sector. Professionals and experts in their of learning grow through the ranks to emerge as Chief Medical Directors in public or private health institutions, but have no leadership education. These professionals are good what they have studied and practiced, but they have no leadership education. This is the major reason our public health institutions are terribly run by health professionals and experts.
In the political space, the same scenario is rife. People rise to take on positions of leadership in the public space, but have no leadership education. They are the ones running the system aground. The situation is worse the normal civil service. The civil service is too bad that you hardly can experience any real leadership in demonstrations except raw bureaucratic processes that stifled progress. This is the reality that many people do not want to interrogate. It is the intersection that people don’t want explore.
It’s important to State that being a first class academic or a first rate medical expert does not qualify you to become a Head of department, Dean or Vice-Chancellor. It does not automatically qualify you to become chief matron or Chief Medical Director. We must begin to demand clear leadership certifications from individuals and track their leadership capacity before allowing them take on these positions.
Our public institutions are functioning below capacity, not just due to low funding, but because of individuals who occupy high leadership positions. Our educational institutions are backwardly administered, not just because of lack of funds, but because of low quality leaders who serve as Vice-Chancellors and Provosts, who are autocratic and have no leadership skills to administer academic environments.
Our health institutions are Centres of death because the professionals and experts who take on leadership as chief medical directors are men and women who have little or no leadership skills. They are excellent in the fields of professional training, but they are running the systems aground.
We must begin to interrogate this insection. Without quality leadership, there can be no development, we cannot have a fairly stable society where individual creativity could be unleashed for productivity and growth.
The answer is in leadership education. Academic education is very good, but it is not enough to drive society along the path of sustainable development.
Joseph C. Ibekwe is a Professor of Public Leadership & Governance at Fled International Leadership Institute, Abuja – Nigeria.
