Leadership, Vision, and Dreams
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- Created: Tuesday, 19 November 2019 07:57
- Written by M.I. Mthenjane President, SAIMM
In this first article, I pick up on the topic of leadership that I initiated in my Presidential Address, in which I listed three key leadership traits that I believe are required at this time in our society and our industry. I firmly believe that the continuing (and increasing) inequality and poor social cohesion in South Africa is attributable to the ‘poverty’ of leadership and lack of or ‘unemployment’ of imagination to lead this country to fulfil its potential as a leading player in the socio-political and economic spheres, both regionally and globally.
What are those traits, then, that we as leaders need to begin South Africa’s journey of development? Firstly, vision, a rather obvious characteristic which has always been associated with the role of leadership. However, it requires specific mention in our national context – what is our national and common vision for the future? There is no right or wrong vision, but rather the desire and ambition for progress and better life for many South Africans than what we are experiencing today. Then I put forward courage or boldness – this is essential in order to, firstly, avoid conforming to populist rhetoric and rather to take action that breaks out of the norm and is transformational in many respects, and secondly, to take people along on this journey and translate that vision into experience. Not everyone will be convinced of the common good and the responses will be both amazingly negative and positive, despite the benefits that could be obtained. Lastly, the character of self-leadership, and specifically selflessness. I describe this trait as the ability to act on behalf of others rather for one’s own benefit. As leaders we are exposed to many resources that we must apply for the creation of value for employees and community at large. However, we have witnessed how these resources have been abused for personal benefit, resulting in permanent destruction of value and disruption of the lives of many people.