According to the CEO of Bismark Tay Leadership Solutions, Mr Bismark Tay, the number one problem of leadership is lack of self-awareness.
Speaking on The Conrado Show on Truth TV, the leadership Coach reveals that from his over ten years experience in training and coaching leaders, “most leaders don’t know who they are, and they don’t know their people.” This, according to him, is the major challenge facing leadership across board.
He explained, the number one role of every leader is to lead people, and if they lack awareness of who they are and the people they lead, they would ignorantly assume the same leadership style on all their followers. In his opinion, people are different and forcing the same leadership style on them becomes inefficient and ultimately leads to frustration.
Mr Tay mentioned, without self-awareness and knowledge of who your subordinates are, you can have the best intentions, resources and talents but you cannot effectively influence and coordinate them to achieve your set goals.
“I will lead you from who I am and then, lead you from who you are. My knowledge of me and you will help us relate better and help me to lead you better,” he said. He further revealed, “Without knowing people, it becomes difficult to work with them and bring the best out of them.”
To become effective and influential leaders, he encourages leaders to invest enough time and resources into discovering themselves and knowing their people. Once they know the respective uniqueness of every follower, he suggested, they design distinct leadership styles that meet the uniqueness of every team member.
Lamenting on leadership in Africa, he bemoaned how Africa is “blessed with everything but good leaders.” He said leaders are elected or nominated from the people, and since the majority of the people lack self-awareness, they end up assuming leadership positions without knowing exactly why they go into leadership.
Leadership, in his opinion, has a purpose, which most African leaders are ignorant about or are unprepared for. Because they lack this awareness and preparation, even with the right intentions, the moment they assume power, their intentions gradually become blurred, forcing these leaders to get overwhelmed by the trivialities of power and pleasures of fame.
He said Africa needs leaders who have the passion and commitment to learn and do what leaders are supposed to do and not people who see leadership as a treasure trove.
The John Maxwell trained leadership coach believes, self-awareness and preparedness are the fabric and foundation of every great and successful leadership journey.