At the inaugural Guest Speaker Forum, on February 23, Dr. Christopher Kolade provided valuable leadership lessons and insights into leadership decision-making. Dr. Kolade was recently appointed as the Chairman of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P). During his remarks, Dr. Kolade disclosed that his acceptance of the national assignment was premised on national interest and that the SURE-P Board would serve with probity, accountability, and transparency.
During his presentation and subsequent dialogue session, Dr. Kolade highlighted several valuable leadership qualities:
1. Honour and integrity
Using the Nigeria’s national pledge as an example, Dr.Kolade urged the attendees to keep faith with the words in the national pledge by upholding honour and integrity. Furthermore, while stating that he never needed to “think too hard when deciding to volunteer for service,” he reminded the audience that a threat to the well-being of collective interest invariably creates threat to individual survival.
2. Taking action
He emphasized the imperatives of “doing something” about situations that wereunsatisfactory or require improvements. While stressing that “Nigeria [was] ill”, Dr.Kolade affirmed the necessity for all Nigerians to be engaged in curing the malady. Using comparative allusions, he pointed out that it was easy to comment on situations “from a sideline” but leadership is “get[ting] in the pitch” and situations are not as they seemed from the sideline.
3. Anticipating challenges
Dr.Kolade stated that a leader must recognize that challenges are inevitable and, therefore, it is the responsibility of a good leader to anticipate and/or understand potential challenges. He noted that the problem of corruption as a constant which should be anticipated but also one that transparency and probity can reduce its inimical effect.
4. Values for action
Making reference to his acceptance speech, upon the inauguration of the SURE-P Board, Dr.Kolade underscored that a vital hallmark of leadership action is values. As the Chairman of the Board of SURE-P, for example, he stated that he would be guided by: probity; transparency; and accountability.
5. Responsibility and sacrifice
In his final remarks, Dr. Kolade buttressed the need for taking responsibility for ‘project Nigeria’ so that some of the critical problems could be solved. To this end, he reiterated the leaders must combine intelligence withpotential and capacity for taking responsibility.
With sponsorship from First Bank of Nigeria, Plc., under the Future Leaders Program, the Guest Speaker Forum series are aimed at providing experiential learning for and deepening the leadership knowledge of NLI Associates.
