Leadership is all about service

BEING a national leader appears to be the most prestigious and powerful place to be but yet in reality it is supposed to be the most inhospitable and lowest places to be because the only time a leader is above his people is when he is serving them.

That Is the hallmark of servant-hood leadership.

As Zimbabwe is grappling with the most difficult challenges so far, it is imperative for the Politicians to look at the bigger picture and redefine their approach to politics as an opportunity to serve rather than a chance for glory. If they take the chance to be in government as an opportunity to serve one’s nation, I am sure they will submit their personal ambitions for the larger common good and work as a team. In leadership, as the challenge escalates, the need for team work elevates!

During the on-going negotiations, Politicians must remember the monumental consequences of their failure to make compromises to play together as a team. Everyday families are burying their dead in Zimbabwe due to avoidable causes, many children are missing school, women are dying in labour due to poor nutrition, families are falling apart due to emigration, our country is being robbed of the most productive labour force and our country will never be the same again. If they put these raw facts into perspective, they will realise that more is stake than meets the eye; therefore national interests must take precedence over myopic personal interests.

I am aware that some Politicians are not willing to compromise until they get the top offices yet the same politicians who say so purport to have people’s interests at heart. These two assertions are mutually exclusive. If one has people’s best interests at heart, they would be prepared to play whatever role they can get because the goal is more important than the role. More often than not, such people’s egos are greater than their ability; they want the ball when they shouldn’t be given the ball in the first place and must be grateful that at least they are in the team.

We are only a stroke of a pen away from resolving our political crisis but yet some are saying that they would like to be on top. Can we afford such selfish people to be on top in the first place? Such people must take a leaf from the story of Tenzing Norgay, the first man to climb Mount Everest.

Norgay had this to say in retrospect, “You do not climb a mountain like Everest by trying to race ahead on your own, or by competing with your comrades. You do it slowly and carefully, by unselfish teamwork. Certainly I wanted to reach the top myself; it was the thing I had dreamed of all my life. But if the lot fell to someone else I would take it like a man, and not a cry-baby. That is the mountain way.”

The solution is nearer than we ever thought. It will only take a slight but yet dramatic paradigm shift once the politicians realise that leadership is all about service and not prestige because the only place a leader is above his people is when he is serving them.

Arthur Gwagwa

London