Factors that contribute to bad leadership in my society; what spiritual solutions can solve them?

Factors that contribute to bad leadership in my society; what spiritual solutions can solve them?

Introduction:

In my country Kenya there are a lot of things that influence bad leadership; but the question is how do we define what is bad leadership? The Urban Dictionary defines bad leadership as, “bad leadership could also be define as a state of ruling a given people without possessing the leadership qualities such as humility. Bad leader: A Bad Leader Is One Being A Ruler Of An Area Who Leads Or Rule People In A Wrong Manner, just Being Selfish.” Bad leadership in my opinion takes so many forms. Probably the foundation of bad leadership to me is being self-centered. Your leadership model is all about the imposition of your values or goals on others by whatever means necessary. To me leadership is really a 'gift' that others bestow on you by being willing to follow your leadership and share your goals and vision. Bad leadership is transactional; it uses power rather than trust and compliance rather than commitment. It focuses on 'me' rather than us and defines success as win- lob se rather than win-win, it excludes rather than includes. I differentiate 'bad' leadership from ineffective leadership. You can be well intentioned, but ineffective. Bad leaders are deliberate and exploitative by design.

For Kellerman, ‘bad’ means either ineffective, in the sense of ‘fails to produce the desired change’ (p33), or unethical, or both. She extends a broad definition of unethical to include violating 'common codes of decency and good conduct' (p34), emphasizing one of James MacGregor Burns’ principles (Burns, cited in Kellerman, 2004, p34), that 'Ethical leaders put their followers' needs before their own. Unethical leaders do not.'  This permitted range of meaning is more suggestive than Lubit's (2004, p67) dictionary definition of 'breaking rules', allowing Kellerman to address many all-too-recognizable leadership deficiencies, the more serious of which may be best explained in Transformational terms, as failures in inspiration; empowerment; trust-building; or seeking the ‘greater common good’ (Northouse, 2009, p186).
In all this definition the stand out factor is that the bad leaders fail to acknowledge the needs of others and therefore cannot lead them into prosperity; there is an element of selfishness in them. John Maxwell gives an example of whom a leader is, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” A leader is all about influence. I can therefore adopt this definition of a leader in identifying a bad leader in my paper.

This paper will look at the intrinsic details that entail bad leadership; having signified that the bad leader is key to bad leadership. It will also look at the spiritual solutions for the bad leadership.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO BAD LEADERSHIP IN KENYA

A leader is all about influence; that is if I can make you understand the values and the principles that I stand for and you follow me even if it’s one person then I am a leader.

Maxwell (1993) defines leadership as, “Leadership is influence. That’s it. Nothing more; nothing less.” This statement justifies the fact that a leader has to be someone of influence as one cannot lead the other if they cannot influence them in a way or the other.

Having defined bad leadership, I am going to look at the contributing factors to the leadership itself. There is a wide array of contributive factors to this bad leadership in this paper I am going to take the stand out factors. This are:

a)      Tribalism; which is a key factor especially when the elections approach.

b)      Corruption; sadly even in the parastatals you find this vice.

c)      The societal morals; with regard to morals Kenyans are questionable as they have turned the society into a man eat man society.

d)     The institutions of governance;

e)      Lack of proper role models to emulate; in any given society the true leader is often difficult to find.

We have to reevaluate our society and know what ails us with regards to leadership; we also have to incorporate the Spiritual values in our leadership systems since Kenya is mostly a secular state.

a)         Tribalism; which is a key factor especially when the elections approach.

Tribalism in Kenya is responsible for underdevelopment, corruption, the rigging of elections and violence. Tribalism in Kenya is not a historical inevitability.  It cannot be traced to ancient hatreds or warfare from cultures clashing over the ages. In fact, the major opposing groups, the westerners ( Luo, Luhya, Kalenjin, Kisii)  of western Kenya and the GEMA (Kikuyu, Embu and Meru people) from the Mount Kenya area, had little contact with one another before the coming of the colonialists. Accordingly, Kenya’s tribalism is a relatively new phenomenon. It is a product of modern times arising from colonialism, urbanization and the political culture that sprung up in independent Kenya. Before the coming of the colonialists Kenyan tribes lived in their own distinct areas with their own cultures, i.e. language, customs, myths of origin etc. The communities lived free from each other, save for some conflict over water and pasture for livestock.
When the British came, they brought with them the principle of divide and rule. They magnified differences amongst the various communities/ tribes, instigating clashes whereby each community distrusted and fought the other.   This served as the breeding ground for negative tribal stereotypes which then became embedded in popular belief. The Kikuyu for example were given the impression that the fish-eating Luo’s were lazy, ‘uncircumcised’ and unreliable while the Luhya’s were made to view the GEMA communities as schemers, liars, untrustworthy, arrogant and so forth. This only remains as their own hasty generalization of the involved communities. Thanks to tribalism, citizens are now questioning the call for Peace, Love and Unity. They ask for whom is this unity, peace for whom? For whose benefit?   Rival tribes?  Tribal clashes/ethic violence is a common occurrence in Kenya as in most African countries such as Rwanda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe etc.  There is animosity, distrust and hatred amongst various tribes so that even intermarriages among some tribes are strongly discouraged by the older conservative generation as well as the rural folk. This is a sad thing that has to be addressed and we be able to devise ways in which we will mitigate its effects as a country otherwise it will eat us. (Masakhalia, 2013)

The most spiritual thing to do is; there is no point in addressing the ills bedeviling Kenya while ignoring the actual causes, since the major cause of tribalism in Kenya (and in Africa as a whole) today is the competition and confrontation over power and resources. It is also necessary to enforce strict laws that regulate discriminatory practices in the provision of public service. Tolerance is obviously a major requirement if Kenyans are to be united in diversity, so that citizens learn to accept and accommodate customs and practices that are different from theirs. Love between each one of us is also a virtue that we have to spread as Kenyans without having to wait upon the leaders to do it. Tribalism has dealt us a huge blow and it is time we came to our senses as each one of us is made in the image of our Father in heaven. We have recently experienced disasters in our country that brought us together just like the recent Nairobi Westgate siege that brought Kenyans of all kinds together. This is a step in the right direction and should serve as the foundation healing the country of its tribalism wound. (Kennedy Kangethe, Overwhelming support for Westgate blood appeal. 2013) http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2013/09/overwhelming-support-westgate-blood-appeal/?wpmp_switcher=mobile

b)         Corruption;

You would think, and you would be wrong, that everyone who comes from poverty and comes into money would have empathy for those still trapped in the horrors of poverty—Not so. Once these key people get their BMW and 2 houses they are often the last people on Earth to care about the poverty they escaped. Combined with the vulgar wasting of money on everything materialistic they are more likely to kick the ladder down to make sure no one else can climb up. (Michela Wrong, 2009)

Bribery is so intertwined with the Kenyan culture; there is a code word for it. When someone offers a sly smile after a service and asks for "chai," Swahili for tea, that's a cue to slap a bill on his outstretched palm. (Michela Wrong, 2009)

It all comes from the grassroots level where during the election period the aspirants usually dish out handouts that act as incentives to manipulate voters to vote for them. The Kenyan people always seemingly gullible take the bait and vote in a corrupt official without the requisite leadership skills. A sad thing is that the cycle goes on later when by-elections are held or other elections.

George warner 2013 In Kenya, Corruption Is Widely Seen, Rarely Punished says that, “One out of three Africans paid a bribe in the past year to obtain a government document, get medical care, place kids in school or settle an issue with police, according to a Police consistently attracted the highest ratings of corruption, including those in Kenya.” Such are the extremes that Kenyans have been pushed into when getting services.

The book about John Githongo, It’s our turn to eat portrays a corruption whistleblower whom the government is not happy with and eventually leads him to exile. It is the tale of the tragic failure of a brave and honest man appointed to expose corruption by a new Kenyan president who came to power on a wave of high-minded enthusiasm in late 2002, claiming to be a clean-handed reformer. Within a few years the brave man, John Githongo, is betrayed by the president, Mwai Kibaki, and by most of the big man's closest colleagues, many of whom prove themselves to be patently corrupt. Mr Githongo is at first intensely loyal to Mr Kibaki, who gives him an office down the corridor in State House. But the whistleblower comes to realise that the president acquiesces in corruption of the grossest kind, and flees for his life into exile.

Such is the bravery we need to see for even in the spiritual realities the most successful leaders were brave and true to their masses. In fighting corruption one needs to first spiritually reevaluate himself. One should ask himself the question, is God happy when am corrupt? Certainly He is not happy as he is just and does not like to His children to be unjust to each other. Then we need to incorporate the spiritual lessons in our work places as well as our lives for indeed we need them.

c)         The societal morals; with regard to morals Kenyans are questionable as they have turned the society into a man eat man society.

Some 30 years ago, a politically sharp, observant and realistic Tanzanian described Kenya as a "man-eat-man society." He could not even tell what kind of political system Kenya was trying to follow. Tanzania was, at the time, building Ujamaa -- the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere-led African socialism. Kenya was at the height of land grabbing by big politicians and activists, senior civil servants and ordinary businessmen at the expense of "small people." (John Nyamu 2009.)

Some Kenyans at that time dismissed him as a ‘loud mouthed person’. Looking at our country now at I see that he was right Kenya is indeed a man- eats -man society. The Kenyan scenario is where the common man will grab any opportunity that comes his way even if it means that his neighbor suffers.

Barrack Muluka (2008) in an article says that, we Kenyans prayed for normalcy to return to Kenya after the 2007 post-election violence whereas that normalcy is the very cause of the violence. He further explains that we pray for restoration of a calm dishonest society, where the most pious bishop is a shameless liar. He prays for cash and stokes the fires of ethnicity, just like the village groundling. We ask God to restore us to a situation where the scholar is the chief apologist for a lethal tribal killer machine. It is the ‘normalcy’ of a society where the police describe murder as ‘normal crime’ and ministers make cruel jokes about rape and other public tragedy. Above all, it is a ‘normalcy’ of wastage of the youth and of an oligarchy of drowsy old men. In such ‘normalcy’ inequity in enjoyment of national resources is the norm. An ever widening gap between the rich and the poor is accepted. A selfish, frivolous and joy-loving mob of ‘legislators’ is all right. A Judiciary that nobody trusts, and an anti-corruption authority that cannot bark — let alone bite — is okay. A public service that is personal property of the head of state is quite in order. A general culture of impunity is quite fine. Five hundred super-rich fellows hold the whole country hostage. Citizens of goodwill should never accept this kind of ‘normalcy’. They cannot accept it. They must not accept.

We should redefine our societal morals as Kenyans so as to salvage ourselves from this man-eat-man society that we created. It must be engrained in that new born, in that old man, in that youth that the correct societal norm is to have respect and admiration for each other rather than stab one another at the back.  To do this, Kenyans must hold honest dialogue with their personal souls. Indeed, every Kenyan must seek honest counsel with himself. In the absence of this, we can continue to throw tantrums at God. We can call them prayers, if we want. They will yield nothing.

d)         The institutions of governance;

If there is one thing most associated with Kenyan, and generally African, politics, it is the overarching role of ethnicity in electoral politics. More precisely it is the prevalent phenomenon of co-ethnic voting in which people tend to vote for ‘one of their own.’ The analogy of the tyranny of numbers clearly depicts this as the major tribes holding the large populace of Kenya vote for ‘one of their own’. The average African voter, however less sensitized and ill-informed, in fact, tends to vote rationally and strategically by voting a co-ethnic. He/she rationally responds to the available regime of incentives and disincentives. In the absence of credible and reliable institutions that assure fair access to public goods, resources, and opportunities, the natural fallback is ethnicity – the safest and readily available bet. By contrast, in the presence of a set of institutions that impartially allocate resources, give rewards deservedly, and justly dispense punishment, there is little room left for reverting to ethnic considerations. If voters are assured of a robust, effective, meritocratic and non-discriminatory institutional framework for public goods provisioning, why care about the ethnicity of anyone aspiring for political office? Rather than construing ethnic voting as an irrational and retrogressive political behavior in otherwise modern politics, it should be seen as a consequence of the absence, or failure, of credible political institutions for interest aggregation, fair resource allocation, and nonselective sanctioning of wrongdoing.(http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24168:kenya-ethnic-voting-shows-failure-of-institutional-governance)

e)         Lack of proper role models to emulate; in any given society the true leader is often difficult to find.

Before anyone takes on a leadership role, they should ask themselves, "Why do I want to lead?" and "What's the purpose of my leadership?" These questions are simple to ask, but finding the real answers may take decades. This is because if a leader cannot inspire a person to want to lead like him he is not a leader. If the honest answers are power, prestige, and money, leaders are at risk of relying on external gratification for fulfillment. There is nothing wrong with desiring these outward symbols as long as they are combined with a deeper desire to serve something greater than oneself. Leaders whose goal is the quest for power over others, unlimited wealth, or the fame that comes with success tend to look to others to gain satisfaction, and often appear self-centered and egotistical. They start to believe their own press. As leaders of institutions, they eventually believe the institution cannot succeed without them. Indeed they become the shame of a society.  (http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6741.html)

In Kenya’s man eat man society the true leader is hard to find and when you find him he is afraid of thrusting himself into the limelight. However the few that have managed to break out of their cocoons and managed to succeed should be emulated. An example of such is one Peter Kenneth who has done considerably great things in his community and constituency as well. Peter Kenneth has introduced projects and seen them come to light. His principles of leadership are well informed and the man can be regarded as a true leader. On a personal note he is my role model and its people like him we hope that they get the opportunity to lead the nation.

Then, the most influential leader to us is God and His teachings we must follow them to the letter and let them form the basis of our leadership principles. Most of all the leader that inspires you is yourself, you are your own leader.

SOLUTIONS TO LEADERSHIP

What can to be done? There is no denying the problem of leadership as one of the top problems in Africa, if not in the entire world. We have the capacity to end poverty, what really then is lacking is the will to do so. And that will is largely locked in the hands of those who call themselves leaders; business or political. And there is only one path--organize-- use people numbers to create civil societies that hold leadership accountable. Have clear policy pushed into government. Peer review your peers and peer review your leaders. Make is so that any leader that has a hint of corruption, tribalism, nepotism, cronyism, Western choir boy-ism, non-Pan-African, or anti-Africanism on their breath-- no hope of getting into office, or CEO of anything powerful. In all systems may they be sharia, democracy, or a socialist economy, people have the power to put pressure on leadership and shape the leaders that best represent their interest. The solution must come from the people.

SPIRITUAL SOLUTIONS TO LEADERSHIP

Humility and Right Action are core practices that help leaders create sustainable organizations responsive to change.

According to Inc.com the Buddhist perspective is about gratitude at the core: “It’s no secret running a business is hard. It’s easy for a small business owner or entrepreneur to worry about what could go wrong and prepare for the worst. But, instead, the Dalai Lama encourages a more optimistic approach to business. “Appreciate how rare and full of potential your situation is in this world, then take joy in it, and use it to your best advantage,” he tweeted last month. Every problem has a solution, and having the right attitude from the beginning may help you find it.

Spirituality is a human resource that fuels personal and professional success. Whatever a leader’s faith, spiritual practices offer a foundation for authenticity, inspiration and transformation. Leadership from a spiritual base, whatever the faith, establishes a foundation of consistency and integrity rooted in the values of a particular worldview. It’s a kind of authenticity that inspires best when faith is about doing, not simply being religious. It’s not about praying publicly, talking about faith or even creating a business plan based on core principles. It’s about living the truth of our deepest beliefs. (Carolburbank, 2013 pg 1)

REFERENCES:

    Carolburbank. 2013. Spiritual Leadership: the Dalai Lama on Being a Good Leader

       Gill, R. (2006) Theory and Practice of Leadership, London: SAGE Publications.
Kellerman, B. (2004) Bad Leadership: What it is, How it happens, Why it matters, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
      Lipman-Blumen, J. (2005) The Allure of Toxic Leaders: why we follow destructive bosses and corrupt politicians – and how we can survive them, New York: Oxford University Press.
      Lubit, R.H. (2004) Coping with Toxic Managers, Subordinates...and other difficult people, Upper Saddle River: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

     Northouse, P.G. (2009) Leadership: Theory and practice, 5th ed., Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

George warner 2013 In Kenya, Corruption Is Widely Seen, Rarely Punished

     Michela Wrong, 2009. It’s our turn to eat; the story of a Kenyan whistle blower. Harpercollins Publishers. Newyork.

John Nyamu 2009. Kenya: The Country's Slide From Rich State to Man-Eat-Nothing Society.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Laurens Van Den Muyzenberg
London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2008.202 pp; AUD 32.95.

(http://www.opendemocracy.net/alan-e-masakhalia/focus-on-tribalism-in-kenya)

http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2013/09/overwhelming-support-westgate-blood-appeal/?wpmp_switcher=mobile

http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24168:kenya-ethnic-voting-shows-failure-of-institutional-governance)

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6741.html

inc.com