My 2 Laws of Leadership

During my BSc studies, I was appointed to lead an embattled music group. Weeks after taking up the position, the group couldn’t function. We were just about 3 people left in the group. I play the keyboard, and I could give the drum sounds from the keyboard. I could sing too, hence in a little while, we began to perform again. As a result, I came up with my first law of leadership:

No one in the group shall be indispensable!

We ran well without permitting anyone to hold us to ransom. In no time, more people joined us. Even busy people observed that our rehearsals were time efficient and they could easily fit them into their tight schedules. We learnt and performed many songs. We empowered new singers. And the list of songs we had learnt but not performed began to grow. Other instrumentalists joined us. We had drummers and a bassist.

After some months, it suddenly dawned on me that I couldn’t travel home at will. I had to plan my trips around the activities of the music group as I was the only keyboardist. There were others who could direct the group, but for the genre of music, the keyboard was critical. 🤔 It felt like my one law of leadership had failed! But then, it didn’t; it worked, and the group was growing. It became obvious I needed another law of leadership, and I came up with it:

The leader shall not be indispensable!

I began to hunt for keyboardists. The group grew, and I handed over a larger and more efficient group than I inherited. But I was still the only keyboardist. 😥By some providence, after handing over the leadership, I found a keyboardist! I embraced him, and I continued to play alongside him so he won’t be stressed like I obviously was. I remained in the school for about year after he came in.

In the big world, I see the same situation. I see organisations that are led in such a way that if one person resigns, the group would stop performing for a while. I wonder how a leader could sit at peace atop such. We know organisations which shutdown once the big man is indisposed. We can eliminate key man dependency risk with my two laws of leadership.

Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay