Many years ago, I interviewed Chief Olusegun Osunkeye, the legendary captain of industry of Nestle fame. After the interview, he gave me a copy of a magazine titled ‘DiscoveryMan Digest’ which has Chief Osunkeye on the cover, reading: ‘Life should be Evolution not Revolution—Chief Olusegun Osunkeye, OFR, Chairman, Nestle Nigeria Plc, Lafarge Nigeria and GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Nigeria Plc.’ I found the cover story so educative, so inspiring and so informative. Today, I bring you Osunkeye’s thoughts on leadership:
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There are many definitions of leadership but there is a central thread. To be a leader means that you must superintend people, to start with.
“The essence of leadership,” says Dwight Eisenhower, a former American President “is to get others to do something because they think you want it done and because they know it is worth while doing.”
Leadership means people and this is often the difference between leadership and management. In leadership, you must have somebody leading and people as subordinates. As a manager, you can be good in managing resources, not necessarily people. To be a good leader, you must know your stuff as well as your organization. You must be seen to be committed, purposeful and have the ability to inspire people enough that they will work—harmoniously, willingly and without coercion. This then speaks to the style of leadership: authoritarian or participatory? At the end of the day, it has to be a team forged together. It has to be a team with a leader. This is what I was taught in Nestle—a team with a leader, not a team as the leader. When you have a team as the leader, it means that you don’t take decisions, what you have is a committee taking decisions. A team should be knitted together and working harmoniously for the same purpose, but there is somebody who is the leader. A leader who knows his stuff will be respected and he should inspire and motivate his people. According to Eisenhower, a leader gets people to do the work that needs to be done because they want to do it.
A leader should also have a “toolkit” and know which tool to use for different situations. He should know when to be authoritarian, consultative or participatory. Know that as a leader, you have your responsibilities. Sometimes it can be lonely at the top but you must know your job. You must try to walk the talk. When I was MD of Nestle, we resumed at 7:30am; but I got to the office at 7:20am. Our cut-off time for being late, after people complained of poor traffic, was 7:45am, allowing 15 minutes of grace. But I would be there at 7:20am. The idea was to set an example that even I, the MD, am not exempted. When everybody sees that punctuality starts from the top, it cascades down. It sinks in that lateness is not tolerated in this place. If you are late three times in a month, you get a warning. If you get three warnings, you leave the company.
Leadership by example is walking the talk. If hard work is one of your rules, do it and let people see that you are working hard. It is the reserve function of the leader to weld all members of the team together even if they come from different backgrounds and disciplines.
Using football for analogy, all the eleven players may each be stars individually but if you don’t knit them into a team, they won’t score any goal. Each star will get the ball and display his skills to the admiration of fans, but at the end of the day, they won’t score. It is the role of the leader to weld them into a harmonious whole to face the objective and do well. These are the qualities that a leader must have. You must walk the talk, lead by example, be committed because people are watching you and will do exactly what you do. Don’t start going off to go and play games at 3 o’clock when your closing time is 4:30pm. Leadership is a privilege to perform and to lead people. Do it in such a way that they want to work and do the work willingly. Then you will get the best.
Leadership is not a picnic. I tell people that when I discipline, it is because as a leader, I am the chief steward of the organization within these premises. If we get out, if you like don’t greet me, we are equals outside. But here, I mean at Nestle, the owners put me here as the chief steward to look after the resources of men, money, materials, machines, methods and so on. So if I discipline someone and he doesn’t greet me outside, I don’t take it against the person. But whilst I am inside Nestle premises, I have a duty to perform as a leader. It is my job as the leader to ensure people perform and conform. A leader should be a servant leader and a steward—a person to whom resources are committed for the master’s benefit. In corporate setting, the shareholders and other stakeholders (e.g. customers) are the masters. You are the steward but they call you leader, and it is a privilege to be the leader. But people see leadership as the time to act like the boss.
Leadership can be a lonely job. As the CEO, you cannot consult within the company. My confidants were not the staff in the company. For example, if someone was promoted from a group of colleagues, you are the one to write the appraisal of the rest. If one of those immediate lieutenants misbehaves, because he thinks you are colleagues and he decides not to respect your authority, to whom can you unburden your problems to get advice? It is not in the company. You need to have somebody who can be a sounding board. This is why I talk of mentoring. You need somebody who is in that similar position or has passed through that position. They would be dispassionate and can at least give you one or more opinions which you can consider. So it is sometimes a lonely job when you are a leader. Some former colleagues may not even accept the fact that you deserve due respect by virtue of the elevation. All they can remember is how you were equals and used to visit the same joints before. But those who respect authority and people under authority themselves, will know that times have changed and they should give due respect to the new leader. If anything at all, the loyalty must be more. But people are people and you won’t get it all over. It is a new ball game now; things you used to confide in each other cannot continue anymore. You are going to write appraisals at the end of the year and after that, salary increase. Appraisals are open in most companies so that they will know what you write about them—positive or negative. How the other person responds to his appraisal ratings can determine if there will be friction or collaboration in the relationship. How do you solve it? The person you consult is outside because the person you may want to consult inside is being appraised. The person you consult has to be independent, knowledgeable outsider who can give you fresh insights.
Leadership is a lonely position and the buck stops with the leader; whether departmental, divisional or company level, the leader is responsible for the people under him. If a departmental leader wants to discipline within his department, he won’t consult within his department. He will most likely go to someone on his level in another department. But as you go higher and get to the top, who can you consult with? It has to be a sounding board outside.