Leadership-key to high impact teams, Omowunmi Wale-Okusi, Q F Associates, pp. 142, 2023
By Damiete Braide
The addition of Omowunmi Wale-Okusi’s Leadership-key to High Impact Teams to the volume of materials on leadership, couldn’t have come at a better time than now when most countries in the continent are facing leadership crisis. The publication is not only timely and important, but it is also enriching. As at the last count, no fewer than six countries (Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Sudan) in Africa are under military rule, which is not unconnected to leadership challenges.
“Leadership may be described as exercising influence over people, but we should emulate the shepherds who lead their sheep from behind. The shepherd recognizes that the sheep could trample upon them if they lead from the front. The book encourages readers to begin by obeying God’s call to leadership- just as He called Prophet Samuel.” This excerpt from the Foreword by Prof Oluwatoyin Ashiru put the thrust of the book in proper context.
The 12-chapter book published by Q F Associates is a leadership manifesto of a sort that highlights those critical elements like leadership truths, principles and examples drawn from the Holy Bible backed by case studies and lessons for the readers.
Drawing her examples and eternal lessons from the Scripture, the author explains who is a leader and what leadership entails, while admonishing readers of the book to cultivate the habit of practicing transformational leadership that changes people’s lives from inside out.
The early chapters (one to four) dwell on the need for leadership skills, types of leadership, meaning and qualities of leadership, and causes and consequences of leadership failure.
She describes leadership as the ability of an individual or group of individuals to guide or influence or persuade other individuals, groups, teams, or entire organisations towards some specific goals. “The crux of every leadership lies in a person’s capacity to obtain the commitment of the people they are leading to the objectives of the place, organisation or group, which is another way of saying exercise leadership,” she adds.
Picking reference from the Holy Bible on the need for leadership skills, the author cites the leadership role Joseph played during the birth of Jesus Christ in Matthew 2: 13 and 22. She says ‘if Joseph had refused to play the leadership role in ensuring that the child Jesus was not killed by the jealous intrigues of destiny destroyers, which of course was motivated by Satan, perhaps the redemption plan of God for mankind could have been foiled.’
According to her, major types of leadership exhibited by known leaders include charismatic leadership, traditional leadership, situational leadership, appointed leadership, functional leadership and political leadership. She identifies factors responsible for leadership effectiveness as trait, styles and contingency theories, which are laced with Biblical references.
In chapters 7, 8 and 9, the author discusses seven styles of leadership, their characteristics, uses, traits, goals, as well as success factors of each. For effective leadership, she identifies capacity for self-management, strong inner achievement drive, high sense of responsibility, ability for team or group work, personal charm, motivation, emotional intelligence, judicious use of power among others as key factors.
The life and call of selected Bible leaders, such as Joshua, Deborah and Gideon, are the focus of chapter 10. Quoting copiously from the Holy Bible, the author provides detail examples of how the trio was called to serve faithfully.
Deborah, the only female among them and first female judge in Israel, was prophetess and one of the sixteen judges in Israel. “She was industrious, sagacious and of great usefulness to the public during her time. She was also very sweet to her friends and sharp with her enemies. After the battle that Deborah so courageously helped Israel to win, peace reigned for over 40 years in the land.”
The book is written in simple, easy-to-read and free flowing prose that gives the reader a snapshot into the essence of leadership. The layout design, spacing in particular, and point size of the fonts are friendly to the eyes, thus making the reading of the book comfortable for readers. Importantly, it is a rich material many scholars and managers of human resources will find very useful.
However, there are few typos, which are avoidable if editing was done thoroughly. For instance, in chapter 6’s title, effectiveness was spelt ‘ffectiveness’ while world-renowned was spelt ‘world-renown’ in the second paragraph and last sentence on page 4.