GONGO LA MBOTO VS GOOD LEADERSHIP;

WHO IS A GOOD LEADER?

As we stand together in mourning the death of approximately 20 people killed on Wednesday night following explosions at a munitions dump in Dar es Salaam – Gongo la Mboto military barracks; and the loss of property, it is a good time to examine the role of good leadership in our country.

                               

Here is a question that we ask ourselves nowadays most of the times. What is a good leader like? How can you tell someone is a good leader? To understand this we must first understand the meaning of a good leader. Who is a good leader? A good leader is the person with the qualifications and who knows what he is doing, not only for one’s benefit but for many. Here are some qualifications of a good leader.

                                  A good leader is a person who keeps promises and honors commitments. A person who knows how to keep his word. A person who means what he says and who honors whatever he has to accomplish. Most of the leaders we choose nowadays might not have that qualification. They lie to us most of the time saying they will do this and that, but sometimes they never accomplish that. When we elect people, we sometimes do not think of the possibilities of what the person is saying to be a lie. A good leader holds this qualification.

                                   A good leader shares positive and negative information freely. A good leader does not lie about anything if the times are tough because no one is perfect in this world. Nobody can live his or her life without mistakes. A good leader shares things freely to people even if they are not good because we are not perfect. A good leader is always ready to get it out there whether it’s positive (good) or it does not please the people or himself.

                                   A good leader should be sincerely interested in others personal and professional life. He should be interested in his people in order to know what they really need. Being a president doesn’t mean taking care of yourself only but taking care of the nation too. It’s your first priority to provide for your nation. As a good leader, you have to get out of your office and go face the people in order to get the inside of them. To get to know what they really need and not just hear it from other people. As a leader you should be able to meet people’s need and wait for the needs to come to you because who knows they may not be what you think they are.  And you might not work on them as good as you could have if you could have approached them yourself.

                                   A good leader motivates others greatness. He or she must be a motivation to other people encouraging them to good things. Some people need a little bit of pushing in order for them to know how great a thing is to be, and as a leader you ought to lead people to the right directions and this is one of the things that you have to have qualification of being able to motivate people to great things or to actually do great things.

                                   A good leader should be a role model to people. As a leader, people must be inspired by you. You should apply as a good role model to the people. From the things you do to how you handle things. You should be a person that people can look up to, and follow your lead. A kind of person who knows what the term leading means and a person who cares about people enough to take the lead or the position as their role model.

                                     A good leader should be the one who accepts both criticisms and pride during work. As I said before, we all are not perfect which mean we do make mistakes sometimes. As a leader not everyone will accept or appreciate what you do. Not everybody will like what you do, which means you will have both good people and bad people after you and both good times and bad times.  But that is up to you to change or try to change the people around you by being a good role model to them and by trying to show them what is good or at least acceptable.

                                      I guess what I am trying to say is that we all have different views on the leaders we want to choose, but we should ask ourselves before doing this, is this the leader that should  lead me? Can this person be my role model? And for those who want to take the position of leaders, do you have the qualities of being one? Can you make promises and fulfill them? Will you be able to take all the criticism and the negative things from people? Well if you think you can, then don’t hesitate and if you think you can’t, then don’t go up there and hurt innocent people in the end. And for the rest of you choose the person that can really lead, and not someone who doesn’t qualify at all, without wise leadership, a nation falls; with many counselors, there is safety. Therefore we also wish all citizens who were injured and or maimed during the unfortunate blasts a speedy recovery. 

By ROSE TURUKA                      KCHS 2011