Leadership

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Legacy

At one time or the other some of us have been privileged to become a leader of one group, association, club etc. And we can all agree that leadership is no “bread and butter affair. Neither is it a bed of roses where the leader gets to sleep all day long and let his subordinates do all the dirty work. In fact leadership is one of the most demanding occupations any man can ever have. Just like the lives of passengers are in the hands of the driver, so are the lives of the members of a group or club in the hands of its leader(s). A leader can be compared to a shepherd, a good leader, to a good shepherd. A worthy shepherd not only leads the flock towards the best pastures and the freshest coolest waters, he protects them from predators, bad weather elements ………..he also keeps them away from tricky terrain and leads them all back home at sunset.
Isaiah 40:11 the Bible says: - he shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with the young.

Personally, I have had two chances to display my leadership abilities in the past and all I can say frankly and shamefully, I failed on both occasions
I was once a Boy Scouts leader way back in primary school, which is nothing near extraordinary, unless you knew me from then and you still know me today. I was among the shortest, thinnest, frailest (but thank God, also brightest) kids in upper primary. You should have seen me in my religious white, woolen cap! I must have looked like a walking ghost. Perhaps that is why the rest of the crew seemed to be in awe of my presence.

My regiment I am honored to say was the first organized group of its kind in the school, which was only a few years old anyway. Having very little knowledge on scouting to start with, I persuaded a friend of mine to teach me the basics which I in turn, handed down to the rest of the group and so little by little, the group became more organized and effective.
At first, the club did a lot of voluntary work around the school premises, collecting and disposing of garbage, planting and watering trees and various other chores.


Everybody in the school knew me from my escapades at the morning assembly. The teachers respected and admired my leadership and the pupils held me in awe. Even the parents had a feel of my abilities as I entertained them during the School Closing Day with my guard of honour.

But as time went by, the vision and ambition that I had were gradually overtaken by pride and prejudice. I had unwritten and exclusive veto over the selection of new recruits but instead of using it to pick the very best, now that I didn’t have to worry about being handed a dumb and prejudiced kid who might just happen to be the class mistress’s son, I unwisely used it to hire and fire at my own whims, dragging personal grudges into the club and making life miserable for any errant. I must have felt like America today.

In no time at all, I managed to turn the club into a police unit. - which now consisted of close friends and home neighbors who managed to talk their way as we walked to the river after school- We took up all the duties of school prefects and monitors and stopped, rather suddenly, too, our environmental conservation projects. While the rest of the school was asked to bring slashers and hoes for clearing the compound, I excused my regiment feigning an important meeting or a new move we had to learn before Friday’s Assembly.

I could walk into a class and slap someone. Just like that! And he could do nothing about it. If he threatened to tell the teacher I would short-cut to the office and report that so-and –so was looking down at my authority so that by the time he came to report of the incident, the teacher would be waiting for him with a cane!

And so the club sunk from glory grass.

During my last year in school, in a sudden urge to leave a legacy behind, I managed to convince the Scouts Mistress that there was a very large tortoise living in the bushes a short distance from the school. Since a lot of the kids and I was sure, some of the teachers, too had never seen a tortoise in their lives, either dead or alive,
“Could I organize my regiment for a short trip in search of the tortoise?

“Sure, why not?”

To cut fancy talk out of it, I found nothing but a few scattered and discolored shells where a predator had probably made a meal out my dream prize. The thought of finding that tortoise was actually a subconscious one (as I came to realize later) as I thought it would cover the sins I had committed against my fellow schoolmates. Everybody would have looked at it and said ‘Wow! Now that’s something! And thus my name would have been handed down to the later generations long after I’d left there. But that was not to be. I had spoilt the only chance I had of leaving a respectable legacy.

When my final exams neared, I gave up my position and retired from the Club so that I could concentrate on my studies. To say the obvious, the Club came tumbling down and lay there in a very sorry mess. Not because there were no able leaders but because I had failed to instill discipline and sense of purpose in the Club. I did not teach them to respect and care for one another. Or even to respect themselves. I guess they did not even respect me but rather were afraid of me. A leader, just like a teacher, influences eternity.
As I left school, although the Headmaster was kind enough to note down in my School Leaving Certificate that I was a Scouts Leader, I looked back and all I could see of my leadership were those broken and colorless fragments of the once giant tortoise.


Widemanliterature2007
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