Leaders Digest Vol 2 No 3

Professor Eric Aseka
International Leadership University
Nairobi, Kenya
I
rose to the position of full professor and became dean of social
sciences at a prestigious national
university in Kenya. Currently, I
serve as the Deputy Vice Chancellor of
Academic Affairs at the International
Leadership University (ILU) in Kenya.
I teach courses in the Master of Governance and Organizational Leadership
programs at the Bright Leadership
Centre. Apart from being an administrator, I am actually doing what I am
passionate about—teaching courses in
governance and leadership.
As a young person, I grew up in a Christian family, but did not make a commitment to serve as a Christian simply
because I was following the religion of
my parents. I was versatile in the public
domain as an academic and activist in
the political arena and also consulted
by the government. In 1994, I made a
personal confession to follow Christ
and accepted Him as my personal Savior. I began rethinking my life. Am I just
here to teach in a beautiful way, wake
up, take children to school, go to work,
and come home? I thought there had to
be something more significant in my
life, something that had eternal value.
I wanted to make my life meaningful in
terms of the purposes of God for my life.
I emphasize teaching
people the importance
of the Word for
transformation
which is bound to
impact them...
As a political historian, I had written biographies on the fathers of the independent Kenyan State and began to view
their lives as bare discussions without
having meaningful impact. They made
contributions but I thought there must
be something more significant in terms
of the values and principles that can
impact people. On this basis I began to
look at what leadership should be driven by and developed an interest in carrying out research on transformational leadership. The Ford Foundation gave
funding for me to do field research on six
communities in each country of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Through these
studies, I began to see what those societies thought about leadership. They had
ideas of what leadership looked like and
certain aspirations of what they wanted their leaders to do for them. I identified their values and the kind of behavior
they wanted to see in their leaders in the
communities. Enriched about leadership
from an ethnographic perspective, I listened to their voices and compared what
they said with the paradigms of leadership. I began to reconstruct a triad theory of consciousness informed by my biblical readings on leadership involving the
spirit, soul and body. I came to understand that leadership is a matter of competencies: spiritual, intellectual, and
physical, which require development.
I am involved in many activities at the
personal, institutional and community
levels. Teaching is not just a duty, but it
is an opportunity to develop an interactive relationship with people whom
you should positively impact. In my
classes I teach with a passion seeking
to guide and impact students. I view
it as a God-given opportunity to mentor and encourage them to rise to high
levels of leadership. I like to inspire
Leaders’ Digest
Encouragement and inspiration for leaders
Welcome to Leaders’ Digest, Volume 2, Issue 3.
and empathize with them. I emphasize teaching people the importance of
the Word for transformation, which is bound to impact them at two levels:
the spiritual level (where people change and realign their ways of thinking
and producing spiritual capital) and at the level of reason, (whereby God
wants us to have the ability to think and solve problems). He uses us to open
their eyes to see and their ears to hear; therefore, our intelligence is important. I want my students to increase their intellectual capital so they can be
smart as followers. It is good to be a leader who is smart.
I have seen students who have risen to very high levels of leadership in various capacities. I talked with some of them and impacted them during student leadership training seminars. I persuaded several from going on the
path of destructiveness to becoming responsible and exercising restraint.
It is my belief that a leader who does not produce other leaders is a failure. I do not want to produce people who do not rise to anything. I want to
produce leaders who will excel beyond what I have been able to do. I still
have the conviction that my relationships with people and impact on them
should make them greater.
©2012
In the last issue, our focus was on the anatomy of a transformed
leader from the head. We discussed Head Knowledge, Reflective
Thinking, and Journaling.
Now, we will move from Head Knowledge to Heart Knowledge.
This focus on the anatomy of a transformed leader from the
heart (Figure 1) entails character building, double-loop learning,
mentoring, and encouraging the hearts of others.
Mike Wicker, PhD
Editor
photo: mads abildgaard-istockphoto.com
photo courtesy: prof. eric aseka
Life
Story
volume 2, issue 3
International Leadership Foundation
29 Ambassadorial Enclave, East Legon, Accra, Ghana
website
www.transformingleadership.com
figure 1: the anatomy of a transformed leader: heart
editor-in-chief
Dela Adadevoh, PhD
editor
Mike Wicker, PhD
design + illustration
J. B. Dasalla
bleed line
International Leadership Foundation
Building Leaders of Integrity to Transform Africa and Beyond
volume 2, issue 3
Learning to Lead:
With Heart from the Inside Out
D
id you know that the heart is the hardest working organ in our entire body? The
heart is responsible for pumping blood throughout the body by repeated, rhythmic
contractions. The average human heart is beating 72 beats per minute and will beat
approximately 2.5 billion times during an average 66 year lifespan. The human heart1 has
an estimated mass of 300 grams and is only about the size of a closed fist. Much of our
well-being in life as in proper diet, exercise, and stress-free lifestyle relates to the care
of the heart. If we have a strong heart, we will have a long and full life. Just as a strong
heart is vital to the human body, a transformed heart is critical to exemplary leadership.
walls down.” In order to avoid having a hard heart, we should ask forgiveness from
God and then be reconciled to others. True forgiveness, as former Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Desmond Tutu describes, is the grace by which you enable the other person to
get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew. In the act of forgiveness we are declaring
our faith in the future of a relationship and in the capacity of the wrongdoer to change.4
Hence, our journey is to travel from a self-serving heart to a heart for serving others.
In our leadership, we need to serve others with wholehearted integrity, based on
sound moral character.
Heart Knowledge
Learning to Lead: Getting to the Heart of the Matter
How do we measure one’s heart? In the last issue, we discussed measuring head knowledge by the intelligence or I.Q. test. Groundbreaking research from Harvard University
on effective leaders revealed the importance of emotional intelligence (E.Q.).2 The measurement of E.Q. is divided into the following categories: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
Can we learn to lead by the heart? In order to get to the heart, we can learn to be
transformative leaders through double-loop learning. Most learning is cyclical in
nature and occurs in a feed-back and feed-forward loop system. Once around is called
single-loop learning where twice around refers to double-loop learning (Figure 3).
The heart of leadership is the heart of the leader. Transformational leaders envision and
spearhead holistic transformation by inspiring the hearts of people. To model this kind of
change, leaders must have strong moral values and character. The only way to change society is to change the hearts of people. Transformational leadership is concerned with the
emotions, values, ethics, and long-term goals of individuals and communities. Passionate
leaders assess peoples’ motives, satisfy their needs, and treat others as dignified human
beings. Such leaders penetrate the heart and influence others to do more than what is
expected. They build character by raising the level of morality of those around them.
A Heart of Character
A leader who leads wholeheartedly is one who has character. The word, character in
Greek refers to an engraving instrument. The picture is of an artisan who uses a sharp
tool and makes a groove on a metal plate by etching repeatedly over the same place.3 An
image begins to form and take shape. In the same way, the formation of our character is
forged as one of many distinctive marks that design a portrait of who we are (Figure 2).
photo: joefotois-istockphoto.com
figure 2: character engraving
Every time you make a decision, you make an impression. Every time you respond to a need or defensively react in a crisis, you cut a groove. Every time you
positively influence or manipulate others, you mold a
shape. Every time you show gratitude or bribe people,
you form an image. Every time you speak truth or
deceive others, you are cutting the pattern of your
character. Every time you stand up to peer pressure or
give in to temptation, you are carving your character.
These images from our hearts make the deepest images–whether for the welfare or demise of others.
As with character, even the best artist has an errant stroke. We need to monitor our
behavior. For some, private or relational habits will need to be examined while for
others, it might be tempting to compromise convictions in the workplace. If we slip,
we should apologize and seek forgiveness. Some East Africans refer to this as “roof off-
Single-loop
Double-loop
Behavior
Core Values & Attitudes
Change
figure 3: single & double-loop learning
Single-loop learning looks at solving problems and answering the what question. What
is wrong with my behavior? Single-loop learning is similar to head knowledge. On the
other hand, double-loop learning answers the why question. Why am I behaving the
way I am? Double-loop learning looks inward, into our heart knowledge.5 First time
around the loop often involves a change in outward behavior. However, the second
time around the loop penetrates deeply and involves changing our core values and
attitudes, the very thing driving our outer behavior.
recognized that his son needed to be coached on how to be the next king. A trusted friend
named Mentor was hired to be Telemachus’ tutor. Mentor was said to be wise and sensitive, two important ingredients of successful mentoring.
Likewise, to be a mentor you need to be wise and sensitive. A mentor should speak
truth into one’s life and reach down to the heart and soul and help develop one’s character. It takes trust—trust for a protégée and trust for a mentor. In building trust, words
and behavior come from a heart of character. It is character and not merely what we
say or do that builds trust. Our focus should be on words, behavior and attitudes that
spring from a sincere heart and strong character.
Encouraging the Heart
Another way to instill change is to encourage the hearts of others. What do we mean
by encouraging the heart? The word encouragement has its root in the Latin word cor,
which literally means heart. Courage means to have heart. To encourage others is
to give them courage and heart. As mentors we are called to be an encouragement;
to help, counsel, comfort and guide others. We need to help others be wholehearted.
Often, encouragement is given to those who have lost heart. Several passages in the
Holy Scriptures link the word encourage with heart: encourage the faint-hearted;6 do not
lose heart 7 and God heals the broken hearted.8
People get discouraged and lose heart due to increased conflict at home and in the
work place. Eternal factors outside of our control such as famine, earthquakes, tsunamis, health and economic problems can be quite discouraging. This results in loss
of strength, loss of vision, loss of security and loss of hope. Encouragement can lift
despair and motivate the hearts of people. The world needs an army of encouragers
and mentors. We need to come alongside and inspire courage so that others can get up
and march forward in life.
Application
What are the principles to help you shift from Head Knowledge to Heart Knowledge? Do
you know someone in your community who excels in mentoring and encouraging others?
Interview them and learn how you can develop a heart for mentoring and encouragement.
According to the anatomy of a leader, the distance from the head and heart is only 18
inches. However, the greatest distance for measuring real life change is from the head
to the heart—from head knowledge to heart knowledge. Taking what we know and
turning it into actions that elicit changes in hearts around us is true transformation.
The heart is the key to unlock real change in our lives.
Notes:
1 MacDonald, Matthew (2009). Your Body: The Missing Manual. Sebastopol, CA: Pogue Press.
Transforming Hearts by Mentoring
2 Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than I.Q.
New York, NY: Bantam Dell.
One way to encourage a heart-felt change is to learn from more experienced and wiser
people who have journeyed farther along the road of life. We learn from good role
models. Character counts in the professional world. Corporate coaches help keep leaders accountable to their growth and development and ultimately in their roles at the
workplace. We need to be mentored and to mentor others.
3 Garves, S. (2006). Your Character Speaks Volumes from Deep Within. Life@Work Groupzine, Volume 2:
The Essentials. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
4 Tutu, Desmond (1999). No Future without Forgiveness. New York, NY: Doubleday.
The word mentor comes from Greek mythology. As King Odysseus was preparing to fight
the Trojan War, he realized he was leaving behind his only son Telemachus. Odysseus
7 2 Corinthians 4:1, 16
5 Argyris, C. (1991). Teaching Smart People How to Learn. Harvard Business Review (May-June 1991).
6 1 Thessalonians 5:14
8 Psalm 147:3