Africa-Press – Malawi. One of the promises Reverend Lazarus Chakwera made to Malawians was servant leadership. This article looks at the President and servant leadership today, three years after winning fresh presidential election which took place in. 2020. Failing To Deliver Own Promises
Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy built on the belief that the most effective leaders strive to serve others, rather than accrue power or take control. The aforementioned others can include citizens and the nation at large.
The most prominent servant leadership characteristics are: Valuing People Servant leaders value people for who they are, not just for what they give to the nation Valuing people means recognizing their capabilities, developing their skills and enriching their professional and human qualities.
It is especially important to put in the extra effort to value those who challenge you the most. When you can shift your mindset towards valuing people, you will see the results: increased productivity, positive morale boosts and better teamwork, just to mention a few.
The President does not value the people of this country any more. There are so many examples that can be given. Cabinet appointments, procurement procedures being broken by government, implementation of AIP , to mention but just a few.
Humility Humility simply is the freedom from pride or arrogance : the quality or state of being humble Humility is an attitude of spiritual modesty that comes from understanding our place in the larger order of things. It entails not taking our desires, successes, or failings too seriously.
To try to cultivate humility, you may want to try one or more of these activities:
• Spending time listening to others.
• Practicing mindfulness, and focus on the present.
• Being grateful for what you have.
• Asking for help when you need it.
• Seeking feedback from others on a regular basis.
• Reviewing your actions against the language of pride.
Our President doesn’t practice any of the above activities. All he does is kneeling down and praying. No action on the ground then how are Malawians going to reach Canaan? They will just perish in the desert where nothing grows.
Servant leaders do not promote themselves; they put other people first.
A servant leader may aim to share power with others and encourage the development and growth of others. This trait can extend to listening to followers carefully to better understand their needs, but it also involves leaders holding themselves and others accountable for their words and actions.
While traditional leadership is focused on helping an organization thrive, servant leaders put the needs of their people first. They focus on developing individuals who perform their best. Examples of servant leaders are Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Theresa.
We cannot put Chakwera among servant leaders. He puts the needs of his people last. False leaders think that people need to be controlled; that you need to force them to do something.
Leadership is the art of getting someone to do something you want done because he wants to do it. False leaders destroy people by attempting to control them.
A true leader is always willing to have open and honest conversations with their people. Being honest establishes a sense of trust with the people, which promotes respect and a willingness to follow your lead. Citizens feel valued when they know that you take the time to communicate with them and tell them the truth.
The President is not pen. He is dishonest in many of his speeches. What he says today will be done in the opposite way by himself so to speak. A list of examples is long. One of them is when the President fired Sam Kandodo, he went round to the sane fired minister and apologized that it wasn’t his decision but he was misled by people.
The second example is when he announced that he had stopped delegating his Vice because of corruption allegations. Just two days later or so he started delegating the Vice President until now.
Listening There are some key techniques you can use to develop your active listening skills: Pay attention. Show that you’re listening. Provide feedback. Defer judgment. Respond appropriately.
Unfortunately, our President doesn’t have listening skills either. He does not provide feedback on many occasions when people expect him to do so. Hence, on many occasions Malawians are kept in suspense and they speculate their views without his feedback. Trust Trust is the assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.
To trust means to rely on another person because you feel safe with them and have confidence that they will not hurt or violate you. Trust is the foundation of relationships because it allows you to be vulnerable and open up to the person without having to defensively protect yourself.
Malawians trusted and relied on Chakwera because they felt safe with with his team and ideologies and had confidence that Tonse Alliance not hurt or violate them. That trust is the foundation from which Malawians have found themselves swimming in a sewage of economic challenges because they allowed themselves to be vulnerable and victims of an incompetent government without having to defend or develop themselves. Everyone is drowning into a hot boiling pot of hardships.
Malawians trusted and relied on Chakwera than anyone else to do the right thing. They believed in the President’s integrity and eloquence in public speaking against the previous regime, to the extent that the people put themselves on the line, at some risk to themselves. Trust is essential to an effective government, because it provides a sense of safety.
We trust people, the findings hinted, because it rewards one of the brain’s pleasure-seeking centers, making us predisposed to this phenomenon. “… it’s in our genes and our childhood learning — and by and large it’s a survival mechanism that has served our species well. It’s unfortunate Malawians are blaming themselves today for trusting this leadership which they spoke about so highly that they were angels.
Malawians have struggled with fertilizer corruption whose transaction was done with a butchery who doesn’t even have chicken offals for sale in the UK, 14 truckloads of maize being stolen and sold to Tanzania in broad daylight, lack of foreign exchange in the country which has affected all businesses, extravagant government spending, continued electricity outages even as you read this story, the never ending fuel shortages in our filling stations countrywide, the never ending travels of our President in the middle of his own austerity measures which the one who made them keeps breaking them. This leadership is a complete failure and disappointment.
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