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| by myra | Friday, July 3rd Posted in: Tags: |  |
The Rules of the Game by Myra
It was once considered to be brutal and rugged game, the purpose of which was to develop character and team play in the young men of the privileged classes. However modern rugby has developed into a fast paced game of skill and determination, where mind and body are exerted to the maximum. Each side has 15 players and all have specific duties to perform. Team formations vary but are broken into two, sometimes three lines. The seven forwards or tight five (in three formations) make up the pack. Traditionally the second group is called the backs, and consists of the remaining 6 players. The loose forwards and Number 9, the scrum half, form the third group, but in the formation Number 9, alone separates the seven forwards and six backs. Invariably the side possessing superior skill, and who plays as a team, will prevail over a much fitter, but less experienced side.
In most football teams the quarterback is the team leader. Why is that? Is there something magic about the position? Does she automatically become the leader -- the person who makes the team go -- when she is named quarterback by the coach?
No, there's more to it than that. Usually she is named quarterback because she's already a leader. She's already the kind of person the other players like to follow. And if the coach is wrong about her, she probably won't stay quarterback very long. If she can't lead the team, she won't have much value even if she can hit a receiver the ball perfectly because every successful team must have a leader.
One of the agenda of scouting and girl-guide is to train the boys and girls on how to become better leaders. But it’s not as easy as it sounds and there are no 5-10 simple rules of becoming leaders, otherwise everyone would be a good leader. There are no rules for leadership. But there are certain skills that every good leader seems to have. Some urge that these skills, a leader may already have even without knowing it. So what really is leadership?
Leadership means different things to different people. Since the disputed presidential and general elections of 2007, many have blamed it on our ‘leaders’ for the lack of true leadership skills. As I feel my pulse, I embarked on a mission to find out what young women’s understanding of leadership is?
According to Ms. Saida Ali, the Executive Director at the Young Women’s Leadership Institute, leadership is being able to occupy space i.e. there is something or a need to be addressed in that space and thus you take up what needs to be done in that space while offering leadership. She further says that leadership involves taking risks and better stated in her words ‘taking a leadership step in addressing issues that others are not courageous enough to do so.’ This involves taking initiative i.e. taking a risk as nobody else is doing it. By taking the first step forward, your being a leader. She further states that being a young feminist woman, she offers leadership on daily basis. She continues to encourage young women to name themselves as feminists because in Kenya the feminist movement has been associated with a lot of negativity and some believe that the women’s movement is dead which is not the case. Saida believes that the personal is political and thus she engages in feminist leadership development through different work at the organizational and personal levels.
According to Bisi Adeleyi-Fayemi, one of the facilitators during the Eastern Africa Sub-regional African Women’s Leadership Institute - Uganda, she says leadership refers to the process of inspiring others towards the achievement of a shared vision. She further states that there is a difference between management and leadership. The former is about managing processes while the latter involves generating ideas, developing the individual, building and maintaining the group and achieving the task. “What defines a leader is his or her concern with the why nots and not the hows.” Bisi is not a young women but she has been very instrumental in forming and keeping the momentum within the African feminist movement and women’s movement.
Mildred Ngesa, the Executive Director of Kaloleni Life Trust – (KALI Trust) says that she is on a journey to rediscover what leadership really is. She has been doing a lot of reading about this and one quote that has touched her is that by John Qunicy Adams, “if your actions inspire others to dream more, to learn more, to do more and to become more, then you are a leader.” For Mildred who is working with young people who have no hope for the future, to her leadership is about inspiring others. Its about bring back the self esteem that the young women of this country once had. She is rediscovering her grounds by offering motivational talks to the young people and especially the young women. She feels that Kenya as a country needs motivation.
Leadership has always been there in our communities, weather elected or self appointed. Even when children are playing, there is always one child who seems to rise up and take a lead in a game. That is leadership in its simplest terms. In a conventional view, leadership has always been based on power, i.e. power of personality to dominate a group. Conventional theories paint a distorted picture of leadership by focusing narrowly on people in positions of power.
Leadership is a process of getting things done through people. If I take you back to the football game, the quarterback moves the team toward a touchdown. The head scout leads his team through the different challenges while camping. These leaders are getting things done by working through people. They have used the process of leadership to reach certain goals.
Leadership is not a science. So being a leader is an adventure because you can never be sure whether you will reach your goal at the stated time. Leadership means responsibility. It's adventure and often fun, but it always means responsibility. It means that the other Scouts expect you to take the responsibility of getting the job done. If you lead, they will do the job. If you don't, they may expect you to do the job all by yourself.
Some statements from different people for you to think about and decide for yourself whether you feel they are true or false. As you feel your pulse, am looking forward to receiving your statements on leadership
Leadership is a gift. If you are born with it, you can lead. If you are not, you can't.
Leaders are born and not nurtured and thus leadership is inherited.
Leaders and managers are one and the same think.
Feminist leadership is different from ordinary leadership.
Leaders are like bosses who should not get tired to complete a task.
You are not married if we elect you and you meet your man there, won’t you abandon us. You have never had a child, how will you be able to articulate women issue if you have never felt the pains of child birth?
Reference Materials
Feminist Leadership in Eastern Africa: Report of the Eastern Africa Sub-regional Africa Women’s Leadership Institute, 2003.
"Learning About Leadership" is adapted from Patrol and Troop Leadership, the handbook on leadership development written for Patrol Leaders and published by the Boy Scouts of America in 1972.
Great article. To me a leader
Great article. To me a leader is someone who inspires and motivates others to move to a certain destination.