Leadership responsibilities

As people grow older we hear the words more often: “It was easier when my mother looked after me.” Life seems easier when someone else looks after you; when someone else has the responsibility to care for you. For some of us it becomes a reality earlier than for others but the truth is that it’s inevitable; we all have to take responsibility for ourselves at some point. For all of us between the ages of 16 and 24 this is a very relevant subject… the change-over from rights to responsibility. Often people will attach the term “maturity” to those who have successfully made the transition. The dictionary describes maturity as “the quality or state to being fully developed” or “the termination of the period that an obligation has to run”. Responsibility on the other hand can be defined as “something you should do (duty or task) because it is morally right, legally required or expected to do”. The words reliability and trustworthiness are therefore closely linked to responsibility in dictionaries. Sometimes I wonder if the maturity of a nation is not directly measured by her ability to take responsibility and accept ownership of a situation without shifting blame at all. If I read the speeches made by our President, His Excellency Dr Hage Geingob over the last few months, I notice how he himself takes responsibility, and how he takes his ministers and permanent secretaries with him on this journey and now they all had to sign performance agreements. Where should we start, if we want to get into our president’s slipstream? With ourselves. To accept responsibility for our own successful family relationships; to accept responsibility to do our jobs with excellence; to pass each and every exam with dignity or at least with the peace that I have done my best. Maturity, reliability and trustworthiness remain something beautiful. They seem to come attached to being responsible or to fulfill responsibilities. Namibia as a nation is surely been seen by the world as beautifully maturing. How are we doing on this as individuals? “If you hang out with chickens, you're going to cluck and if you hang out with eagles, you're going to fly.” ? Steve Maraboli DAWIE FOURIE Founder: African Leadership Institute [email protected] www.thenamibiandream.info/leadership