Transformational Leadership and Followership

27 NEPAD Secretariat: “The AU/NEPAD Capacity Development Strategic Framework (CDSF)”.

2009. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/11/43508787.pdf

28 Compiled from the website of Business Partners for Development Natural resources Cluster http://

www.bpd-naturalresources.org.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means. (Albert Einstein)

The goal of transformational leadership is to “transform” people and organizations in a literal sense – to change them in mind and heart; enlarge vision, insight, and understanding; clarify purposes; make behavior congruent with beliefs, principles, or values; and bring about changes that are permanent, self-perpetuating, and momentum building.- Steven Covey, Author of 7 Habits of Highly Successful People

Promoting sustainable development in the mineral sector is a huge challenge. Policy mak-ers and other stakeholdmak-ers have to be confronted with a combination of issues ranging from the irreversibility of mineral resources given their non-renewable nature; the legacy challenge since mining is dominated by outsiders; the distribution challenge to ensure a fair and equitable sharing of mining benefits; the investment challenge to transform min-eral wealth into permanent wealth; and the macroeconomic and governance challenge in managing revenue from the mineral sector and in addressing externalities, among others.

In the case of Africa, ensuring better linkages between the mineral sector and other sectors of the local economy is of paramount importance. Increased local processing and value addition are equally a priority. Similarly, diversifying the economy with the objective of reducing dependency on natural resources is critical. The realization of these goals, as reflected in the Africa Mining Vision, requires a new type of leadership, i.e. transforma-tional leadership. A transformatransforma-tional leader garners the support of multiple stakeholders to implement an inspirational goal.

The key requirements for a successful leader are: the ability to take decisions; integrity;

enthusiasm; imagination; willingness to work hard; analytical ability; understanding of others; ability to spot opportunities; ability to meet unpleasant situations; ability to adapt quickly to change and willingness to take risks, among others.²⁹

A transformational leader is ambitious and has inspirational goals that can motivate peo-ple across sectors to accept these challenges. Being a transformational leader also means identifying the strategic options that are available, building partnerships to implement them and motivating others to stay the course.

The AU/NEPAD Capacity Development Strategic Framework, which was conceived with a view to guiding capacity development in Africa, identifies ‘leadership transformation’ as one of six cornerstones that are deemed the most critical success factors for capacity build-ing in Africa by the NEPAD consultation process (See Box 3 Below)³⁰

29 John Adair: Effective Leadership: How to be a Successful Leader, 2009.

30 NEPAD Secretariat: “The AU/NEPAD Capacity Development Strategic Framework (CDSF)”.

2009. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/11/43508787.pdf.

Box 3: Leadership Transformation

Leaders and managers at all levels (junior to senior, local to national), who are committed to collec-tive transformation and to performance while fostering growth and development of African human potentials.

Key components are:

1. An enhanced commitment and accountability of African leadership to results.

2. Inclusive and consultative leadership which seeks for solutions from within, rather than relying on external resources.

3. Leadership that recognizes people as a resource and which provides and fosters ‘space’ for African citizens, staff and institutions at all levels to grow.

4. Leadership which is dynamic and strategic and fosters the capacity to strategize and organize for achieving results.

5. Leadership which is entrepreneurial and encourages entrepreneurial behavior in all spheres of so-ciety.

6. A feedback culture and continuous improvement processes as integral parts of leadership and management.

Attention should also be paid to followers as leaders do not operate in a vacuum. The fol-lowers have to be motivated in moving forward towards the intended goal. The leader has to be able to influence and motivate followers that are resistant to change to become part of the shared vision. This is particularly true for the mining sector as the leaders depends on empowered and enlightened followers to accomplish his goal (See Box 4).

Box 4: Assumptions about Followers:

• Followers constitute a group that, although amorphous, nevertheless has members with interests in common.

• While followers, by definition, lack authority, at least in relation to their superiors, they do not by definition lack power and influence.

• Followers can be agents of change.

• Followers ought to support good leadership and thwart bad leadership.

• Followers who do something are nearly always preferred to followers who do nothing.

• Followers can create change by circumventing their leaders and joining with other followers instead.

Compiled from Barbara Kellerman, Followership: How Followers Are Creating Change and Chang-ing Leaders^a

a. Barbara Kellerman: ‘Followership: How Followers are Creating Change and Changing Leaders’. Harvard Business Press, 2008. p.241.

The pursuit of a well governed mineral sector is a public good³¹ for which both leaders and followers should be committed and accountable to. This should be filled in a social

31 A Public Good is a product that one individual can consume without reducing its availability to another individual and from which no one is excluded. Economists refer to public goods as

“non-compact with clear definition of roles and responsibilities of each party and as a scorecard to measure progress.