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RISE ABOVE THE DANGERS OF LEADERSHIP | | | Author: | | Date: 2010-01-11 00:00:00 |
| RISE ABOVE THE DANGERS OF LEADERSHIP
-Address by Winston Dookeran
On the occasion of the NJAC Youth Arm’s “Top Twenty-Stars of Tomorrow” awards ceremony.
Thursday, January 07th, 2010- Eric Williams Auditorium, La Joya Complex
I have always felt that this organization, the NJAC, has demonstrated a certain type of leadership in this country, which is deserving of far more credit than it has so far received and is an example of what we must aspire to in this land of ours, as we build a foundation for our young people.
I have always been fascinated by mottos that are erected in schools because when I was a little boy I was inspired by a motto in my school saying: “good work or none”. And although I didn’t realize it, it has remained with me all my life. I find myself looking at mottos where ever I go.
When I visited Chief Servant Makandal Daaga’s office in POS recently, I saw a motto on a wall “man Know thy self”, and I reflected on the meaning of that motto and I believe it was an apt expression of what we must be able to do if we are to reach our real potential.
So to our young achievers, the twenty of which have excelled in their own field, not only do I say congratulations, but I also say, that you must be living the life of that motto; “man know thy self”.
For those who rise to the top must know themselves. That is the teaching of this organization and that is the teaching that our entire society must learn from.
I congratulate you all for knowing yourself and by so knowing yourselves and achieving success and you are now being acknowledged by your peers as people who are exemplary; the stars of tomorrow.
But as the stars of tomorrow, one will expect you to become the leaders of the next generation, in whatever area you find yourselves, in work or in play.
Therefore I want to speak to you for a few moments on the dangers of leadership.
The dangers of leadership led me to begin reading a book “Leadership on the Line” on what you can begin to expect in the journey ahead of you, as you begin to embark on your course of action, so you can begin to leave a legacy that is worthy of your abilities.
I looked a little deeper into the failures of leadership, not just political leadership but leadership in general. Whether it is in the community, the church, the corporate sector, or wherever it may express itself, we find leadership today is under major scrutiny.
To achieve leadership success, one thought at one time, required a certain amount of grit and hard work, and off course that is required. But in the new thinking about leadership, based on studies that have been done in many parts of the world and reflected in the new book that I was given about a week ago to read entitled “Moral Entangles”; is that leadership that succeeds is the leadership that remains committed to the moral compass in life.
So in the final analysis, many will strive to become leaders and many will be given the title of leader but those who are actual leaders will be those that strive to remain committed to the moral compass of life. And that is the real protection against the dangers of leadership.
What do we mean by the moral compass of life?
Essentially, it is to try to establish the principles that govern your thinking, the values that inform your decisions and the beliefs that inspire your action.
I have no doubt that our twenty leaders will wittingly or unwittingly, knowingly or unknowingly reinforce those principles, those values and those beliefs.
So to some extent we are celebrating the achievement of our young people who have reset their own moral compass.
And that is the surest way of the sustenance of leadership.
As you move on in your thirties and forties and beyond, you will be well advised to stick to that moral compass of which I am sure your parents and grandparents would have wanted you to do.
But that alone will not matter because you are required to have, what has been described as, the audacity to win.
We re-count recently the historic victory of the current president of the US, Barack Obama, who wrote the book, “The Audacity of Hope”.
His campaign manager in the last month released the book, “The Audacity to Win”. And the audacity to win is now the new thinking that will allow us to overcome the dangers of leadership.
The audacity to win will allow us to overcome the obstacles in our way. We must not see those as insurmountable but merely obstacles. There are so many examples in the world where people have achieved great heights because they have never seen the problems before them as problems they cannot resolve.
It also requires a sense of perseverance and that is why the NJAC must be saluted in all times as perhaps the only political organization in this country which persevered from the independence that came to us to the new independence.
So your tradition is already anchored in the removal of obstacles and in the persevering of your actions, in order to have the audacity to win.
The little message that I want to share with you today is that the dangers of leadership that you are going to be engaged in can easily be overcome and will be overcome, if you set your moral compass and if you have the audacity to win; not come second, not come third, not simply take part, but to win and I know that young people in our country and I know that Trinidad and Tobago can win if we decide that we want to win.
My friends, as I make these remarks to you, I cannot help but think about our national character and to the extent to which our national character supports that individual behavior of our young people. There is no doubt in my mind that we have come to this junction of a new synthesis that must emerge and there are two statements that have been made by our political leaders of the past that in my view set the wrong moral compass for this nation.
Although we respect the contribution of our leaders of the past, and indeed the first Prime Minister of this country, Dr Eric Williams, many of us remember how he set the moral compass of this nation by on one hand saying that the future of this nation is in our school bags but on the other hand saying that “Massa” day done.
I believe that that injected a psychological dependency on this nation that we are yet to overcome, and you new leaders will have to overcome that psychological dependence that has emerged out of that saying.
The other one that I feel has brought some obstacles in our psychological makeup is that statement made by another significant leader to our nation that is the current leader of the opposition when he said that politics has its own morality.
He was saying that anything goes in the world of politics. But if anything goes in politics then nothing will come of it that will be sustainable in the long run.
So we must guard ourselves against becoming psychologically dependent by the phrase “Massa days done” or by becoming politically impotent by the phrase that “politics has its own morality.”
And I see that in the context of where we must go in Trinidad and Tobago today because the leadership that you will have to face up to has come at a time when this nation is in need of a passion for a new promise and we must not let our country down.
The desire and the hunger to turn a new page are deep in our land. The passion for a new promise is very strong and I hope that in your own way that you will be able to ensure the passion for that new promise becomes part of the new national character.
So in effect know yourself as a person and know yourself as a people.
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