Alumni Leadership and University Excellence in Africa

The Case of Lagos Business School

Henry O. Onukwuba

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9783319782881
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319782898
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Strategy
• Index: Business

Focusing on Lagos Business School (LBS) in Nigeria, this book explores the impact of strong alumni leadership on university excellence in Africa. Strong leadership is crucial to the success of educational institutions and great importance is placed on their effective governance and management. However, many institutions fail to realise the positive impact that a strong alumni body can have on university excellence. Drawing on definitions and theories of leadership, the author seeks to establish the significance of alumni in enhancing a university's growth and development. Providing comprehensive analysis of LBS, this book is a unique resource for leaders of educational institutions, as well as those studying and teaching in African business schools.

© The Author(s) 2018

Henry O. OnukwubaAlumni Leadership and University Excellence in AfricaPalgrave Studies in African Leadershiphttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78289-8_1

Begin Abstract

1. Leadership

Henry O. Onukwuba¹

(1)

Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Onukwuba defines leadership as the ability to influence others to follow a particular course of action. The more that part of action is outside what the follower would have normally taken, the more the impact of leadership. The chapter draws from the author’s personal experiences and perspectives of seven top Nigerian leaders to list some of the characteristics of a good leader. A leader must SPARKLE—must be sincere, principled, accomplished, reasonably guided, knowledgeable and exemplary, and must exhibit the principle of “laddership” in his role as a leader. The leader must be other-centred, rather than self-centred. Onukwuba concludes by listing seven core characteristics of “Honourable Leadership,” and the essence of attaining level 5 leadership.

Keywords

LeadershipSPARKLELeadership perspectivesHonourable leadershipLevel 5 leadership

End Abstract

1.1 Introduction: What Is Leadership?

Leadership is basically the ability to influence others to do what you wish them to do. Chester Bernard defines leadership as “the ability of a superior to influence the behavior of a subordinate or group and persuade them to follow a particular course of action.” Harry Truman, 33rd president of the United States, once defined a leader as “the man who has the ability to get others to do what they don’t want to do, and like it.” The more what you wish people to do is far from what they ordinarily would have wished to do, the greater the task of leadership.

“Leadership involves a type of responsibility aimed at achieving particular ends by applying the available resources (human and material) and ensuring a cohesive and coherent organisation in the process” (Ololube 2013). Many people believe leaders are not born but made (Amanchukwu et al. 2015). However, good leadership requires the skill to negotiate and work with others to achieve goals. Good leadership is developed through a never-ending process of self-study, education, training and the accumulation of relevant experience (Bass and Bass 2008). The task of leadership throughout the ages has been that of enablers of development or progress in society, communities and organisations . Therefore, the ultimate task of leadership in any given society is that of transformation. Effective leadership should not only transform societies and institutions, but must also have the capacity to transform individuals by providing role models for these individuals (Mbigi and Maree 1995).

In an alumni session given at Lagos Business School (LBS) in 2013, Rtd Gen Martin Luther Agwai, formerly Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, and who, as commander of the combined United Nations–African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, once led one of the biggest peacekeeping operations in the world with approximately 20,000 troops and 6000 police under his command, listed the prerequisites for a good leader as “courage, knowledge , good planning skills, patience, ability to communicate effectively, a sense of service and credibility.” He picks credibility as the most important of the virtues. Credibility, he says, engenders the followers’ confidence in the leader, enabling the leader to win the hearts and minds of the people he is working with. He also picks out courage as one of the defining characteristics of a good leader, perhaps speaking from his military background. For him, for a leader to be credible, he must not show fear or despondence in times of challenges or danger. A leader, he also says, must be able to cultivate friendship and build relationships with his people; he must give his people the space to develop and expand their thoughts, if not, they will be like, as he put it, “a six-inch mature shark that has grown up in a one-foot aquarium.”

1.2 Personal Experience

Leadership to me is about service and self-giving. I have had my own little experience with leadership, and I currently teach leadership to participants at the Owner Manager Programme (OMP) and Senior Management Programme (SMP) at LBS . I grew up knowing that leadership does not necessarily reside with the person with the formal authority. Leadership is not about titles, although titles sometimes confer the access to leadership. Leadership is not synonymous with headship, be it a household, community, corporate entity or public establishment . When a leadership gap exists and the titleholder is not filling this gap, the natural leader emerges, title or no title. My mother was easily the leader of our household and my father confessed he was happier as a supporter. All pretences to leadership which my father may have held ceased with the outbreak of the Nigerian civil war. My mother simply took control of the situation and led the family out of danger and possible death on multiple occasions.

By May 1966, there was a lot of political tension in the country; there were rumours of war, and tension could be felt in the air. There were reported killings of Igbos residing in Northern Nigeria and retaliatory killings of the Hausas and Fulanis in the Eastern Region of Nigeria. Igbos were no longer safe, not even in Lagos, the nation’s capital, and were leaving the city in droves. So, the next day after my parents had brought me to church as a newborn for thanksgiving, my family undertook the flight to safety from Lagos to Enugu, the then capital city of East Central State of Nigeria. The journey to Enugu by road was long and tortuous, and we had to travel light, as there was little space for luggage and household property . Essentially, we had to leave our possessions behind as we escaped to Enugu. At least we were safe in Enugu, we thought. We settled in New Haven, Enugu, and started rebuilding our family life from where we left it in Lagos. It meant new household items, new schools, new clothes … and a new life. We were a family of eight—my parents, my five siblings (aged between 10 years and two years) and me (less than a month old!). The following year, the civil war was declared. The Biafran Army fought bravely, but was soon losing ground to the Nigerian troops. There were rumours that the Nigerian Army had entered Enugu. My mother sensed danger and pleaded with my father that we should run. Despite her trying hard, my dad was obdurate : “Enugu cannot fall, it is the stronghold of (Odumegwu) Ojukwu¹; the Biafrans will crush the Nigerians,” he argued. It was a bi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Leadership
• 2. Models of Alumni Leadership
• 3. Lagos Business School
• 4. Lagos Business School Alumni Association
• 5. The LBSAA Leadership Model
• 6. The Impact of the LBS Alumni on the School and Society
• 7. On the Pedestal
• 8. Effective Alumni Leadership and University Excellence
• Back Matter