Elvis C. Umez

Getting good leaders through an election selection protocol is almost not possible for establishing good leadeeship unless the system is designed in such a way that makes it impossible for its proponents to cheat and win the votes. The truth is: good leaders rarely win through the election selection protocol because real leaders are always and almost never liked by the masses, except in few cases. This explains why it looks as if good leaders have to persevere, play to the gallery or make alignments with others for their antecedents to be known. Popularity wins election. The more popular you are, the more likely that the selection process will choose you whether you are the leader or not. Nations and organisations who desire to be powerful must never use the election selection protocol for choosing their leaders, unless there is a preselection protocol that allows only leaders into the game. Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant School of Leadership Development (SOLD) IDB Consult

The system of selection for those who are leaders and/or capable of playing leadership roles in any organization is paramount. When the system is skewed, the leadership will also be skewed. It is like frying a bad egg and hoping to get a good omelette out of it. Bad egg will produce bad omelette. When we get the system of selection right, we will no longer be worried about leadership performance because only those who are capable will be given responsibilities and the output will be profound. What system of selection does your organisation use in the appointment or election of leaders? Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant School of Leadership Development (SOLD) IDB Consult

The value of education in leadership is to the degree that the pioneer leader succeeds at causing awareness and elightenment that bring about transformations in the lives of the players. For transformation to occur, awareness and enlightenment must not be mutually exclusive. Awareness is coming to terms with who and what you are, which can seen as the totality of your design while enlightenment is coming to terms with why you are who and what you are, which is the totality of your life's purpose. For any leadership to transit from point A to B, its players must be educated in order to be transformed into their ideal selves. Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant School of Leadership Development (SOLD) IDB Consult

Every leadership emanates from the templates built by the preexisting leadership. And for the success of the past to be sustained and maintained, the present must build upon the template from the previous, through which a new sail can be set. This template is the consolidated successes attained within time and space by the previous leadership. Setting a new sail requires innovative mindset bent on creativity, which leads into crossing the "T's" and dotting the "I's" that were missed by the previous leadership. This is not by any means copy and paste, but a deliberate effort to improve upon what is left behind. What's your leadership template? Are you setting your own sail, or are you copying someone else's? Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant School of Leadership Development (SOLD) IDB Consult

The essence of leadership is continuity such that the poineer leader endeavours to raise people to continue from where he or she stops thereby forming an endless ripple effect from one generation to another. Hence, the relevance of any leadership is to the degree that it is able to outlive itself after having transformed the players into their ideal selves. After the leadership success is achieved, it automatically becomes a template for the followers to build upon. What this means is that when success is attained, it almost becomes obsolete for the next generation, which will require innovation and tweaking if contuinity is intended within their spheres of abilities. Are your intentions in leadership geared towards continuity? Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant School of Leadership Development (SOLD) IDB Consult

Cheating in leadership is possible. When you read leadership materials and decide to copy every methods and manners of approach in solving your leadership challenges, you just ended up cheating. It is more like a student copying answers from another student's paper in the examination of life and leadership with the hope of excelling. What you read in books are more like examples of what you will eventually encounter real-time. But you need to understand that your leadership challenges are tests to check whether you understand the concept as seen in those methods and manners of approach. Just like in every mathematical concept, which comes with examples, there are always exercises or problems to be solved. Don't cheat! Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant School Leadership Development (SOLD) IDB Consult

I often hear many motivational speakers say that "readers are leaders," which to me are words of rhetorics who have resorted to making good use of rhymes. If I bother to ask, are they wiser than Solomon that says that "...regarding anything beyond this, dear friend, go easy. There’s no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you’re no good for anything else." While I beg to differ, I need to point out that most of what we find in books as only experiences unique to the individuals who wrote them. Leadership challenges are unique to each individual according their design and purpose, which when put in proper perspective can be surmounted without even having to read a single book on leadership. Read books because you want to discover principles, never learning methods and manners of approach. Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant School of Leadership Development (SOLD) IDB Consult

Leadership is not for children just like marriage is not for boys and girls. Children in the sense that they lack the capacity to discern between what is good and evil, which can be explained by their lack of experiential knowledge. Beyond that, they need to attain maturity at their intellectual, physical and spiritual awareness to the reality of things. Those who fail in leadership have one thing in common. They are found wanting in their intellectual or physical or spiritual maturity associated with their leadership purpose in leading themselves and others in moving from point A to B towards actualising the intended results. While you continue to encounter challenges in leadership, be sure to check your maturity quotient at those three levels. Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant School of Leadership Development (SOLD) IDB Consult

I often hear people say that they have to read a lot of leadership materials in order to become leaders, and I wonder how that is possible. It's like saying that you have to read a lot of books on how to become a man or an adult in order to become a man or an adult. If you have to read books to become a leader, and now that you have become  one, why are still reading leadership materials? Leaders write books explaining the principles they used to get off their difficulties, which are meant for the Followers, Disciples, and Collaborators in the Leadership Cycle. Now that you are a leader, how have you translated your life's experiences into lessons to help others? It's time to start writing your book! Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant School of Leadership Development (SOLD) IDB Consult

Playing the role of a leader and being the leader are two different things. It could be likened to a child behaving like or playing the role of an adult, which does not make him one. The challenge of leadership, as I have observed, is alluding that people who play leadership roles can be called leaders, which in principle, they are not. Anybody can play the role of the leader without being the leader. The leader is one who knows what to do, when he has to do it, why he has to do it, and how he has to do it in moving himself and others from point A to B in the record time according to the leadership purpose. One cannot be said to be a leader if he or she does not know "what, when, why and how." It is just as simple as that. Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant School of Leadership Development (SOLD) IDB Consult

No one training, book, summit, workshop, seminar, etc will afford all the results you are seeking for in order to deal with your leadership challenges. It is like thinking that a single meal will afford you all the needed growth and development for a growing child. Growth and development is product of successive meals within a period of time and space. If you desire growth and development in your leadership, then continuous trainings, reading of books, workshops, etc over a period of time will make that happen if your goal is to produce a long term result. Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant SOLD

Reading leadership materials will not help you be a good leader if you're not The leader. It's like a child reading books on how to be an adult, which is the major cause of most of the incessant challenges faced in leadership. Reading leadership materials is rather a palliative measure for short term results. If you desire long term and lasting results, then allow yourself to grow and develop into The Leader, which is a function of time. Elvis C. Umez Leadership Consultant SOLD

UNDERSTANDING PURPOSE | THE HACKER In the previous essay, I made a parallel of man and a computer, and established the many things they share in common, which are mainly designer, operating system (OS), purpose, etc. I further explain that the OS of man is Life, which was hacked and certain malwares introduced that have left him stuck in himself. The hacker introduced a malware into the operating system of man called SELF, which when installed and ran leads to every form of selfish acts as can be observed in our world today. The impact of this malware is such that it forces man to measure the outcomes of his actions on the plane of good and evil. So individuals who have been hacked could be categorized into being extremely good, extremely evil, and just there in middle, which is where many fall into. When your life has been hacked, being good (molarity) is just the same as being evil (immorality) because all your actions emanate from the same source – the hacker. The hacker, in...

UNDERSTANDING PURPOSE Without purpose nothing will exist. Many of us believe that life has a purpose, and of course it is true. Contrariwise, some have argued that there is no such thing, which is also understandable. I believe that my life is fundamentally given to address two things, purpose and leadership. And each of these two things cannot do without the other because for every leadership, there is a purpose; and for every purpose, leadership. So, in this essay and the subsequent ones, I will endeavor to seek to use acceptable words to help you understand purpose, how and why it cannot be divorced from leadership. We cannot talk about purpose without first of speaking about design, and we cannot speak about design without making reference to a designer. Sequel to that, here are a few questions that I need you to answer: Do you think that your life has a purpose? Do you believe that that purpose is according to your design? Do you also believe that someone designed you just the ...