|
Views vary on what is important in leaders. According to researchers it's the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable contributions to the success of a society. But non-experts rate honesty, forward-thinking, competency and inspiration as the four most important qualities in leaders, according to a survey by J M Kouzes & B Z Posner of 75,000 people on six continents over the 15 years from 1987 to 2002. Being mature, loyal, self-controlled and independent were rated as the least important aspects of good leadership. This popular pallette ties in with the characteristics of leaders who have made the greatest impacts on their societies. Pope John II, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mrs. Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, for instance, all changed the world by inspiring their societies with a different view of the future, as did Nelson Mandela. For, according to Rev. Fr Matthew Hassan Kukah, a researcher of Leadership Nigeria, the world will remember Mandela not as a great president who provided South Africans with shelter, food, increased urbanization and eradicated poverty, but as the symbolic expression of moral authority and conscience in conflicts around the world, top among them apartheid. In this, Mandela represented profound lessons in forgiveness and reconciliation. However, there have also been leaders who saw a future that was later condemned, such as Adolf Hitler, remembered for promoting anti-Semitism and driving the Holocaust that murdered over 6 million Jews. Indeed, personal legacies may be far from the most important result of good leadership. Effective leaders help countries or organizations through times of peril, and in successfully fulfilling their mission, says Leadership, How to Lead, How to Live author, D Quinn Mills. Without good leadership, societies tend to stagnate and lose direction, says Mills. |
Kenya is a society of the young. The median age in Kenya is 18.7 years, meaning half of all Kenyans are younger than that. The US, which nowadays has a median age of around 40 - projected to be 42 by 2030 – was as young as Kenya some 200 years ago, back in 1820. However, as countries have developed, women have had fewer children, and improved healthcare has seen the population live longer, making for societies with a greater proportion of older people. This is beginning to happen in Kenya too. In the 1960s and 1970s, Kenyan women had an average of more than eight children each. This average is now 4.5 births per woman. Life expectancy has also risen sharply, from 45 a decade ago, to an estimated 58-years-old by 2010. This has seen the proportion of the population in Kenya over-65 rise by 0.3 per cent in the last three years, and the proportion under-14 fall by 0.3 per cent. However, the change still leaves the country facing a huge challenge in developing such a young population. Kenyan youth are the best-educated in Africa, according to measures of literacy and years of education. The government has also created a Youth Development Fund, offering start-up business assistance for young people. But only a tiny proportion of Kenya's young have yet been helped by this assistance. It is currently estimated that youth unemployment is running at some 60 per cent. Graduates, of which Kenya has up to 50,000 a year, are also leaving university to long-term unemployment. In the right circumstances, a young population can be a huge asset in economic take-off, as in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, where a young society moved from high unemployment into strong growth, based on inwards investment and local business take-off, with its young workforce proving its greatest asset. However, where youth cannot work, they can become a destabilising force in society, leading sometimes to civil war and almost always to pervasive social erosion and crime. Kenya has yet to show whether its educated youth will be its undoing, or its greatest asset.
|
|
|
Trust is key to the success of any society. At a personal level, high trust has been found to improve energy, passion, creativity, and joy in relationships with family, friends, and community. When people trust others, they have confidence in the integrity and abilities of those around them. But when there is distrust, there is suspicion. Within companies, high trust has been shown to improve communication, collaboration, execution, innovation, strategy, engagement, partnering, and relationships with all stakeholders. When employees don’t trust others, especially the leadership, productivity and moral is affected, researchers say. In a report by the Institute of Corporate Productivity, employees in 40 per cent of low performing organisations felt their organisations did not nurture trust. But successful organizations were found to report a high level of trust. In the study, trust was shown to come from courage and the ability to constructively confront reality, which led to high performance and the creation of more trust. However, entire continents have been shown to have issues with trust. In one global survey, developed countries, with their track record of growth and greater wealth, were found to have more trust than developing nations. British sociologist David Halpern’s survey revealed that in Latin America only 23 per cent of people trusted those around them, and in Africa, just 18 per cent. Halpern's research also showed that four decades ago in Great Britain, 60 per cent of the population believed other people could be trusted. However, today that trust rate is down to 29 per cent. This may be a factor of migration and mobility. In a five year study by Harvard Political Scientist, Robert Putnam, culturally diverse areas were found to have less trust than homogenous communities. Immigration saw people become more withdrawn as trust levels fell, he discovered. In ethnically diverse San Fransisco and Los Angeles about 30 per cent of people said they trusted neighbours a lot. But in ethnically homogenous communities in the Dakotas, that trust rate was 70 to 80 per cent. At a personal level, Dr. Riki Robbin reports that the first people we learn to trust or mistrust are our parents. If they behave with integrity, tell the truth, and keep their promises, children are more likely to believe other people will do the same thing. Other scientists have discovered that a chemical increases levels of trust. Oxytoxin, naturally stimulated on physical contact between people and sometimes known as the cuddling chemical, makes people more trusting. In a Zurich University study, participants who played the role of investors and trustees were either given oxytoxin in the form of a spray or a dummy spray. Of the investors who inhaled the oxytoxin, 45 displayed intense trust by choosing to invest highly, as compared to 21 per cent of those given the dummy spray. The researchers found that the chemical appeared to override the fear of being betrayed. The sum in any society is that betrayal, and from it the fear of betrayal, damages commitment, effort and results. Trust matters. |
|
have education, will travel |
 |
 |
 |
Kenyans are now well-educated, by international standards. One study found that where 47 per cent of Kenyan children were enrolled in primary schools in 1960, nearly 100 per cent were by 1977. However, in 2005, the Director of Presidential Press, Isaiya Kabira, said primary school enrollment was running at 85 per cent of all children. His figures followed a dream come to pass for Kenya, for in 2003, the government fulfilled the 40 year long promise, made at independence, to offer free education. This saw it featured in the Guinness Book of World Records, as home to the oldest student in the world, Mr Kimani Murage, 84, an illiterate farmer. He joined primary school after it became free of charge. The steady rise of primary education has, meanwhile, delivered adult literacy rates that are the highest in Africa. In 1960, some 20 per cent of adults could read and write. According to the World Fact book, 85.1 per cent of the adult population is now literate, and literacy is at first world levels among 18 to 24 year olds. The quality and range of education in the country has also expanded, with now 60 per cent of schools in Nairobi having recreational facilities, such as swimming pools. Generally, in today’s Kenya, children start school at age five to six, and spend eight years in primary, four years in secondary and at least four years in university, in what is known as the 8-4-4 system. But the country has also seen a surge in international schooling, with schools offering American, British, French, German, Japanese and Swedish education systems. A proliferation of private and public universities has also brought a surge in the number of graduates. In 1963, at independence, in one university, there were just 452 undergraduates. By 1994, there were 40,000 undergraduates in both public and private institutions. However, their numbers are still considered low, compared to developed countries, such as the US, where more than a quarter (28 per cent) of adults over 25 have attained at least a bachelor's degree, while 85 per cent graduate from High School. In Kenya, it is estimated that about 2 per cent of youths are enrolled for higher education, while 24 per cent enter secondary education. However, numbers continue to expand, with universities such as the United States International University (USIU) having introduced online degrees, catering for students anywhere in the country and even abroad. Yet even as the depth and range of education continues to grow, fears have risen about the consequences for the country. Unemployment remains very high, estimated at 60 per cent among Kenya's youth. A World Bank report has said that the benefits from education will be very low if there is no productive sector to absorb the educated professionals. Without jobs, young and old graduates and professionals alike, tend to move to other countries, resulting in a brain drain. Some reports say Kenya has in recent years experienced a massive brain drain, as professionals, especially doctors, nurses and scientists, have left the country in search of better employment.
|
|
