6 | The Lion King
Theme Story
M
onday morning. It is a special
Monday morning because it
is my 50th birthday. It is that
age in life when you take stock of the
past and map a new future. It is also
a time you think of legacies because
the future could be far shorter than the
past.
So, this morning, my mind is not on the
celebrations that will happen later in
the day. I am taking stock of my 50
years on earth. The last 10 years has
been used building my consulting firm.
Now, it is relatively a thriving consulting
firm. But I am wondering, is this all
it can be? Can I take it to the next
level? What steps do I need to take
to transform it into a global consult-
ing company like Mckinsey and the
Accenture?
For me, the immediate question was
how do I become a leader like Jim
Sinegal, the CEO of Costco, the second
largest retailer in the United States who
is known to have been able to build a
loyal workforce by having a great inter-
personal relationship with his staff.
Jim explains his leadership style in this
quote; “When you try to be a top dog,
you don’t create loyalty. If you can’t
give credit or take blame, you will
drown in your inability to inspire your
team”
Jim was an inspiration. His humility
and great interpersonal relationship
with staff has helped build one of the
biggest retailing outfits in the most
competitive market in the world. This
was a characteristic I needed to
emulate going forward.
However, I knew humility and great
interpersonal relationship may not
be enough. There should be more in
building a great company. So, I sought
Chief Arierhi, my mentor for the last
three decades, and who has built a
successful business and strong follower-
ship among many of today’s business
leaders whom he mentored to the top
of their professional careers or business
success.
I asked him to tell me about the leader-
ship styles he has adopted in the last
few years to get to where he is today.
“Ken, I am happy you are eager to
learn. It is really important to build an
enduring institution. There is no magic
management style to achieve this.
You have to be flexible and adapt the
management style that suits whatever
challenge you are facing at any point
in time.” Here are some of the styles I
have adopted based on the situation
I was facing and what I planned to
achieve:
Coercive-Do what I say:
I rarely use
this style except occasionally for
emergency or turnaround situation.
Leaders who use this style create
a tense atmosphere because they
take decisions without input from the
followers.
Authoritative-Come with me:
I use this
when I have a clear vision, enthusiasm
In search of the secrets
of transformational
leadership
By Ola Babs-Olugbemi
