Community Organizations in Diaspora Face Serious Leadership Deficit Of Two Soccer Legends

Monday, December 01, 2008    

           By Jlator Nah Gewleh

I often wonder whether Liberians are honest in their quest to assume leadership roles in their community organizations. Over the years, I have seen a number of failure in almost all of our community organizations including the Sinoe County Association, the Sarpo Association, and recently the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas, Inc. 

 I am tempted to say that many of my fellow Liberians who currently occupy leadership positions in these organizations need useful knowledge that may help them clearly understand their organizations’ visions and objectives, and at the same time, be able to subdue their personal interests to lead these organizations. 

Without any doubt, I wish to make it clear that I do not possess any supreme knowledge in this area, but feel a sense of duty to start a conversation on this subject, and free to share your views. 

According to House (2004), leadership is a product resulting from the ability of an individual to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute effectively towards a common purpose, and achieve desired goals. In this sense, a true leader always ratifies his role in the hearts and minds of the willing followers in order to obtain maximum production out of them. 

In addition, it means that the leader’s role is not only to change the minds of the followers, but to also create a better atmosphere that may inspire the best out of them since each has his or her own identity and frame of reference. In all, the symbol of leadership sets the stage for success through tolerance and unity, where each member compliments or fills in the gab of the others. Again, the role of a leader is to set the direction, align people, motivate and inspire them to employ credible measures for progress.

Our community organizations suffer leadership deficit because it is difficult to find Liberians who are willing to subdue their self-interests to the community interest. Our organizations need true leaders whose desires are reflective of the organizations’ visions and common objectives. Our community associations need a symbol that employs leadership approaches rooted in doing the right thing, sharing information, nurturing cooperation, and seeing people as assets and owners. We need people who are selfless, responsible, flexible, tolerant and committed to the missions of these organizations and to better serve the larger community.

Our community organizations in the Diaspora were founded on sound principles. Yet, the individuals we choose to lead us often fail our organizations due to their selfishness, incompetence, disrespect and lack of honesty and commitment. As a result, these negative attributes undermine the missions of our community organizations.

I urge you, fellow Liberians to demand from those who may want to be symbols of leadership in our community to exhibit values that are dear to us and the entire community in several ways.  Such persons must have the intelligence to understand why people resist change. These individuals should therefore make the necessary effort to offer new ideas and new set of guidelines to help their people and organizations. 

We must honor that moral entity of leadership through which the symbol’s interactions address the followers’ needs, interests and aspirations. With this understanding, I would urge my fellow Liberians to treat the symbol of leadership as a servant whose role typifies his commitment to serve others, and ability to address cultural differences and appreciate diverging views.

Jlator Nah Gewleh, lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.