Julia Middleton's Thoughts on Leadership

My first boss always said to me “fish go dead from the head”, if you get the leadership right then the rest can follow. Without leadership nothing works even with all the beauty, resources, and passions that Africa has.

It has recently been announced that the Mo Ibrahim Prize for African Leadership will not be awarded this year. This is a totally fabulous prize and I applaud Mo Ibrahim, an entrepreneur and now a philanthropist too, who knows just how important good leadership is.

The challenges in Africa are not necessarily about money and resources (after all they have more resources than almost anyone) but good governance is critical to making these resources work for the majority of Africans not just a few.

The fact that the bar for the prize is being set so high is great. Festus Mogae is an African leader who has husbanded the mineral wealth of his Bostwana to build a country. In fact the bar must have been very, very high that they did not give it to John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor whom I understand has been successful at promoting good governance in Ghana while in office.

This prize recognizes a reality that many African leaders don’t have anywhere to go after they leave office so they stay too long and loose the plot.

It makes us all think about when and how leaders should move on? So many African leaders have been good at the start and then lost it as they held on. But it’s a question for all of us. One thing is certain we will move on and getting the exit and handover right is the greatest indicator of how good we were. We all need to keep in mind that one day we will need to exit and work hard to build the next generation that will take over.