In Search of a Search Understanding of What Is a Leader: Lessons from A Conversation with Mr. Michael Tichareva

Mutumwa Mawere, 11/01/2021

Yesterday my conversation with Mr. Michael Tichareva who I invited to join the WHAT IS A LEADER WhatsApp group was instructive and beneficial in that it brought to the fore some of the issues that characterize the fiction and reality of what a leader is and is not.

It is not such a bad thing for one to see a glass as half full while another may see it as half empty. Ideas and ideals do matter in the affairs of mankind.

A battle of ideas on WHAT IS A LEADER need not invite any vitriol but ought to provoke, inspire and ignite others to introspect and perhaps take a view on their own personal experiences explaining why they would be tempted to attack an idea rather than be part of a generalized and inclusive construction that is aimed at institution and capacity building to resolve problems.

No single individual can solve a problem and the enterprise of building a circle around a person rather than a problem is bad.

What is the problem statement? My view is that although I am connected, for example, to a community of 30,000 people on LinkedIn it is unlikely that in a lifetime, I would ever get an opportunity to interface with them personally.

One such connection is Mr. Nobleman Kani who without my knowledge has been following me.

He is an Executive Director at Amajabhusi Retail Holdings. On Tuesday, last week, he thought of taking the next step to lift himself from the LinkedIn community that we are connected to send the message below:

“Complements of the New Year Mr Mawere; wishing you the best for the year ahead. May you continue inspiring us with your wisdom on a number of Social and Business areas. May you be blessed with Great Health also during these tough times. Regards, Nobleman”

I did not lead Nobleman to think of the idea of saying the above words and actually taking the time to do so. I saw this as one of the consequences of my independent choice to share what I know without expecting a person unknown to me to respond in this manner.

He encourages me to give up personal time to continue inspiring a person like him with wisdom.

Could Nobleman be alone in finding value in what I may choose to say? He could very well be alone. It is always the case that there are others who see evil in what I may choose to share and such people will always take advantage of any opportunity to denigrate me or anyone who steps forward to do something.

It was not unexpected that at 8:47 PM yesterday, the day before my birthday, that Mr. Fred Mutanda chose to inbox me this message: “They want to portray a bad leader. I have told the other guy to back off the platform.”

It is instructive that if I had chosen to stay in my cocoon and say nothing, I would not invite this kind of hatred.

I am grateful to be associated with a person like Mr. Mutanda whose perspective is that leaders must conform to a certain standard. A person like Mr. Mutanda means well. He is saying that the group is mine and no one should even consider taking it away.

Mr. Mutanda who privately started this thread had this advice to me as follows: “Just let it go my brother. You are bigger than that. You can handle it privately. Thank you,”

I am not sure what prompted Mr. Mutanda to advise me to let go yet the very creation of the group is to provoke people like me and him to openly and transparently engage to demonstrate that there exists no shared understanding on what a leader is and is not.

Mr. Mutanda would know that any person who is perceived to be a leader automatically is circled by people who create a wall between him and the so-called led.

It is not unusual for people like Obert Mpofu to be invited into what’s app groups by people who create such groups to improve their visibility and status.

However, when such so-called leaders are included in groups, the reality is that they are often eloquent in the silence.

Silence to me is the greatest betrayal yet some would want me to be bigger than the people I choose to associate with.

Should a leader be a bigger and aloof person? There are people who believe that a leader must be defined by the people he associates with and as such, the person must be aloof.

Yesterday, I received a call from a person in this group who wanted me to add my insights into a manifesto for Africa on what should be a standard that must be met before any person can be eligible for the office of President.

The person is in this group and I told her that this group was created to provoke wider conversations on this question.

While we were talking, I received a call from a former President of an African state who just wanted to wish me compliments of the season.

When I finished the call with the former President, I then called my friend to finish the conversation that we had started.

Notwithstanding the view that I have expressed in this group and elsewhere, she still wanted my insights on a question I really have no answers to.

I then decided to add the former President to the call to give her an opportunity to ask the question that had been directed to me so that he can add his insights based on real life experiences.

It occurred to me that instead of retailing people like the former President, it would be beneficial to accelerate the building of the circle of 100 so that we together can interest others to wish to speak to the question in an organized manner.

At 11:19am, Mr. Kani independently and voluntarily volunteered to follow up his earlier message with the following one: “Mr Maware, is it possible for one to join the C2C Membership Group, Whats up Group or platform for my own development and for networking purposes. i am based in Capetown and my number +27xxxxxx.”

In the above thread, Mr. Kani asks if it is possible to join C2C yet the group that he then joined is comprised of people who have consumed my scarce time arguing that I should stop the initiative to provoke the building of community power around the challenge of no shared understanding on what is a leader or not.

Imagine the world had 10000 of people like Mr. Kani, how would we be in building a reference of what self-government actually means.

Human beings should behave better. I shudder to think what would follow if I chose to follow the good advice by Mr. Mutanda at 8:41PM that: “It happens just leave them especially after the Musariri one.”

How many people are like Musariri who instead of addressing issues would soon divert attention by targeting another person?

I am sure it becomes self-evident that although I am not elected to lead anyone in this voluntary grouping, there are some who genuinely believe that I must exclude myself from associating and start behaving as a leader.

To them, being a leader means one must be superior and bugger than the ordinary person.

Mr. Mutanda had the following to add to this narrative: “I am not worried but concerned that they don’t want to see you doing something good. No one can take this initiative from you. These youngsters just want to put you in bad. I think you should ignore them. That’s my opinion. No my brother controversy is not going to help the platform.”

Surely, who would wish to own and appropriate a voluntary group of persons who choose to learn together?

I have said that I have no intention to be a leader of a WhatsApp but the reality is that the crime of taking any step forward condemns one to be attacked as a leader.

What shall we DO?