Banker Urges Leaders to be Open, Teachable

• Banker Urges Leaders to be Open, Teachable

The Managing Director/Chief Executive, Heritage Bank Limited, Ifie Sekibo, has advised aspiring leaders to be open and teachable in order to access fresh insight to overcome the challenges of leadership.

Sekibo, who spoke at the Emerging Leaders Forum in Owerri, Imo State, said, “Somebody just asked me: ‘How do you get victory over yourself as a leader because we keep talking about change of mindset as a leader? I said from what I know, the place of leadership is in the classroom and you will never graduate from that classroom.”

While listing the principles of successful leadership to include personal commitment, conviction, partnership and focus on the future, he said, “There is no economic growth without partnerships. In everything you do in life, one times zero is zero; one times one is one. Two times two is four and that can only happen if you allow partnership and agreements. That is key to success.

“Also, there must be personal commitment to success. Rigorous commitment has to be personal in achieving leadership. When you are committed and able to get others to be committed, that is leadership.

“To learn this leadership style, you must remain open and teachable and remove obstacles from the past, recognising the key factors that make you a leader.

“You must have personal conviction if you want to be a leader and in the midst of that conviction, you must be able to attract other people to join.”

Emphasisng the need for communication in leadership, Sekibo said, “Most of the dreams of leaders die today because they are not ready to share their visions with their followership but what we don’t understand is that we need to get the negative responses; you need to see through the negativity on why you may not succeed as a leader. This enables you to prepare ahead and find a way around to succeed in the midst of those negativities. As a leader, you need to leave the past and focus on the future to enable you to succeed.”