Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti has reminded members of the enlarged Abia State Executive Council that leadership, in the practical sense of it, is never an enterprise in perfection.
Governor Otti disclosed this while declaring open a two – day retreat for members of the enlarged Abia state Executive Council held at the International Conference Center Umuahia on Wednesday with the theme “Sustaining Momentum”.
The Governor who titled his speech ‘Leadership in Execution’ said while they yearn to achieve perfect outcomes, they should also remember to make only the right calls, and not fall into errors in their judgments stressing that reality sometimes may not be exactly what they envisaged.
“The leadership vocation is therefore a call to strive valiantly in pursuit of a grand vision, failing unashamedly, learning, and rising to try again, every time.
“Leaders ultimately succeed or fail on the strength of their willingness, or lack thereof, to consistently submit to processes that enrich their knowledge, broaden their horizons, and sharpen their vision,” Otti said.
“Adopting the learner’s mindset has effectively become the most assured pathway to responding to the leadership imperatives of the new age, aligned by the way of accelerated technology transitions, changes in people dynamics, and shifts in economic, social, political, and environmental awareness.
“While it is true that learning makes great leaders, it also follows that learning for the fun of it does not translate to institutional excellence, except there are consistent efforts of periodic self-take to determine how each new idea has served institutional expectations,” Otti added.
He explIned that self-taking should therefore precede learning in the search for outcomes that pour excellence in execution across frontiers of performance.
He reminded the Exco members that they have gathered, as they have periodically done since April 2023, to ask hard questions of themselves.
Governor Otti opines that the programme is critical and compulsory for every senior official in the public service value chain in Abia, because the outcomes drive the whole-of-government transformation agenda.
He revealed that at the beginning of the retreat in 2023, they did not seek this position to just pay salaries and attend to the other regular administrative functions that would ordinarily elicit applause from the public, simply because those who came before this administration failed to fulfill those obligations.
“I mentioned that we will never measure ourselves against the mediocrity of the past, but against the very high standards we set for ourselves.
“The body of promises captured in our campaign manifesto and in the post-victory development outline put together by the members of the Transition Council in April 2023.
“While it is taken for granted that we shall honour our commitment to workers and retirees, build roads and keep our cities clean, as we have done since we came on board, our ultimate vision is to transform the land and breadth of Abia into a model community and, through aggressive investment in social and economic infrastructure, give our people the wings to soar.
“The general consensus, even from our friends on the other side of the political aisle, is that we have done well in the last two years, raised the bar on governance and shown a single-minded commitment to the new Abia dream.
“We are often humbled by the wave of applause we receive from well-meaning non-partisan individuals, but it is also important to keep our eyes on the ball at all times, demand more from ourselves and push the boundaries of excellence even further.
He explained that these regular retreat sessions have been institutionalised to enable the Exco members to periodically assess themselves, measure their programme vis-à-vis the relevant milestones that form the nucleus of our agenda, identify where we may have fallen short and ultimately determine how to speed up things subject to availability of resources.
“The focus in 2023 was moving from the drawing board to the field of execution. I may not be able to speak for everyone, but from my experience and feedbacks I have received from so many of you, the last 21 months since our first Executive Council retreat in August 2023 have served a very useful lesson in public service, managing stakeholder expectations and striking a fair balance between meeting the urgent needs of today and repositioning for the opportunities of tomorrow.
“It has been a very demanding period, requiring around-the-clock attentiveness from so many of us.
“At the same time, it has also been a humbling experience, considering what a privilege it is to serve millions of hard-working, intelligent and resourceful individuals who function here.
“We do not esteem the honour of public service lightly, and whenever the opportunity presents itself, I do not hold back in expressing our depth of gratitude to the people who have deemed us worthy to chart our path to the future”.
Appraising the Exco members for dedication and commitment to their duties the Governor “We are not here because we are better than others, and while many of us have accomplished remarkable success in previous endeavours, it is important to remind us that we are now operating in a different terrain, where the expectations are dynamic, and requires a genuine sense of empathy and broad understanding of our place in the grand scheme of things.
“The job that we do invites us to be humble and attentive to the evolving needs of our community.
“As we have echoed at each session of this retreat over the last two years, no one amongst us will come out as a shining star if others fail. It is one government, and the low-ranger philosophy is not only antithetical to objectives, it is also clearly disastrous.
“I call us colleagues, not for lack of alternative description, but I use the term advice, sadly, to communicate my belief that everyone on the team is important and has been brought in to add value, not to play spectator or disrupt our progress with a know-it-all attitude or the push for personal glory. There are no superstars here, but privileged servants of the people”.
Governor Otti therefore informed that it is incumbent on executive members to work actively as partners, seeking the same outcome.
He stressed that they shall be failing those who have vested the honour of leadership on them if they refuse to work together as partners, collaborating to achieve the promises that won them the support of the populace in the first place.
“It is therefore not just about how good you are at your job, it is also about how you are able to support your colleagues to become better, provide clarity and guidance to those who may not have got the dimensions of our governance character.
“You are clearly not a valuable player, no matter the size of your talent, if those in your team are underperforming”, Otti advised.
He however encouraged the Exco members to take advantage of the retreat to interact, ask questions at the group discussions and book one-on-one sessions with any team member who can support them to become better, because again, and also re-emphasized that his administration has zero tolerance for mediocrity.