It is my singular pleasure and honour to introduce Mr Kevin T Korgba – our guest blogger for the month of February.
His perspective on leadership resonates with me and I would love to hear your opinion as well. Do you agree? What is the role of the 21st Century Leader? Where does leadership reside in the organisation? This is such a stimulating and rich discussion. But let’s get back to Mr Korgba’s perspective.
It’s no accident that Kevin is the first guest blogger on Lizspire in 2018. It was a very intentional choice. Lizspire readers should expect to read more from Kevin here in this year.
I’ve known Kevin for more than 25 years and his personality, confidence, humility and gumption speak volumes about his depth and capacity as an award winning entrepreneur and leader. I am proud to be associated with him both in business and personally.
In the emerging economy leaders must learn to lead from varying positions – ahead of the team, within the team, above of the team and sometimes from behind the team. Kevin has shown that he is such a savvy leader who knows how to lead inspirationally and strategically – a true 360 Degree Leader- from whom we have much to learn.
I give you Kevin T Korgba!
The discussion around leadership takes very many dimensions, and some of the most popular of these include ‘whether leaders are born or made’, ‘what characteristics make a “good” leader, ‘is managing and leading the same thing’ and a host of other discussion points (sometimes even arguments).
These are all very interesting questions and I have my own views on each of these, however I would like to talk about leadership from a more human perspective. There is great merit in the use of statistics, theories and frameworks to explain and understand things like leadership; but my experience has shown me that the single most important factor in understanding leadership and how to lead is understanding the ‘human factor’ – think Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs!
Over the years I have found myself in various leadership positions, sometimes voluntarily but other times by imposition – what I call ‘reluctant leadership’. Whether it was being selected to be the ‘class monitor’, actively ‘patching’ (campaigning) for the position of a school prefect in secondary school (I went to Air Force Military School Jos and that’s what we called it). Becoming co-captain of my university basketball team (University of East London) or being where I am today – leading a team of extremely talented consultants and executives across multiple countries helping businesses in the West with their entry into African markets, and also helping African businesses expand their footprint(s) globally.
Hi, my name is Kevin Terna Korgba and I am Co-Founder & Managing Director of Enterprise, Training & Knowledge Group (ETK Group). Every morning I go into my office with a singular thought in my mind – how can I create the best possible atmosphere/situation/environment to ensure that my team (globally) is at peak performance? Nothing is too big and nothing is too small. If it’s making cups of tea for the whole team (not the international ones of course) – I’m there, listening to health or family issues -I’m there, representing the company on a conference panel – I’m there. I take on whatever role I need to, when I need to so that we achieve as a team.
Related Reading: Why Developing Employees Is Not A Waste of Time
And I have found over the years that my style of engagement ensures that I am leading by example and boosts my team’s morale (who doesn’t like to be looked after). It has also created an environment where the whole team can be creative and innovative, and has helped the development of a stronger bond and team spirit (you won’t believe the amount of laughter in my office). And like many businesses, we have had some incredibly hard times I know for a fact that this team spirit has been one of our strongest pillars for survival. There is no better feeling than being able to have an incredible amount of fun while building a successful business.
So how would I describe my leadership style? I prefer not to put myself in a box but suffice it to say that I am situational leader (so I can adapt to a given situation), I lead from the front and my people ALWAYS come first – people before profit!
So what is your view on leadership? What kind of leader would you follow? What type of leader do you want to be? It would be very interesting to hear the different views.
ABOUT KEVIN KORGBA
Kevin’s career and business experience spans across Africa, Europe and South America, sitting on various education and entrepreneurship development panels in Nigeria and the UK and also Guest Lecturing on African business at UK universities. Prior to setting up CABE (as part of the Enterprise, Training & Knowledge Group), he had previously set up and ran a successful cross-border education consulting business in Nigeria servicing UK universities with international students. He holds a BA (Hons) Business Administration from the University of East London, an MSc Global Banking & Finance from the European Business School London (Regent’s University) and an MBA from Webster Graduate School, London (Webster University, St. Louis, USA). Kevin also sits on the Board of the Business Council for Africa (BCA).
Find out more about Kevin and the company he leads (ETK Group) and connect with him on Twitter (@KevinKorgba)
