Leadership is not about saving the nation alone
The work of a leader continues long after the leader’s term has expired; it is very important to assemble a strong team.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was the president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018.
She was Africa’s first democratically elected female head of state.
In 2011, she was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with the other two women from Africa who worked hard at peacebuilding and women’s advancement.
President Sirleaf inherited a government, but it was a very poor institution. The country had just emerged from a long, bloody civil war.
Poverty was deep-seated. Basic infrastructure, such as roads, was in terrible shape. And most importantly, a deep-seated mistrust of government had been inculcated in the citizenry.
Thus, the major task of President Sirleaf and her government was to chart a new direction for Liberia.
While serving as the president, she worked hard to rebuild her country from years of civil war.
To solidify her efforts, she established strong democratic institutions, which helped the country progress to where it is today.
She also secured a large amount of international debt relief for her country.
Some of these lessons can be applied to local leadership. For instance, leadership that leads to sustainable change, creating stronger people, systems and institutions, is more than delivering a great speech and gaining popularity in the eyes of the public.
Rebuilding a fragile society is not a task that one person can tackle. She said that herself.
First of all, one has to build the right team. And in outlining the kind of women and men that she would hire to serve in her administration, she exemplified an important leadership principle.
A weak leader surrounds himself with yes-men and yes-women.
A strong leader, on the other hand, assembles a team that can carry the heavy burden of their leader’s work and who will provide good counsel to the leader, even when it is difficult to do so.
The work of a leader continues long after the leader’s term has expired; therefore, it is very important that a good leader assembles a team that will be able to continue the work after the leader has moved on.
Her approach has a clear biblical resonance. Jesus rejected leadership based on domination and status, teaching that ‘whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant’ (Mark 10:42-45).
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Christian leadership therefore does not begin with the question, ‘How much authority do I possess?’ but, ‘Whom am I called to serve?’ It combines humility with responsibility, and power with accountability.
Sirleaf also rejected the idea that one leadership model can simply be copied everywhere. Every community has its own history, culture, resources and wounds.
A solution that succeeds in one country, municipality, business or congregation may fail in another.
Responsible leadership begins by listening, understanding the context and responding to real needs.
Scripture similarly values shared wisdom: ‘Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed’ (Proverbs 15:22).
Responsible leadership therefore begins by listening carefully, understanding the context and responding to actual needs rather than importing fashionable answers. Leaders who listen – even to your ‘political enemies’ – are not weak; they recognise that wisdom is distributed across a community.
Under Sirleaf, Liberia pursued peacebuilding, democratic reconstruction, debt relief, economic recovery, education, healthcare and infrastructure development.
She also led the country through the Ebola epidemic. Yet her record was not flawless. Unemployment remained severe, many citizens were dissatisfied with service delivery, and her administration faced criticism concerning nepotism, corruption and human-rights failures.
Her legacy reminds us that transformative leaders can achieve much and still have serious blind spots.
Ethics and effectiveness are not two separate goals for the leader.
Leadership must be both ethical and effective. This is why President Sirleaf said that a leader’s authority must be grounded in responsibility, accountability to others, and commitment to equity for all people.
Thus, a leader commands respect and leads with honour when they live out a standard of honesty, tolerance, hard work, and democratic participation in all activities and in all respects to all people.
Biblical leadership requires constant self-examination. What are the moral demands placed on a public figure?
The Bible answers this in a very brief space – in the words of the prophet Micah in Micah 6:8: to do justice, to have mercy and to walk humbly before God is the moral call to all people in public life.
Their integrity is not just a matter of their private morality but of how they manage resources, of who they appoint, and of how they treat the most vulnerable people in society.
This means they are willing to be told things that are hurtful to them, and to admit failure and put it right.
As a baptised United Methodist, Sirleaf’s personal Christian faith shaped her courage and values, but she opposed attempts to declare Liberia a Christian state.
She recognised that state-sponsored religion can divide citizens and undermine constitutional equality. This position is consistent with the biblical conviction that God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34-35).
A Christian public leader does not force faith upon citizens, but serves people of every religion with justice, dignity and compassion.
The best leader is not the indispensable one. The best leader is the one who builds a team of equals. He or she restores trust, solidifies processes and prepares others for leadership.
The greatest authority figure in history is, of course, Christ. His authority is expressed through service. He is strong and at the same time humble.
He uses his influence for the benefit of others (Philippians 2:3-8).
The example of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf can lead us to an even higher definition of leadership: a combination of courage and competence, faith and humility, vision and management, and authority and accountability.
A nation is transformed when leadership is no longer about one person with an agenda, but the hard work of building a future which can also be worked out by others after the leader.
This column is the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of Witbank News.
Over a cup of coffee, Reverend Maans van Zyl takes a fresh look at Nelson Mandela’s leadership.
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