Dr. Akin Oke is a leadership coach, and a management consultant working with organisations and individuals globally to improve their leadership, and to get them to achieve their best leadership self. In this interview with NATIONAL ECONOMY, he explains what leaders must pay attention to in an era of disruption among others.
You came up with a new book titled: “Lead Disruption,” what is the book all about?
The book is Lead Disruption, and I call it a guide for exceptional leadership in the era of uncertainty that we all face globally. You will agree with me that the world currently faces a significant level of disruption on multiple levels. The key drivers that we know, that we see are the geopolitical tensions that are going on around us. The indiscriminate use of violence, globally, and it’s not just Nigeria. And of course, we just came out of the pandemic that has reshaped how we work. Every time you have these kinds of factors playing together, you have something called structural uncertainty, which erodes the traditional ways that we have always lived. So, the book looked at how leaders’ experiences during the pandemic particularly helped us to connect with the wider challenge that leaders always face with managing uncertainty change, which is a constant part of leadership. So, I put together in the book Essential Guide, I call it tools and tips and the key areas that leaders need to pay attention as they navigate the level of uncertainty that has never been seen.
The message in Lead Disruption, how relevant is it to individuals, organisations, the country, and even the global stage?
Okay, so we all experienced uncertainty and disruption at all those levels you just mentioned. So, for the individual, for instance, how do you prepare yourself for change? disruption? How do you prepare yourself to become one of the things I spoke about in the book is moving from resilience to become an anti-fragile, becoming an anti-fragile means you thrive with disruption? Now, how does that happen? It means this person would have done the inner work of leadership on himself or herself. At the level of communities, it’s about seeing that in every situation or circumstance, there are opportunities to thrive. You will agree with me that Nigeria has gone through and is still going through significant disruption. At every turn, this book offers insights as to how to navigate that on a personal level. On an organisational level, organisations need to become more innovative. And you see that in what you see around us with the miniaturisation of products. You see companies are beginning to reduce the size of what they’re selling, because there’s a limit to which they can increase the price.That’s in response to disruption. You can also see that at the level of the country, our country is saying no, everybody knows you use CNG instead of petro. It is this kind of thinking that allows us to thrive when disruption happens. We’ve seen on the global stage, just recently, the Western powers are trying to protect a global shipping line, what have they done, they have gone into a mood where everybody else is now rerouting through the cape of Africa, right? That tells you that every time there’s disruption, there has to be a response by leadership. Recognising the tools for going after the essence of your response is what this book allows us to do. And because we have changing patterns on all of those multiple levels, having these tools and tweaking them to respond at different levels is a vital message that this book offers.
So where can people get this book?
Currently, the book is available in all stores, managed by Roving Heights, it’s a bookstore here in Abuja, Lagos, it’s also available online, on their website, as well as the book’s website itself, which is lead-disruption.com. If you Google lead-disruption.com, you can buy the book online at our website and it will be delivered to you anywhere in Nigeria. It is also available online. The paperback is available on Amazon at amazon.com/Lead-disruption you will find the book there.You also have it available in the eBook format that can be downloaded easily and can be read. The audiobook will be available before the next quarter.
What are the things to look forward to in the book?
Essentially, I tried to keep it short. I tried to keep it to the most important things that I think leaders would benefit from. As you know, leadership is probably one of the most widely written about topics in the world, everybody has an opinion about leadership. But this book has five main chapters, and an epilogue, where I tried to put together everything that I have discussed. I narrowed this down to the five main areas where leaders need to pay attention as they navigate uncertainty. In chapter one, you have self-awareness, that speaks to the fact that leaders need to first be aware of who they are, and do what we call the work of leadership, the inner journey to define themselves, otherwise, it will be difficult for them to lead others. Chapter two talks about leadership resilience, what do leaders need to pay attention to as they build their muscles, their leadership muscles in places or times where change and uncertainty face them? In chapter three, I spoke about innovation. It’s like our Get Out of Jail Free card as leaders. So, leaders need to foster innovation. What are the tools and tips to do that successfully, so that you can continue to grow your organisations or even yourself? Chapter four speaks to empathy, recognising that leaders do not operate in a vacuum, leaders operate because there’s a context and there are followers. How do you engage with them as human beings recognising the value of the human that you are dealing with as a leader; chapter five looks at communication. I left that to the end because it’s such a pivotal aspect of leadership, all of these things that came before, if you do not communicate a vision, if you do not communicate your intentions, it is difficult to lead others. So, getting leaders to pay attention to some of the pitfalls in leadership communication. Somebody said, communication is the language of leadership. I close the book in the epilogue by forming a picture of what I call the i-Impact leader. To say leadership starts with me and then radiates out and leaders have the ability to transcend themselves when they pay attention to all of these elements as they navigate uncertainty and change in the current world.
