The issue of competence as against character is one of the fearest arguments in Leadership cycles. The argument usually is about which of the two qualities are the most critical trait for a leader? Does a leader’s competence comes first or vice versa?

This week, with the untimely resignation of the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, one cannot fathom but ask, what caused his untimely political demise? Was it a matter of incompetence, character, or both?

I would love to hear your thought on this matter.

Competence involves a leader’s qualifications, skills, and ability to get results.

On my account, Boris Johnson has demonstrated a string competency approach to leadership.

On the other hand,

character has to do with a leader’s integrity, attitude, honesty, discipline, and more.

In 2019, Boris secured a crushing victory over Labour, winning 364 of the 650 seats in the house of Commons. He successfully led this country to secure an excellent Brexit deal from the European Union after Theresa May resigned from her post as the then Prime Minister. During the Covid 19 pandemic, we can credit him for steering the country through such a crisis. The way and manner in which he handled the Ukraine Crisis and more depict his competence.

However, these successes above were not enough to keep him at No 10. I believe Boris’s untimely resignation can be attributed to his character in office and not his competence.

For instance, his integrity and attitude were questionable when it was discovered that while the country was on lockdown during the height of Covid 19, he was hosting a party at Downing Street. As a result, for the first time in UK politics, the Police were investigating the government.

What broke the camel’s back was when he promoted the Conservative lawmaker Chris Pincher after complaints of sexual misconduct against him. A spokesman for Johnson said he was aware of some allegations against the former whip Chris Pincher.

This further led to questions about the former Prime Minister’s attitude and integrity, leading to about 60 of his ministers resigning in 48 hours. This triggered his resignation and the possible destruction of his legacy.

In conclusion, a good leader needs both competence and character, but to be honest, a leader’s character is more important than his competence. Leadership always says that;

“Your competence will get you a job, but your character will determine how long you stay on the job. It is your attitude (character) that will always determine your altitude.”

My advice to future leaders is this: clearly, the ideal combination is high competence and high character but if you have to choose when it comes to a leader, we’d advise you to vote for character.

Kofi Amoateng
(Life Coach, Entrepreneur, Author & Pastor)

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We don’t need more time; we need more energy as leaders. Now, I know many of you leaders out there may be wondering why energy and not time because for too long, we have been conditioned to think that time is our greatest resource.

Let’s face it! Whether your twenty-four hours is going to yield results or increase productivity will be more dependent on how much energy you can put it more than anything else. So energy is what makes the difference in your twenty-four hours. Without energy, you definitely are guaranteed time but not productivity or results as a leader.

Without energy, you definitely are guaranteed time but not productivity or results as a leader.

Energy is as a result of passion. It is one of the major assets a leader can have because a sense of energy and passion create the kind of purpose that drives performance. When passion and purpose come together, it gives birth to a winning plan for your day, week, month and certainly a fruitful year in the life and organisation of a leader.

Energy is measured by the rate of power in you. That is to say, to have more energy, you must have more passion for what you do. This is why you don’t need to work or lead in areas you are not passionate about.

“We can create energy, or we can sap energy out of our people and out of our organization.”

The law of energy says that it is neither created nor destroyed but it is transformed. In order words, a leader who has the energy or even the lack of it will over time transform the lives of those around him because it is contagious. In order words, it can be transferred to the people and organisation that one leads.

Nothing sucks than a leader who does not have passion in what he does. Not only may this be frustrating but it ends up weakening the people around such a leader. So you see how your passion and energy can make a whole lot of a difference in what you do.

Just like Noel M. Tichy said, “A leader is never ‘energy-neutral.’ You are either giving people energy or you are sapping it from them.” And Richard H. Lenny, the Chairman and CEO of Hershey Foods, affirms what Lenny says, “We can create energy, or we can sap energy out of our people and out of our organization.”

So it is worth asking, as a leader, are you creating energy or sapping the energy out of the people you are leading? If you may be sapping energy from your workers or people you lead, then check your level of passion. You can do this by integrating your legitimate needs, desires and talents.

You can’t get more time but you can get more energy.

Always know that as a leader, you can’t get more time but you can get more energy. Get more energy, fire and passion in your life and witness a drastic change in your organisation. It is time to unleash the energy factor in you.

Nothing defines a man or woman/leader than the word challenge, as a matter of fact; every leader who desires to fulfil an assignment in life loves the word challenge. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going because the difference between those who get going as against those who do not is in one’s ability to challenge or overcome challenges.

Every day we are challenged because we try to help people other than ourselves. The ability to not only challenge but allow people to see that challenges are considerable and solvable are key ingredients in the life of a man or leader on purpose.

Nothing is more fulfilling in a leader’s life than fulfilling and overcoming a challenge where others refuse to solve or overcome. If you desire to fulfil your purpose to the world, you do not give up or give in to the problems or challenges life brings. This is why I often say and believe that your assignment in life does not lie in your appointments but disappointments.

Challenges may come in every form just to disappoint you as a leader, but behind it is the opportunity to become what you are meant to be and make a difference in other peoples lives, work or organisation. B Reagan was right when he said,

life challenges are not supposed to paralyse you; they are supposed to help you discover who you are.

Do you know that challenges only become problems when we see them as barriers instead of opportunities? It all starts with the way you think. How you think matters even more than you act; because it is by your thoughts you act and we are all a product of our thoughts.

All challenges or temptations are not meant to overtake us; even the Bible makes it clear that they are common to all men that even God will not allow you to be challenged beyond what you could bear. 2 Corinthians 10:13 (emphasis added).

As I speak of the mind, it is a very important determining factor because most people going through one crisis or the other right now tend to think that they are the only people experiencing that right now. You need to stop thinking like this from today because everybody under the surface of this world has challenges.

See it this way, life is a problem-solving machine. The more you live, the more problems you will have and the more you solve, the more successful you will become, and the more successful you become, the more challenges that will come for you to solve. This is the cycle of life. Life is not a straight path. It is rough and full of ups and downs.

A life without challenges only means that you are dead. A wise man in the field of medicine once said,