How do we create Ethical leadership in the era of character based culture?

Marcus Mosiah Garvey flagged by security and esteemed colleagues remains a shining example of African Diasporan ethical leadership

African Diasporan people have a very precarious relationship with Western governments based on how they traditionally treat us. At a point in history that we have two national leaders from the same pod, who are considered buffoons by many of their respective populations.

Both Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have been guilty of lying on the spot off the top of their heads in a media age. This awareness by a calm population makes us take what they say with a pinch of salt, throw in the equation that we've all become amateur conspiracy theorists based on witnessing our governments lie about the Iraq (false flag) war and other state betrayals and in this time of national panic there is no confidence in state leadership.

Ethical leadership is a very much underestimated commodity by those who are actually in the position, who feel very secure within their titles and don't realise that leadership like management is a job description not a title. Followers are required to donate their trust in order for someone to be an effective leader and when that trust isn't fourth coming based on a lack of credible leadership demonstration results in freefall.

The lesson that the COVID-19 outbreak has taught us is that we are wilfully unprepared for any circumstances that require strong leadership. Demonstration of ethical leadership requires consistency and can't be sporadic. People require consistency if they are to follow anyone into the flames of battle or even just to be served by them.

A mass gathering to listen to the teaching of Garvey was the ultimate demonstration of effective leadership

Even the Financial Times has called the entire capitalist system into account in the March 21st edition by stating "Capitalism, Time for a Reset", "Business must make a profit but should serve a purpose too".

The unethical leadership we are presented with now calls their entire system into account and calls for a new agenda (visit FT.com/NewAgenda) to be rolled out, but none of us trust what that new agenda will be. This draws into account the bigger question for the African Diaspora community based on what we should do next.

When leadership is rotten, one goes back to the tree as there is nothing of virtue to gain from the barrel. ADPAC must recognise the absence of leadership legacy programmes and work with those filling the void and understand how to nurture and support a generation of ethical community leaders who can intern support eachother as an alumni community.

Access UK African & Caribbean Youth Convention at the London School of Economics 2020

Access UK, the BAME youth employment and employment training charity recently stepping into entrepreneurial and now leadership training is one such organisation who are filling the void by creating a bespoke fully rounded leadership programme with their new Manage leadership curriculum. Manage is about delivering the unconventional wisdom of leadership that will create an effective generation of leaders who are themselves an alumni of community support for eachother.

ADPAC networks of professional expertise will then be placed around these young men to create pathways into industry to match their career aspirations. The point of this training is that it is time to create structured leadership training with wrap around community support in order to make the success of this and indeed these programmes inevitably successful.

It is a time for repurposing systems, methods and thinking with regards to leadership in order to produce ethical leaders in order for said leadership to be effective and in order for that leadership to be effective it must stand up to 360 degrees of scrutiny, hence the need to return to the tree. This was the thinking of the FBI in the Untouchables when Elliott Ness realised the entire Chicago police department was corrupt and that is how the fictional team brought down Al Capone.

We as a community have big fish to fry, big networks to connect and community cohesion to create in order to make all of this possible. Leadership is an underrated commodity within our community and the state of our community is a reflection of the value we have in producing effective leaders. Gone are the days where we can rely on anybody else to solve our problems or nurture our brightest and best because the result is that our brightest and best will serve their agenda and not ours.

We've come to a stage in history where we recognise the nature of the problem and must now take case study in what works and reverse engineer the commodity in order to duplicate and deliver for our own young leadership and create similar forms of nepotism through mentoring and career positioning that other communities demonstrate in order to have leadership grounded in strong foundational training and nurtured all the way into being able to effectively serve.

By Dean Okai Snr