Fides Media Living the Faith
By Precious Ukeje
Executive Members of Fides Staff Welfare Association, FiSWA, recently, held a leadership seminar for themselves. It was the first in recent times and an initiative of the new chairman, Alexander Johnson Adejoh.
The training, where Rev. Fr Martin Anusi, Director of Fides Media, featured, was the resource person, was preceded by an interactive session amongst the FiSWA executives.
They discussed the way forward for the association and how to forge a more robust relationship with the Management of Fides Media.
In his remarks, Fr Anusi told the attendees that there were several levels of leadership and that it was a common denominator for everyone on earth. ‘You do not need to have any form of education to be a leader; it is inherent in everyone,’ he explained.
He added that leadership was lived out through simple gestures and encounters, explaining further that there were seven citadels of leadership, noting that one would not deny being a leader on the basis of not going to school or being elected or selected into a position.
Listing some citadels of leadership, which he described as a reflection of everyone’s life and should prompt questions daily as to how one lived their lives, he said a leader was a builder and one who empowered. He added that it was an attribute of good leaders, while bad leaders used their powers to prove to people who they were.
Fr Anusi also said that leadership was exemplary, explaining that it required one to do what they asked other people to do.
He reflected on the story of “the dumb ox”, a description that was given to Thomas Aquinas by his classmates, who, together, were students of Albert de Great, noting that, ‘A leader sees and does not just look’.
He said a good leader did not just meet people but encountered them, adding that the best way to meet people was in their weak or dark moments.
The Fides Director earlier said that leadership was not in the thought nor in the amount of knowledge that one had. He added that it was a reflection of who one was.
He made a distinction between great and extraordinary leaders where he noted that the former built talents, while the later built people. He explained that talent was just the skill which great leaders focused on, while building people involved building everything that made a whole man.
‘Bad leaders gather servants,’ he said, while noting that the fruits of good leadership were always glaring.
The session also featured a time for questions and answers by the participants, while the FiSWA leadership in a vote of thanks by the Vice Chairman, Ifeoma Ezenyilimba, appreciated Fr Anusi for the seminar, which, according to her, was educating, interactive and enriching, noting that they had learned a lot.