From depths of crises leaders rise, and I already have my favourites

Health personnel disinfect the hands of visitors at Mbagathi Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 18, 2020, as the war against coronavirus intensifies. PHOTO | LUIS TATO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Our Ministry of Health officials have done a pretty decent job of reassuring Kenyans in this time of crisis.
  • I hope Kenyans will take this opportunity to judge for themselves who, truly, is a leader — and consequently adjust their choices in the future.

Nancy Koehn, a historian from Harvard Business School, says in Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times that the four leaders profiled in the book became effective leaders by dint of “working on themselves” and by “intentionally choosing to make something better of who they were, even in the midst of crisis, and never losing sight of the larger dynamic stage on which they found themselves”.

One of my favourite authors, Doris Kearns Goodwin — the historian famous for such titles as Team of Rivals, The Bully Pulpit and her most recent, Leadership: Lessons from the Presidents for Turbulent Times — makes similar conclusions.

She notes that “scholars who have studied the development of leaders have situated resilience: the ability to sustain ambition in the face of frustration, at the heart of potential leadership growth”.

These two authors — and several others — agree that it is not so much about what happens to the leaders, but how they respond to those watershed moments that build their mettle.

This, of course, has been part of a global discourse on whether leaders are made or born.

MORAL PURPOSE

But more importantly, it is shedding some light on the great riddle that even historians can’t solve, as Goodwin puts it: “Do leaders shape the times or do the times summon their leaders?”

I think the times have summoned their leaders, particularly in our context, where the Covid-19 crisis has exposed leaders we did not know existed.

It is for this reason that today I shall be celebrating the leaders and heroes who, steered by an unyielding sense of moral purpose, have summoned their courage, skills and talents to protect, preserve and enrich the lives of Kenyans.

I would like to start by celebrating our health workers, who have been in the frontline of treating coronavirus patients.

Our doctors, nurses and other health workers are indeed our unsung heroes. Every day, they wake up early and head to work to test us and take care of our patients, all the time putting their lives at risk as the rest of us stay home.

As if that is not enough, they have also done a fantastic job of keeping us enlightened.

JOURNALISTS

Thank you to all doctors and nurses who, through their social media pages, have volunteered and shared legitimate information on how to prevent infection by the deadly virus, and also for being so patient as to answer our questions.

We do not take your tweets, your Facebook posts, and all the information you share for granted.

Thank you to the doctors who take their time to appear on television, in newspapers and on radio to answer all our questions and help us figure out this deadly disease.

The other leaders I want to recognise at this time of crisis are our journalists, who have laboured so hard in the past couple of weeks to keep us informed.

Your agility and swiftness in keeping us updated, attending the endless press conferences and going out of your way to bring us the truth is the real mark of a media industry that appreciates its role as an essential public service.

Even in tough economic times, when some of you have been compelled to take pay cuts, you still remain true to the profession, summoning your leadership skills and talents for the benefit of your audiences. You will not be forgotten.

ROLE MODELS

I also want to recognise two people who have become very familiar faces on our TV sets, and whose nearly daily updates have become must-watch TV for Kenyans.

I think I speak for many when I say that our Ministry of Health officials have done a pretty decent job of reassuring Kenyans in this time of crisis.

Barely two months into the job, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe and Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi were thrust into a crisis that compelled them to summon their talents and skills in the face of a crisis.

I am particularly impressed by Dr Mwangangi’s calm and composed mien, coupled with her confidence; exactly the kind of traits our young women and girls need to see in a role model.

Our colleagues in public relations will tell you to “never waste a good crisis”, and I hope Kenyans will take this opportunity to judge for themselves who, truly, is a leader — and consequently adjust their choices in the future.

The writer is the director of the Innovation Centre at Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications. The views expressed in this column are her own; [email protected]