Today’s guest is Dr. Lidetu Alemu, a professor of organizational leadership at Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (EGST). He holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership from Eastern University (St. Davids, Pennsylvania, USA). His PhD dissertation, which aims at searching for good leadership dimensions, is a cross-sectional survey of four Ethiopian governmental organizations. Currently, Dr. Lidetu serves at EGST as Head of Students’ Affairs, Program Leader for the Master of Arts in Leadership and Management, and Lecturer in organizational leadership. Dr. Lidetu is also Country Co-Investigator (CCI) in Ethiopia for a global research project known as GLOBE 2020, which is conducting research on culture, trust, and leadership in more than 110 countries. His research interests include global leadership, leadership ethics, organizational leadership, leader development, human flourishing, and leadership and theology.
Dr. Lidetu has a wide experience in, but not limited to, training public, business, and ecclesiastical leaders; supervising surveys; teaching at undergraduate and graduate-levels; advising and examining MA students; counseling; and leading responsibilities. He is also involved in being a Board Member for different organizations. Lidetu is married and a father of two children. He can be reached at lidetuak@gmail.com.
The Ethiopian Herald stayed with Dr. Lidetu who said, “Organizations, communities, and nations fall or rise because of their leaders. Leaders take the lion’s share of the success or failure of their leadership domains.” Excerpts:
Herald: How do you see the response of global leadership to the COVID-19 pandemic?
Dr. Lidetu: The current global response to COVID-19 is uneven; it is not regular. Unfortunately, it lacks consistent and coordinated leadership. We would not like to see such leadership that lacks proper and even pattern for such a global issue. Actually, some countries have shown unprecedented responses; they have exercised unprecedented leadership scoring wonderful progress in curbing the spread of the pandemic while others, regrettably, failed to exercise the expected leadership. As the pandemic is a global problem, there should have been well-coordinated global leadership that could have sufficiently minimized the spread of the virus and its consequences.
Herald: Why coordinated global leadership is lacking? Could this be the case due to many countries did not prepare themselves for the incident as the feature of the pandemic is unexpected?
Dr. Lidetu: Probably yes. Whenever such a pandemic comes it does not tell us its coming. The very nature of the pandemic is it is sudden. What is expected of us as global leaders, in general, is we have to be prepared for any kind of surprises r that might happen along the way.
Leaders should always have in mind that anything can happen anytime, anywhere. Think of the advancement: the science, technology, and development in which we are today. Making use of the advantage of this advancement, we could have responded swiftly to such unpredictable happenings.
Though we do not precisely know how to get prepared for a specific surprise, at least we have some general principles as a general consensus what to do when such sudden things come as we do not exactly know what is going to happen.
Leaders, whether they are organizational leaders, societal leaders, political leaders or community leaders. They need to be change leaders as well. In order to face the unexpected global issues boldly, leaders have view and understand the spectrum of change.
Herald: We are watching in real-time when all the technologies, prosperity, and standards that made some nations powerful are becoming irrelevant to handle the grievous challenge of the pandemic. Even all standards of human hierarchy seem to be meaningless. It seems that leadership lacks a solution for the problem. What does this indicate about the current global leadership?
Dr. Lidetu: It indicates the status of global leadership. What makes a leader is a leader is how he responds to a situation. As I said situations may not inform us of their happenings; we do not control them. Probably, organizational leaders may control what is going on within an organization. Societal leaders may have control over what is happening in their society. A leader at the national level may have control over what is happening in that nation. But for things that is beyond, he or she cannot have any control over them. Hence, what the leaders do in such situations is what makes them real leaders. We are in a global pandemic that has happened without informing us about its coming. What makes leaders different is the way they respond to such surprises. This is where leadership is being tested. We are in the most critical time in history. Every nation’s leadership is being tested in the way they are responding to the current crisis.
Herald: Recently United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his lamentations over lack of coordinated leadership among the world powers in the fight against the coronavirus. He also added, “There is a disconnect between leadership and power. And where we see the power we sometimes do not see the necessary leadership.” Do you share Guterres’
opinion? What does he mean by “a disconnect between leadership and power”?
Dr. Lidetu: I agree with him. The UN Secretary-General has observed very well the current situation of our world where there are powerful leaders who are not exercising pertinent leadership.
These are two different concepts that must be handled both in theory and practice. Power is one thing and leadership is another. Among different types of powers, we can mention two: legitimate power and expert power. Legitimate power is the power given to people by constitution, election, appointment, and/or assignment. If a person is a prime minister or president of a country, he she legitimately owns the power to make decisions, to lead, to mobilize resources, to create vision, to communicate that vision, strategize, and to carry out other related things in the country. But leadership is something different for it is a matter of exerting influence. We have leaders who exercised tremendous influence on their followers. Of course, the influence could be positive or negative.
Do the people in power exercise skillful leadership? This is the biggest question.
I think Antonio Guterres is saying people who are in power are not effectively leading. Have these people in power raised awareness of their people about the pandemic? Have they taken appropriate measures to curb the possible damage? Do they have enhanced their leadership skills to understand circumstances and visualize to save their people from the terrain of the impending danger? If these things are not effectively done by people in power, yes,
there is a disconnect between power and leadership.
The other type of power that is very relevant to the context we are talking about is expert power. Fortunately, those who are experts in bacteriology, virology, and scientists in the medical sciences are exercising leadership.
For example, in Sweden, the people who have legitimate power, people who have assumed public positions, did not see the necessity of declaring the state of emergency or imposing some social or travel restrictions until recently. Even they did not restrict social gatherings on time. While these people in power failed to carry out their leadership duties, the experts played a leading role. The researchers, scientists, and other experts including the chairman of the Nobile Peace Prize Committee came together and signed a petition and urged the government to make immediate decision to save the people from the pandemic.
Following their request, the government of Sweden put some restrictions like imposing social distance and other precautionary measures to curb the pandemic through personal responsibility. Though both groups were expected to exercise pertinent leadership, nevertheless the one that came from the experts has been effective while those who were in government positions, meaning those people who have legitimate power, could not exercise leadership. Thus, I concur with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in saying that there is a disconnect between power and leadership across the world. Had there been a proper connection, the extent of the crisis we are witnessing on daily basis would have been reduced.
Herald: The World Health Organization has recently been initiating enhanced cooperation among all countries in the fight against the coronavirus. Nevertheless, the United States refused to take part in WHO’s initiative where most of the world leaders pledged to accelerate the endeavor on tests, drugs, vaccines against the Coronavirus. How do you see this decision of the United States? As COVID-19 is a global phenomenon, it needs a global response. On the contrary, Trump administration terminated funding for the WHO accusing it of being “China-centric”. How do you measure this decision? Is there anything wise with such a decision?
Dr. Lidetu: First of all, what was the action of WHO? Is it worth criticizing? That is the right question. Is there anything WHO did that was not expected of it to do? From my understanding and from what I was watching on the media and reading in the newspapers, there is nothing that WHO hid from the public. There is nothing that is secret. Perhaps if there is something done behind the curtain, empirical research would reveal it. From the information that we have now, there is nothing wrong in what WHO did. For one thing, there was a time when WHO was hesitant to call the situation a global pandemic. But as time went on, when the virus continued to spreading across different countries, understanding the nature of the virus, it declared it as a pandemic.
The COVID-19 problem is not that of one nation or one region; rather it is a global problem. The global community should have come together to find out ways of curbing its consequences in a concerted manner. A given country may have adequate resources while another nation from different parts of the globe may have expertise and technology. When we combine these things, we would design an effective way of combatting the pandemic. Since it is a global problem, it demands a global solution.
What does the US government’s decision look like from this perspective? First and for most, the issue with WHO should have carefully been investigated if it became China-centric as the US President said. Second, perhaps if WHO were inclined to be “China-centric”, a question that should have been asked was: is it the time for the US to make such a decision? I do not think the decision of the US government to stop funding the WHO is appropriate or timely by any standard. As it is the most powerful nation in the world and is viewed as a global leader, this moment could have been a critical time for the US to demonstrate global leadership. As a global leader, it should have come up with solutions for the wellbeing of the global citizens while protecting its own.
The US president first tried to associate the pandemic as “this Chinese virus”, but after the virus came to his nation and began to take the lives of dear Americans, he began to shift the blame to WHO. This blameshift may demonstrate the exercise of minimal of leadership against the pandemic.
As a leader, you have to carefully understand the situation to make a proper decision. Understanding the full picture of the scenario and the context enables a global leader to make a wise decision instead of making decisions that affects the global community.
Herald: More than a million Coronavirus cases have been reported in the US. Some people believe that leadership is responsible for this staggering problem. They say the nation’s leadership was very late and so slow to respond to the pandemic. What would be your opinion here? Is the problem really due to a lack of swift response from the leaders?
Dr. Lidetu: Sure. Organizations, communities, and nations fall or rise because of their leaders. Leaders take the lion’s share of the success or failure of their respective leadership domains. That is what is happening in America.
We may concur that the reason America has diagnosed many cases could be due to its best technology and well-advanced heath structure. How about the more- than 65 thousand people deaths? If this highly advanced diagnostic technology and rich resource were handled by well-informed leadership, the extent of the damage at least could have been reduced by half or much less.
For your information, I was in the US from mid to end of February. I visited different states; there was no alertness. No reaction from the public to the virus. One of the states I visited was Louisiana, where I attended a big conference on which more than two thousand people were gathered.
Everybody was socializing as if nothing had happened. This was the time when America had already had the virus. The leadership did not aware its citizens and take any helpful measures to save the lives of the people from the pandemic.
But in Ethiopia, there were temperature testing and certain precautionary measures. After from the US, I was in Rwanda in the beginning of March, I saw some awareness in the country. As travelers arrived at the airport, we were asked various questions. Officers at the airport collected all kinds of data from every single traveler.
Unfortunately, these kinds of things were missing in the US. The late response of the leadership was very evident.
Different nations have taken different measures like shutting their airports, restricting movements, and the like to curb the spread of the virus. As a leader, he should have asked why all these were happening. Moreover, he is surrounded by well-qualified experts in different fields. He could have made use of cautionary advice from those experts. He was making hasty generalizations as America would free from the virus very soon.
Herald: The Ethiopian government has been taking some measures since the outset to control the spread of the virus. How effective is leadership to minimize the spread of the virus? Some people accuse Ethiopian Airlines and the government of not taking immediate measures to control the spread of the virus. How do you see the effectiveness of the leadership response? In your opinion, how do you measure the effectiveness of those measures?
Dr. Lidetu: I appreciate the leadership of the Ethiopian government in taking a series of measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. All the preparedness and precautionary measures are helpful and timely. One of the decisions I would like to
laud is the quarantine system. Anyone who travels to Addis by air or by car would be quarantined for 14 days. This is one of the best strategies that I really appreciate. I believe it has helped us so much. That is why we are relatively witnessing a small number of cases. Had this not been done, imagine what would have been happening. Those who have the virus could have taken to their respective communities.
Herald: What measures would you suggest for the leadership of the nation to do in the future?
Dr. Lidetu: The problem at hand is not only a health issue but also an economic one. So far, Ethiopia is not in a complete
lockdown rather it is in partial. The government should make informed and right decisions to save the economy and livelihood of the citizens. Opening the lockdown should be done so slowly and strategically by identifying sensitive businesses and operations.
Herald: Any point you would like to add?
Dr. Lidetu: Just a few points: my appreciation to those people who have been relentlessly participating in supporting the campaign against this deadly virus. The health workers who are on the frontline deserve respect and appreciation. I also appreciate the commitment of many Ethiopians who have supported the campaign in cash and kind.
The nation has shown relatively vigorous leadership in taking a serious of measures that helped us to minimize the spread of the virus. So much is being done in the areas of protecting the wellbeing of our citizens and stabilizing the economy, including the spiritual dimensions of our people. One important dimension that lacked attention, if at all it is ignored, is one’s psychological dimensions. What are our people doing in terms of maintaining their emotions and psychological reactions in the midst of COVID-19? How are they feeling? What could be done to mitigate negative psychological feelings? How can we make them to be emotionally strong? If this area is addressed well, I believe that we will come of this pandemic victoriously.
The Ethiopian Herald May 5/2020
BY WAKUMA KUDAMA
