Volume 65 December 2026-January 2026 : Mokanoki

In this month issue I wish to go on examining the mentorship issue. I just hope you still remember what said in the last issue. Let me not revise mylast article. Allow me to go on and talk about last month’s topic.

 Too many times we have seen great works, sacrifices, and hard-fought victories squandered and valued by the irresponsible, insensitive, abusive acts of a succeeding generation of leaders who have little or no appreciation for the blood, sweat, and tears expended by those of the former generation.

 To drive my point home on this, let me tell you a story about one man whom we grow up knowing was the richest person in our village. His children were the first in our village to wear or put on trousers.

 Ka nako tseo rene re apara ditshega kana borokgwe ja kaki jo bo khutshwane Jo boleele ene ele ja bagolo fela. Bana ba mohumi yo bane ba bonwa ka marokgo a mantle a maleele. They were the first children in our village who played with real toys. It was only their father who owned a vehicle in the village. He had many cattle and goats. Kwa ga gagwe gone go jewa borotho ka beke, rona re kopana le jone fela ka keremose.

 The man had it all but after his death everything vanished in thin air. His children who we thought did not know our names started talking to us. Their lifestyles changed and were rendered poor. Now I know what went wrong, the former leaders who (the rich father in our village) failed to prepare, sensitize, and mentor future leaders, his children. Should we consider failure to mentor the next generation of leaders as generational suicide? Could it be a divine paradox that the very word succession comes from the root success?

The most important responsibility of leadership is to prepare for succession.

 The most valuable goal of leadership is not to succeed in the present but to secure the future. You are only truly successful in leadership if your accomplishments and achievements are preserved and perpetuated for posterity. It is not what leaders achieve that counts. It is what they transfer. Building people to protect and preserve our institutions is more important than building institutions.

 Leading beyond your leadership is the ultimate accomplishment of true leadership. No matter how great your accomplishments may be, if they die with you, then you are a failure.

 Therefore, the greatest obligation of true leadership is to transfer your deposit to the next generation. Leadership success is measured by the success of your successor. It takes a lifetime to accumulate the knowledge, wisdom, skills, insights, and experience that make you an outstanding leader. It would be a tragedy to see the wealth of that life deposited in some cemetery and marked only by a tombstone, which can speak to no one.

 True leaders must focus on investing in people more than buildings. Their priority should be to make deposits in banks of human spirits and souls. Losing a lifetime of leadership achievement to an unprepared generation is the highest violation of leadership responsibility. It is imperative that mentoring successors becomes as much of a priority as fulfilling vision. In essence, a vision is only successful if it is durable.

 Be ever mindful that you are a link in a long chain of purpose that was designed to fulfill the divine desire of the Creator. Thus, life is not about you but it is about preparation for the next phase.

 History is replete with sad stories of great leaders who accomplished outstanding social, economic, military, political, or spiritual feasts only to witness an unprepared succeeding leadership dismantle most of what they spent a lifetime labouring to create. It is a true tragedy to see a generation’s work destroyed, ignored, or devalued by the one that followed.

 I am certain that every leader throughout history desired to see a vision, work, programmes, projects, mission, and passion continued beyond his or her tenure. No generation wants its hard-fought leadership success to be swallowed up in a whirlwind of neglect, insensitivity, and lack of appreciation for the sacrifice expended on that achievement.

 We must mentor! No greater measure of leadership success exists than the ability to protect, preserve and transfer the accomplishments of the present leadership to the next generation.

 This is the heart of the principle of succession and must be a priority in our twenty-first century leadership challenge. This book is about this challenge, and I invite you to join the adventure and the journey.

 It is my hope that this book will inspire and equip you to think beyond your own leadership and motivate you to leave a legacy, not in institutions or on tombstones but in people. May you always remember that your success depends on your successors.

 

 

 

Buy Online Now!