Honesty is the hallmark of leadership

Panashe Chinyemba and Joseph Nyamande
First Choice Private Waterfalls

ON March 21, just before schools closed, First Choice Private School and First Choice College (Highfield) prefects held a lead­ership workshop with renowned leaders.

It was coordinated by Trymore Nyamap­feni.

True leaders were born that day.

In the first session, we learnt about the characteristics of a leader.

We discovered a whole new philosophy behind leadership that taught us that a leader is there to inspire and not give orders in overbearing fashion.

One of the presenters acknowledged the qualities of his headmaster from 1997, Mr Kingstone Rudhenya, and the everlasting mark he made in his life.

He highlighted that a leader should be like that — remembered for humility and character-changing traits.

The session ended when things were becoming more and more interesting.

The second sitting was about us and what we had learnt, including what made us think we can be good leaders.

In the final session, we broke down the word”‘Leadership”.

We treated the word as an abbreviation of a true leader’s characteristics:

L — Listens,

E — Empathises,

A — Acts responsibly,

D — Dedicates time for others,

E — Empowers others,

R — Removes obstacles,

S — Serving others,

H — Helping with humility,

I — Interacts with integrity

P — Perseveres.

But our main takeaway from the work­shop was the fact that a true leader should be honest and faithful even in all little things.

We quoted Luke 16 verse 10, which says, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”

A leader is supposed to be honest in everything he or she does.

Self-honesty comes first before it is rec­ognised by those being led.

Leadership is also about forgiving others.

To conclude the amazing activity, famous actor Zolile, known as Tsotsi from the pop­ular television soap “Wenera”, shared a few words of encouragement.

After that, a photoshoot marked the end of the memorable event.

• Students send your arti­cles, pictures, poetry or art to: [email protected] or [email protected], WhatsApp or text Charles Mushinga on 0719936678. Follow Charles Mushinga on Facebook or @char­lesmushinga on Twitter.