Most leaders will agree that the root cause of almost every business challenge can be traced to the quality of leadership. Discussions at EXCO, MANCO or Board Meetings often dovetail to something that "leadership could have done better". It's either the leaders are not communicating effectively, they are not giving proper direction, or that leadership is not motivating the people, managing performance or creating the appropriate incentives for the followers. It is therefore not far-fetched to agree with John C Maxwell when he says - "everything rises and falls on leadership".

In reality, organizations and individuals are quite in tune with this. For example when a soccer team fails to impress or a corporate scandal occurs, the first casualties are usually the Coach/Team Manager or the CEO, and the entire C-Suite respectively. Waiting till the team loses or the bank collapses to decapitate its positional leaders, may amount to leaving things till it's too late. Rather, we must focus on raising our chances of success by lifting the lid on individual and organizational leadership, while we can.

Looking back for example at the recent scandal around the Nigerian banking industry, the banks' leaders could have saved their banks well before Mallam Sanusi's clamp down, if they had imbibed some principles of values-based leadership. Even at their lowest ebb, authentic leaders could have made personal sacrifices, and shown courage in confronting the issues bedeviling their banks. It is these values amongst other leadership principles and qualities that we all need to imbibe if we are truly to achieve success. From the nature of the scandals, it is clear to see that the banks' leaders tried albeit unsuccessfully to achieve success without values-based leadership.

Trying to achieve success without focusing on leadership is an effort in futility. No matter how hard a man works, a lack of visionary leadership, people development and positive influence (the hallmarks of leadership) will limit your success potential. At the height of success, the story of Nigeria's Super Eagles in 1994 was all about the inspirational leadership of the Coach, Clemens Westerhoof. His leadership must have made the difference, as it was still the same set of players whose performances in the years to come dwindled significantly under less-potent leadership.

Think about the most sustainably successful individuals, families, organizations and societies today and you will clearly see visionary and influential leadership. Behind every success story, is quality leadership - nothing more, nothing less!

The first step in your leadership journey should begin with this awareness of the impact of leadership on your personal/organizational success. A next step will be to support your awareness with a fervent desire to become a better leader and achieve your success potential. We all have a God given ability to lead, so all that will be left for our journey will be the appropriate tools and resources, and creating an environment to hone and practice our leadership skills.