How Leading from Behind Helps You Get Ahead as a Humanitarian and International Development Leader

How can you create a team that takes more ownership and responsibility of their work so you can focus on bigger picture tasks?

This is just one of the lessons Kofi Duku shares from his ten years' experience as a leader in West Africa.

In today's interview, you'll discover:

• Why leaders who lead only from the front may be leaving their team behind
• Why emotional regulation is important as a leader
• Hear firsthand how Kofi Duku transformed his leadership style to create a more engaged, self-sufficient team and reclaimed time for strategic priorities.

Listen now to uncover actionable strategies that will help you lead more effectively, inspire your team, and free up your time for what truly matters!

Contact Kofi Duku:

• Linkedin Profile
• Whatsapp: +233204500868

 

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WHAT IS YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE? QUIZ

Want to know how to lead better? It starts by understanding your leadership style. To find out yours, take my free quiz “What Is Your Leadership Style” - you’ll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.  Just click on the link fill out your quiz and click submit.

 

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Find out how Kofi Duku created a team that takes greater ownership and responsibility over their work so that he is able to focus on bigger picture tasks on today's interview.

Welcome to The Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader podcast, the podcast, helping humanitarian and development supervisors make a greater impact by taking control of your time, leading more inclusively and empowering your team all the while avoiding stress, burnout, and overwhelm. I'm your host, leadership coach and former aid worker, Torrey Peace.

Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hello, my aspiring modern humanitarian and development leaders. I hope you're having a wonderful week. On today's episode, you're going to discover: why leaders who only lead from the front may be leaving their team behind., why emotional regulation is important as a leader and the most impactful lesson learned which helped reduce Kofi Duku's overwork and created a more engaged team.

And as you might've gathered, today's episode is a little bit different.

We're going to do an interview today. And I'm really excited about this. This is the first interview on the podcast and it's with one of my former students. A graduate from my course "Becoming The Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader". His name is Kofi Duku. I will let him introduce himself during the interview, but just to say that, I think that there are several takeaways here that I love the way Kofi presents and what's inspired him to become a better leader from the west African or Ghanaian lens.

And if you want to learn how to reach Kofi, I'm going to put all the contacts that he shared in the show notes. So you can find them there. All right. Let's get started.

So Kofi, welcome to the modern humanitarian and development leader podcast. It's so wonderful to have you here today. And I would like to start if you could just introduce yourself and maybe share something interesting that most people don't know about you.

Kofi: My name is Kofi Duku. I'm the Director of Water Quality and Service Delivery at Saha Global, an NGO based in Tamale, Ghana, that focuses on getting water to the hardest to reach communities up north here in Ghana.

Um, on the outside, I am a very quiet and smooth person. I usually describe myself as a pineapple. May not look too nice on the outside, but I'm much more of a very sweet person on the inside when you get to know me.

One of the very interesting things most people don't know about me is my love for driving, especially long drives. All I, all I prefer for that drive is a bottle of soda and a few chewables and I'm off.

Torrey: Okay, I imagine you get a lot of long drives around your trips to visit sites in Ghana. Um, when you say chewables, what does that mean?

Kofi: Oh, some pastries, some peanuts, some cashew. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Torrey: And I'm also curious, when did you start supervising others?

Kofi: I think that should be pretty early in my life. When I was in junior high school, I ended up occupying a few, prefect ship positions that got me to be in charge of my colleagues and juniors in getting taxed. Then so that's, that's when I started being a supervisor. It continued when I got to high school at a fancy school, Cape Coast in Ghana, where I also ended up as a prefect and that was a quote for managing people here and there and getting things done.

Career wise, I think right from the start of my career, I've always worked with teams and I've been mostly in charge of my team and making sure we accomplish tasks given to us.

Torrey: Hmm. And how many people are you supervising right now?

Kofi: Well, so in my organization, I manage the biggest team so far.

Directly I manage two and indirectly I manage 34. What? So I could confidently say that, um, if you look at the company organogram right under me, you have 36 people.

Torrey: Oh my gosh, 36 people. Wow. That is, that's amazing. , I had asked you a few questions to prepare for this. And one of the quotes you shared that I found really interesting was, leadership is not always from the front, stand in the back at some points to see how those in the back see those in the front.

So I'm curious, first of all, if you'd like to tell me more about this, but also how did you come to this realization?

Kofi: Well, so there's an Akan adage, right?

So before I even go ahead, um, so in Ghana, we have various tribes. Right. Or should I say ethnic groups and one of the major ethnic groups in Ghana is the Akan ethnic group.

And they have one adage which goes like, um, "the one leading the way and clearing the path does not realize that the path he's making is crooked until he's told by those behind him. So, um, I think that prompted me to actually figure out that leadership is not mainly about being in front, but there are times you've got to step to the back to assess the path you are charting to see if it's actually straight or you have a few bends you need to straighten out.

Sometimes when you're always in front, you seem to miss all the action at the back because you get to focus on what is ahead. Instead of making a review or taking feedback on what is going on behind to see if some things need to be straightened out or some things need to be chopped off.

Torrey: Wow. I love that. At what point in your leadership journey, did you, come to this realization of how true this, this quote or this saying is for you?

Kofi: That, that should be in, early 2019, when I was, by then working as a water system engineer and was in charge of a group of four technicians on my water system. So for most part of the time I thought I was giving them the right direction and leading them on the right way. But, um, unknowing to me, I, I was alone actually because they had a different opinion on what we needed to do and how we need to do it. So it was when I really took a step back to see what I was actually doing with them and how we were doing it, that I realized I was not on the same frequency with my team and that I at some point have to come back and assess if I'm on the same frequency with them, or if they're in sync with what we are all agreeing with. You know, most often during meetings decisions are made, discussions are had, but not everyone might be on the same frequency. Not everyone would be on the same page. And once not everyone is on the same page, it becomes a bit difficult to implement it. But rather when you have everyone on the same page, everyone is in sync with what has been decided on.

When you've listened to everyone, and you've been able to answer every question everyone is asking, then everyone feels a part of the decision that has been made, and then everyone owns up to the work that needs to be done.

Torrey: So it sounds like you came to a point where, did they tell you that they were not in line with what you were doing or did you notice that yourself or how did that come about?

Kofi: So, one of my teammates actually in a conversation outside work has the comments which got me to realize there was something not right within the team. So that is when I decided to get closer to the team, not always stand in front of them, but sits with them or sits behind them. And then that has made a difference.

Torrey: And so when you say sitting behind, it sounds like you mean asking them what they would do or how things are going, that kind of a thing?

Kofi: Yes. And in addition to that, not only telling them what to do every time, but, also asking what they would do or asking of their opinions on the next steps.

You know, they're saying that too, much meat won't spoil a soup.

Torrey: Sorry, wait, what is that again? Too much meat won't spoil the soup?

Kofi: Yeah, so it's always good to have extra ideas on the table to be able to get the best out of it and make, do it.

Torrey: I love that. I love all these sayings that you're, bringing here.

So you also mentioned, Kofi, in preparation for this, that You learned in the course that you took with me to separate your feelings from the situation. So can you tell me about the moment, like first of all, maybe you can tell us about like what does that mean for you?

Kofi: I think not just as a leader, but it's pretty common for an individual to mix up emotions with the actual situation. And usually once you mix up emotions with an actual situation, you tend to see it through the spectacle of your emotions, but not as it's supposed to be.

Not The reality, and that gives the tendency of, um, making bad choices, or probably making choices based on how you feel at that point in time, right? So that's why it's good to be able to separate your emotions or feelings from what the reality is. That gives you the actual facts on the ground in regards to whatever situation you're dealing with.

With that, um, whatever the decision you take is based on the facts and figures. Not how you feel or how you want it to be done. Or what is going to make you happy. You know, as a leader, there are times that you need to make decisions, which you might not emotionally be happy with, but that is what is supposed to be done.

And that is what is going to get a team to achieve its goal. But where you want to let your emotions take charge of how to make the decision, then you end up pleasing yourself by not getting the goals achieved.

Torrey: And in terms of like when you took the course, the coaching course, what was it that had the most impact for you that you learned?

Kofi: The point I had the most impact for me was, when it really hits me, I need to listen more and talk less, especially when I'm meeting with my team. I think that's the reason why we have two ears and one mouth. As a leader if, we needed to be talking more, probably I've had two mouths.

Once you are deciding to listen more, you get to hear more opinions, hear more options. It gives, it gives you the opportunity to be able to think through what is being said by the others. And come up with a decision which is going to be much better than the situation where you're the only one to be speaking throughout or you're going to be speaking more than the other members of the team.

Torrey: Yeah, and I'm curious also Kofi because it's one thing to say that like, oh, I need to listen more and talk less. But what did you tell yourself or what did you have to do in order to make that happen in order to listen more?

Kofi: I consciously give my team the opportunity to speak. And then they're being heard. Because there are times you would probably just give them the opportunity to speak, but you might not listen to what they are saying.

But then I, I decide to let them know and feel they are being heard as well. So it comes more of a conscious effort to make sure I want to listen to them. And after, after some time, it's, it's just becomes a part of you, the individual. That's how it has played out for me.

Torrey: Nice. It's almost like changing a habit in a sense.

What has been the result of you listening more to your team?

Kofi: So one of the major changes I've seen in my team is, the team sort of starting to own up group decisions. So it becomes more of "we have decided to do this" instead of "director wants us to do this".

It's become more of "we wants to do this" instead of "we've been asked to do this".

Torrey: Interesting. So what you're saying is that, by you listening more to them, that they've taken more Ownership over what they're doing. Is that accurate?

Kofi: Absolutely. Yeah, that's correct. It has taken a lot of the load off my shoulders with regards to being the only one to find ways of moving the team forward. Now it's more of a collective, uh, Uh, decision. So problems that have been otherwise solved by me alone, now I get an opportunity to address about how they would have solved it or what they would have done to get it mitigated.

But obviously there are some problems which are high level ones which you cannot send down to the team. So those ones, I think they shot myself. But, um, with one that, uh, well, the ones that we planned. The whole team efforts. Yeah. It's taking the load off my shoulders. Now it feels more like, okay, we are all in this together than previously when it would have been, okay, I need to make the decision for the team.

So I've been able to move majority of the transactional activities off my plates

to focus on the tactical and the strategic ones.

Torrey: That's wonderful.

I see so many leaders putting so much pressure on themselves to have all the answers. And it sounds like you realize that the value of your team also participating in that decision making. So that's, that's wonderful. So Kofi, what is the impact that you hope to make in your team or organization, and how do you plan on making that impact as a leader?

Kofi: I like to be the kind of leader whose teammates are eager and happy to report on their successes achieved. I'd be the kind of leader whose teammates are happy and readily open to walk up to and express concerns or give opinions on things that need to be done.

I'd like to be the leader who will be remembered for how I helped others come up to fill leadership positions instead of one who just pushed everyone away from leadership positions. I want to be that one.

Torrey: That's beautiful. I love it. I can't wait to see how that happens, over the next few years. And so Kofi, what else would you like to share with leaders in a similar position to yours?

Kofi: Yeah, I'll just take a run back to what I mentioned at the start of this conversation that leadership comes from being able to be in front every time, but some way, somehow let's take some steps back, get to the back of the trail and look at how it is going, do some self assessment so we can have a view of whatever we are doing from the back.

That will give us a different perspective of what we see from the front and we'll be able to straighten things out.

Torrey: Well, thank you so much, Kofi. And I know that some listeners might be interested in getting in touch with you. So how might they do that?

Kofi: Sure, they can reach out to me through my mail or on social media links, which I will share with you shortly.

Torrey: Okay. Great. Yeah. I'll put those in the show notes so people can find them there. And yeah. Any parting words before we wrap up?

Kofi: As always, listen more.

Torrey: Well said. Well, thank you, Kofi, so much for coming and sharing your experience as a leader.

All right that concludes the interview for today. So just as a quick recap, The things that Kofi mentioned include: why leaders who lead from the front only are not always aware of what's going on in the back. In other words, they could be leaving team members behind

whereas if you back up and ask your team more about what they're thinking or think about things from their perspective, you can really help bring them along with you.

And he also mentioned why emotional regulation is so important and how you can make better decisions and have a more impactful communication when you are in a neutral, emotional place or a place of calm rather than a strong, let's say negative emotion.

And then finally the most important lesson which he learned that helped him reduce his workload and created a more engaged team, which is really about listening.

But also part of that listening is listening to help include or create a more inclusive environment where his team felt that they could contribute and that their answers or that their ways were being considered, their ideas so that they would take more ownership and more responsibility over their work. So I will once again, leave, uh, Kofi's contacts in the show notes.

And of course, if you are interested in also taking the course Becoming the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader", please go to my website aid for aid workers.com and look up the course there. All right. Until then, keep evolving. Bye for now.

Are you the type of leader that tells others what to do? Or do you let them figure it out for themselves? Understanding your leadership style is the first step to deciding what's working for you and what's not. To find out your leadership style, take my free quiz "what is your leadership style?" You'll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team, and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.

Just click on the link in the show notes, www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz fill out your quiz and click submit. So what are you waiting for? Go to www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz and discover your leadership style now. Your team will thank you for it!