Leadership is very critical to the success of any organization or society. Failure to get it right at the leadership level means failure of that organization or society from the onset. In fact, it is said that the failure or success of any organization or society begins from the recruitment or selection process (i. e. garbage in; garbage out). It is for this reason that leadership must be devoid of sentiments and emotions. It must be based on merit and competence for the desired results to be achieved. For the leadership expert, John C. Maxwell, leadership simply means influence. It is the ability of a leader to convince and or persuade his carefully selected team to act in a manner that would lead to the accomplishment of a common goal. From this definition, it appears that leadership has been misconstrued in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. It has erroneously been perceived as title, rank, status, and position and mainly used for primitive accumulation of wealth.

Leadership has become an avenue to dominate, manipulate, oppress or intimidate the opponents and people. Leadership is certainly not for this purpose. Consequently, it can be said that leadership in Nigeria and or Africa has not met the global standard or performed to the satisfaction of the people.

Instead, it is dominated by leaders who sacrifice their people for themselves rather than those who sacrifice themselves for the people.

In developed countries, leadership is about what I like to describe as the double SS (i.e. Service and sacrifice). It is an opportunity to serve our Creator, serve the people and serve one's own country sincerely, honestly and humbly.

It involves a lot of sacrifices and discomfort on the part of the leader. It is not about the comfort and pleasure of the leader but the joy, comfort, welfare and security of the people. For me, leadership is all about the people, for the people and around the people.

To Pastor Paul Adefarasin of the House on the Rock, leadership should never be above the people; it should be among the people. As a fact, leadership should be people centred and country and organization focused for great success to be achieved.

John C. Maxwell has noted that there are eleven keys to excellence. Before we discuss the eleven keys to excellence, let us briefly explain what excellence connotes. Excellence according to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary means the quality of being extremely good. To achieve excellence, an organization must do the right things right and pursue excellence with zeal and enthusiasm. It must think, dream and act excellence in all ramifications. It must inculcate in the psyche and mindset of the employees the culture of excellence and integrity. It must not compromise excellence in any way. It must reward excellent behaviors and punish acts that undermine excellence. Excellence must be seen, felt and appreciated by all and sundry.

Now, what is leadership excellence?

Leadership excellence simply means a leadership that is extremely good and result oriented; a leadership that is productive and prosperous, a leadership that adds value to the system, procedures and processes of an organization; a leadership that is forward looking; a leadership that takes an organization to the next higher level at all times; a leadership that is creative, innovative and imaginative; a leadership that thinks and plans ahead; a leadership that grows the business; a leadership with a clear focus and direction; a leadership that inspires, motivates and encourages higher performance, productivity and profitability; a leadership that works for the people, organization and country; a leadership that loves and cares for the people; a leadership that brings out the best potential of the employees or the people.

What is organizational success?

This simply means an organization that achieves its goals; the one that meets set targets; organization that grows the business; the one that competes favourably with those in similar business. Bill Holton in his Leadership lessons of Robert E. Lee (1995:64) states that not only can leaders be honest and successful, but it is impossible for leaders to be really successful unless they are honest.

He points out that when you see organization occupy the front ranks of an industry and then recedes to a position of relative obscurity, the reason is largely due to dishonest and selfish leaders. He said that there are other mitigating factors, but the main reason is generally dishonesty with both internal and external customers. From this point of view, it can be seen that dishonesty and unethical practices are major hindrances to organizational success.

Consequently, leadership excellence is a sine qua non to organizational success, high performance, increased productivity and profitability. The eleven keys to leadership excellence according to John C. Maxwell that contributes immensely to organizational success are:

First value excellence
This is very necessary as values and principles guide one's actions and decisions in life. If you value excellence, your actions and decisions will be anchored on excellence. This is evidenced in world class organizations as everything they do are geared towards achieving excellence. There is therefore, no doubt that if excellence is valued and pursued, the organization's performance will be excellent.

Don't settle for average.
This is the next key to excellence. For the management guru, Peter Drucker, there are three categories of workers.

These are average, excellent and high performers. For an organization to be a top performer, it must develop its employees to be either excellent or high performers and keep developing the average ones to perform at their optimum.

Pay attention to details.
This is the third key to excellence. Here, business leaders and managers must pay great attention to details. This will eliminate minor errors and ensure that the right standards are maintained. We can see these in Toyota products where attention is paid to every detail thereby ensuring the high quality of Toyota products at all times. No wonder, Toyota products are in high demand all over the world. It is because great attention is paid to details. NNPC can attain its vision of being world class if great attention is paid to details in all its operational activities.

... to be contd on the next edition.