21ST September was 11 days ago. The commemoration of the 110th birthday of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, one of the founding fathers of this nation. This got me thinking, and reading about his story. The story of Nkrumah is quite an intriguing one.

Kwame Nkrumah was hailed as “Osagyefo”, an Akan appellation which translates into “redeemer” in English. Indeed, he was thought to be the redeemer of our nation Ghana. He was a revolutionary with radical political philosophies. He led the decolonization agenda in Ghana. There’s so much to learn from him both as an individual and as a leader. His story, speaks of his successes and failures, both of which can serve as a rich source of learning material for the sales leader.

A few years ago, when I found myself in the position where I had to lead a sales team, there was no instruction manual or user guide and I had to learn; fast. However, I found that reading pieces such as the one I am writing helped put a lot of things in perspective. As a leader, perspective is a priceless asset. It’s exactly what I hope to achieve with this piece; change your perspective, and equip you with information you can use in your journey as a sales leader.

There are so many lessons a sales leader can learn from the Nkrumah story. Some of which I believe are:

Nkrumah was a visionary committed to actionable steps towards the realization of his vision

History speaks of the 7 year development plan Kwame Nkrumah drew up, which he envisioned would bring Ghana to the state of a self-sufficient modern country. The main tasks of the plan were first to speed up the rate of growth of our natural economy, then to encourage rapid development of state and corporative sectors and thirdly, to eradicate completely the colonial structure of the then Ghanaian economy. He was a leader that envisioned the future and planned ahead, towards it. He saw beyond the limitation of NOW and appreciated the urgency of actionable steps towards achieving his dream. As a sales leader, your vision will carry your team. It will serve as the wings with which your team will fly with. Under a leader with no vision, your team will suffer, cringe and wither. Be a visionary leader! Plan ahead! Be relentless! Take actionable steps with your team towards making your vision for the team a reality.

Nkrumah had a problem solving mentality

Every step Osagyefo took was a proactive one towards solving a problem he had identified that the nation was dealing with. His efforts at establishing many industrial projects, plans of lowering taxes and educating citizens were all steps to deal with particular problems he asserted, plagued our nation. Sales is a tough terrain. Targets will be slapped at you; challenges will be thrown your way. You’ll not only have to manage the people in a team, but the processes and systems that run it. The Nkrumah story teaches the sales leader not only to strategically identify problems, but take proactive steps towards solving them. It encourages the sales leader to develop a problem solving mentality to encourage the growth of their team.

Nkrumah was a selfless leader who believed in his people

Considering his 7 year development plan and other projects Nkrumah embarked on, he demonstrated a strong belief in his people. He believed in them, their heritage and their capabilities. He demonstrated trust in them; and they in turn, trusted him. He sacrificed for his people. He endured many things, for the sake of his people. This is one lesson for the sales leader; your team will trust you if you trust them. They will trust you if they know you are on their side. Remember, leadership is service. The temptation might be to micromanage and supervise every single task you give to your team, but the Nkrumah story teaches that you learn to trust your team. Trusting them enough to allow them handle tasks, and believing in them enough to be assured that even if they make mistakes, however grave, they would still figure things out under your guidance and counsel. Trusting and serving your team encourages them to trust you and enforces their desire to cooperate with you.

Nkrumah suppressed his political opponents

One of the ways to learn from a person, I believe, is to learn from their mistakes. Throughout his regime, Nkrumah was thought to have adopted a leadership style that suppressed his opponents. Particularly so, this showed more after the 1962 incident where a grenade was thrown at him. He reacted to this by requesting the then Parliament to pass the Preventative Detention Act, allowing government to detain anyone without trial. Dear sales leader, your position will come with power, and opposition. Interestingly, your team is where you will exercise the most power and possibly the place where your greatest opposition could arise from. As a sales leader, you must learn to embrace opposition as a learning curve, and not let insecurity get the better of you. You must also learn to hoan the power you have over your team, by virtue of your leadership over them and not abuse it.

Nkrumah was thought to have exercised poor economic management at some point in his regime

There’s a school of thought that considers this one of the failures of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. He is reported to have taken certain decisions that compromised the financial stability of the nation, notable among which were the building of the tomato and mango canning plant in Wenchi, the sugar factory at Asuatuare, and others. As a sales leader, a good part of your responsibility lies in the allocation of and management of the resources of and in your team. Know that your decisions affect your team. You must learn to manage resources wisely. When your team sees that you manage resources well, their trust in you is boosted, and you quite easily inspire their cooperation.

Dear sales leader, your team will make or break you. Handling them well is the best way to maximize the team, eventually boost performance and in the long term, register yourself in their minds as a leader they can learn from, emulate and cherish.