Leadership – We Are As Strong As the Sum of Our Parts

By Taiwo Odukoya

As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. – Ephesians 4:16b NLT

We are collectively as strong as our individual or constituent parts. This is as true for families as it is for organisations and nation states. And so there is a sense in which we are all responsible for the successes or failures of the different strata of our community. What we cannot afford to do, therefore, is devalue the role we play in building society. Perhaps this was what Martin Luther King Jr. had in mind when he said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived…