Mrs Ernestina Naadu Mills, the First Lady, has commended the Girls’ Brigade (GB) for its positive role in shaping the lives of young girls. Making the commendation at the Third All Officers’ Biennial Conference of the GB, in Tema, Mrs Mills observed that the formative years of the young in society impacted positively on who they become later on in life. The four-day conference, which began on Thursday, has “Faithfulness and Fruitfulness – Essential Tools for Effective Leadership,” as its theme. She urged the participants to remain loyal and committed to the GB in order to shine as leaders. The First Lady reminded them that their faith in Christ and in the organisation would lead them on to the path of success and fruitfulness. Mrs Mills urged them to let their leadership qualities lead to the mentoring of the young girls entrusted into their care. She advised them to lead humble, modest, caring and compassionate lives, by exhibiting effective leadership skills, adding, “effective leaders are those who are able to delegate responsibility, and supervise to achieve desired results.” The First Lady urged the leadership of the GB to empower the young girls to enable them take over as leaders in future. “An effective leader is one who empowers others to function at their optimum best and in the process, put in place a succession plan for the growth of the group or organization.” She pointed out that those institutions which institute concrete succession plans “survive and grow, while those that do not do so, die.” Mrs Mills entreated GB to take advantage of the multiplicity of media outlets in the country to publicize their activities. By so doing, she said, the organization would not only generate the needed public interest, but to also get more young girls to join it. The First Lady asked the GB to take advantage of the existing sponsorship opportunities from corporate bodies to support their activities. She charged them to keep a solid database of girls who pass through their care, reminding them that with this kind of database, it would be easy for them to track the young girls to be continuously involved in the activities of the Brigade, to ensure a continuous and solid link between the past and the present. Source: GNA