Founder and President of Nobel International Business School, Professor Kwaku Atuahene-Gima, says bosses who feel insecure about developing their subordinates make bad leaders.

Atuahene-Gima who was the main speaker at the maiden e-seminar organised by African Corporate Governance Network (ACGN) in collaboration with the Institute of Directors (IoD) – Ghana said it was necessary for leaders to mentor and develop their subordinates in order for organizations to continue functioning efficiently even without them.

He stated that, this is, however, not always the case.

According to him, some leaders fear that their mentees will surpass them in their fields, thus refrain from giving them the necessary training and supervision in order to ensure they fully develop their capacities.

This attitude he said, becomes detrimental to the organization when that leader is absent, thus leading to the failure of most companies across the continent.

“Insecurity is the mark of a bad leader. Being insecure about mentoring people, developing people to move the company forward affects the company. You should be able to develop your people to move forward so that they don’t need you. That’s the mark of a transformational leader.”

He added that, “The mark of a great leader is the number of good leaders he is able to churn out in his lifetime.”

He thus urged leaders to make the effort to train their subordinates to build the capacities of their companies.