An expert in Leadership and Management in the United States, Professor Enoch Opoku Antwi has called on African Leaders to abandon the outmoded concepts of leadership and abreast themselves with modernised leadership approaches.

Donating his book “Servant Leaders: The Greatest among Us from Theory to Practical: This is Why” at the Sundoulos Advanced Leadership Training Institute (SALT), Professor Antwi emphasised the cause of the devastating conditions of Africa attributing it to inconsiderate leaders.

“The state of our leadership is still in the 16th century. So we are 500 years behind leadership. Most people are afraid to talk to power about what is wrong in our society. When our leaders go wrong we should be bold to point it out.

“Unfortunately, in Africa, most of our people are afraid to speak to power, that should not be the case because when you are a leader, you are just a servant. The people rather employed you and you come and serve them in humility,” he said on Tuesday.

He argued that leaders should model the way for followers to pursue and cautioned African leaders to prioritise the continent and its people rather than amassing wealth at the expense of the masses.

“I want our leaders to be humble and meek. Leadership means that the people want you to lead them, model the way, show exemplary leadership, make sure you are humble, listen to the people, build community, be empathetic.

“If you are a leader, you come to solve problems. That means that any resources that we have we shouldn’t be thinking of ourselves alone as leaders. Let's think about the people and share the resources equitably.”

Taking his turn, the Registrar of the Institute, Michael Armah described the donation of the book timely, as he believed it will aid students to better themselves in the field of leadership.

“For us, this book on servant leadership is going to add already to our rich library of resources on transformational leadership and we believe that this will help our students to be able to understand how from a certain global perspective how leaders are required to behave. Not a bit like how we see in our country”.

The book consists of 16 chapters and communicates the essence of leaders serving their followers and not vers versa. Professor Antwi donated 10 copies of the book to Sundoulos Advanced Leadership Training Institute (SALT), yesterday and mention its availability on the Amazon website.