When it’s somebody else’s turn, allow them room to think independently. PHOTO | FILE
Hamuwezi kutenda dhambi kubwa kama hii na pakose kuwa adhabu. Na adhabu zingine zimo mle mle ndani ya kitendo chenyewe; hazisubiri. (You cannot commit such a great sin and expect no punitive action. As a matter of fact, some punishments are incorporated right into the very acts of rebellion themselves; lamentation commences immediately).
- Jakaya Kiwete, former President of Tanzania, quoting Tanzania’s founding President Julius Nyerere in 2014.
In June 1812, one of the largest armies ever assembled till then was poised to invade Russia. It was under the command of France’s Napoleon Bonaparte who is widely accepted as one of the most brilliant military tacticians of all time.
According to www.pbs.org, Napoleon was so confident of a quick victory that he prophesied Russia’s annihilation within 20 days.
Alas, this was not to be. Napoleon’s planning omitted several critical details; the first was the disparate travel speed between the supply wagons and the troops.
Accustomed to the excellent road networks in Europe that allowed swift movement, Russia’s poor roads bogged him down.
In addition to this, the food he hoped his soldiers would forage on along the way was not forthcoming; the Russian’s didn’t take kindly to the invasion and adopted a scorched earth policy that decimated all supplies.
The invaders were soon starving. To add on to these deprivations were the diseases, vermin and the lack of appropriate clothes.
The final blow was dealt by the weather; at the onset it was extremely dry and dusty; then it changed to bone-chilling cold followed by a warm spell that thawed frozen road that made their retreat almost impossible.
Fewer than 100,000 of the 600,000 soldiers who set out made it back home.
A basic understanding of history should help people to learn from such tragic errors; not so with human beings. A similar invasion was mounted in 1941 by Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of the Third Reich. Like Napoleon, he began his march in June when the weather was favourable. He too expected a short conclusive battle and, according to www.reference.com, underestimated the strength, resilience and the fighting spirit of the Russians. While these leaders were well advised about the dangers of the enterprise they wished to undertake, none listened to counsel; they imagined that they were too great to fail. Both came incredibly close to their goal of conquering Russia. However, fatally misled by hubris, they left the battlefield in disgrace and lost their kingdoms immediately thereafter.
Leaders of family business must recognise and respect that all human beings, their own children included, have free wills; that they must be allowed to make critical life choices for themselves, even when those choices are difficult and painful.
Under no circumstance should a leader of family business attempt to craft a succession path that requires heirs to make “guided decisions” on paths designed to maintain founders’ reputation, protect them from acts of folly or to preserve property.
Own reputation
The free will is the most fundamental characteristic of being human. It is the one thing that allows individuals to determine every minute decision along the path that take in their lives.
No leader of family business should constrain their successors to suspend their free will in order to benefit from their estate; each mature scion should be set free to live and forge their own reputations.
All human beings are, at some stages of their lives, prone to acts of folly. These arise from naiveté, arrogance or sheer stupidity. The consequences of such deeds, either in their own lives or in the lives of those who have gone before them ought to be caution enough to prevent repeated acts of senselessness.
Those who will not learn from such punishments cannot be helped; not even by strict constraints on their behaviour.
While it is a matter of pride for a family business to preserve property over several generations, this should not be achieved by converting heirs into mindless zombies for whom all decisions are predetermined.
To deny heirs the chance to make critical decisions for fear of losing a part of the fortune to which they are primary beneficiaries is selfish.
Mutua is a Humphrey Fellow, leadership development consultant and author of the book “The African Prince” available on Amazon Kindle. Email: [email protected].
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