NGO Soul + Strategy
Welcome to my podcast NGO Soul + Strategy – a podcast for leaders of NGOs and other philanthropic organizations who are not satisfied with the status quo, are ready to look change right in the eye and who see themselves as leader-as-learner.
NGO Soul + Strategy
079. Leadership in Africa Redefined With Taaka Awori of Busara Africa
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Tosca Bruno-van Vijfeijken
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Season 5
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Episode 79
Summary
What does it Busara's tagline mean: 'transformational leadership, from the inside out'?
To what extent are there truly different global south-normed leadership models?
Does personality still play an important role as well, in addition to national or regional cultural differences in leadership approaches?
In this NGO Soul+Strategy podcast episode, I interview Taaka Awori, Founder & CEO of Busara Africa, a leadership development services company, on redefining leadership in Africa.
Taaka's Bio:
- Founder and CEO of Busara Africa, a pan-African leadership development firm based in Accra, Ghana
- Author of the book Leadership Redefined: Untold Stories
- Associate Certified Coach with International Coaching Federation (ICF)
- Podcast host of Leadership Redefined: Untold Stories
- Member of the editorial board of Coaching Perspectives
- Chair of the board of the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF)
- Former Country Director of AAI
- Assistant Social Development Adviser, DFID (now called FCDO)
- Degrees from Harvard and Columbia Universities
We discuss:
- Taaka started specializing in leadership development and organizational development, after discovering as a Country Director at ActionAid that what was most needed from her was good leadership – not any technical specialization
- Busara’s tagline is - transformational leadership from the inside out – signals that leadership starts with self-awareness and self-regulation
- Equally, good leadership is a combination of not just intellect or analytical capabilities, but also innate and learned wisdom, and the heart
- Other premises of Busara: let’s build on the examples of excellent leadership in Africa (not the negative examples); and feminist leadership
- 70% of Busara’s clients are NGOs; the rest are private sector and government agencies
- How are African leadership models distinct, if in any way, from global North-formed models?
- Another distinct element is the explicit inclusion of politization and thus the need for leaders to be aware of this, and to navigate it in a mission focused manner
- Busara is also interested to learn more about what’s to be learned from leaders of informal, non-registered organizations: informal worker associations, social movements and networks
- Interesting sub-continental dimensions of leadership within the African continent
Resources:
Taaka’s book: Leadership Redefined: Untold Stories
Leadership in Africa Redefined Podcast
YouTube video
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