Arriving at the National Leadership Institute, Kyankwanzi on the 25th of July 2022 signaled nothing else but success.
The institute environment, the caring staff, the accommodation, food, morning drills and patriotic songs with Afande Nyakaisiki, “the beautiful bees welcome gestures” etc were all spot on. Congratulations to the Director NALI Brig Gen Charles Kisembo for the current developments.
After many years without touching NALI grounds, the day finally came, by 2:30pm we reduced speed as we encountered the first quarter guard, we were cleared to enter, driving through the NALI beautiful lanes with natural oxygen from the ever green environment was the best experience. Looking at the caring men in uniform guiding us the participants, clearly showed that UPDF was Africa’s number one, they had to ensure everyone gets a fitting combat and led us to our rooms. Immediately many took photos with amazement, met new friends and created contacts
Behold, what many thought was an off station retreat actually ended up packaging us to full capacity in order to take the development of Uganda to the next level. Hon.Maama.Milly Babalanda Minister for Presidency, Secretary Office of the President Hajji.Yunus Kakande and the entire Presidency deserves a noble award for carefully selecting the lecturers who conducted real PhD development data.
RDCs, RCCs and their Deputies were fully lectured on strategic thinking skills, perhaps the most important skill a leader needs and this is exactly what distinguishes leaders from managers.
A leader at a level of a representative of the president has to be able to think strategically as opposed to lamenting, he or she must be able to bridge the gap between the centre and the decentralized units or local governments. This means, in simple terms, having full idea or vision of where Uganda as a country want to be and working to achieve that and that is taking the pearl to the 1st world country. All was imparted to the participants
The best strategic thinkers see the big picture, and are not distracted by side issues or minor details like opposition negative energies. All their decisions are broadly based on their answer to the community question ‘does this action take Uganda closer to where it is destined to be?’. Good strategic thinking must be based on evidence, and that means being able to gather and analyse information from a wide range of sources in the community in order to tackle thier challenges
The RDC fraternity as leaders after the NALI retreat are well polished able to make good decisions in support of government strategy to service delivery, and solve community problems, with a positive attitude, we are now able to harness community challenges into opportunities and learning experiences, and as a representative of the President leader can now gain much information from a problem addressed
Without followers, there are no leaders. The representatives of the President were taken through skills in working with others on a one-to-one and group/team basis, and a range of tools in their respective offices to deal with a wide range of situations
Todate RDCs, RCCs and their deputies are extremely good listeners, able to listen actively and elicit information by good questioning, They are showing high levels of assertiveness, which is enabling them to make their point without aggression, but firmly on point for the development of Uganda
Now let the sky be the limit.
The author is Deputy Resident City Commissioner Fort Portal City North Division
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