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Life inside Transform – The Leader’s Gathering- Part 1.

On Friday 6th and Saturday 7th September 2019, I attended the Leader’s Gathering in Nalya, Kampala at the Worship Harvest Ministries. In these series,i will be writing about my observations at the Gathering and lessons learnt. Attendance of a Gathering like this comes at a personal cost as I have to travel from Jinja to Kampala. But as John Maxwell says in two (law of Trade offs and Law of Sacrifice) of his laws of Growth, to achieve our full potential, we must be willing to sacrifice something. Growth does not come out of the blue.And if we need to change anything in our life,all we have to do is change our habits. Daily Habits determine who we are.

This is an annual gathering of leaders both from the church and the market place and one of its core aims is to equip leaders with the necessary leadership skills so we can be better leaders in our different spheres of influence. The Gathering also exposes participants to networking opportunities with influencers and visionaries.

I wrote to about 30 church and market place leaders that I personally know and directly invited them to attend the Gathering. Only 4 (14%) of those showed up. The rest just had good excuses and most promised to attend next year. As Ugandans, we need to learn to invest in continuous learning, and this learning has to be paid for, as we human beings tend not to value free things. I have been into spaces where they told us that Yesu Ababudde emere (Jesus has provided free food), but once we leave such environments, most of what we heard just evaporates- Why? Probably because since it was free, we attached little value on it.

I had scheduled visitors who were coming home on Friday 6th, the very day of the conference. So Julie and I spent much of Thursday preparing for them; as such I slept a little bit late and tired. The following morning at around 4:20am, I woke up, but I was not in the mood to leave my bed. I somehow even entertained feelings of not going to the conference. Part of me wanted to go but the body was not cooperating. I slept in more for a few minutes, but was also worried that sleep may overcome me and I woke up late. I eventually overcome the disturbing feeling and left my bed.

I and my team got prepared, showered and dressed up, by exactly 6:00am; we hit the road for Kampala, by 7:50am, we were in Nalya. The ushers did an incredibly good Job welcoming us in.
The formal Gathering session started at exactly 9:00am. Now organizers(Worship Harvest Ministries) of this Gathering believe so much in time keeping and being excellent. So they kept time and were exceptionally organized. I don’t see this sense of order in many places in Uganda, neither do I see many institutions/individuals that live out their values. I would like to laud the Worship Harvest ministries for walking their talk.

First on stage where the choirs which did an excellent Job with their presentations.Thereafter,Mosze who was the first speaker talked about Momentum and how it’s a leader’s best friend. He also talked about how we should operate with focus and intensity in our areas of strength. I took note of this.

He pointed out the four kinds of Leaders, namely;-

1) Momentum Breakers: These ones can slow down and even kill the little momentum handled to them.
2) Momentum takers: These are good when things are good and bad when things are bad.
3) Momentum fakers:- They ride on hype, they make it look like something is happening, They talk big.
4) Momentum makers: They make things happen. They are U turn leaders.

I have interacted with all groups. I remember one time at church; we had gained a lot of momentum, when suddenly we heard that one of our team members had impregnated a girl on the village. Word quickly went around and it somehow slowed down our momentum.Such is the harm that momentum breakers can bring upon a team.

In our leadership spaces, let us all do whatever we can to be Momentum makers (No.4) not breakers.

Blessings – Edward.

Part 2 will come out tomorrow.

I may stand for president.

Thursday last week, 22nd August 2019,I leave Jinja at exactly 9:00am for Kampala; I arrive in Kampala at 2:00pm. The drive would have ideally lasted for 2 hours, but it went up to 5 hours. Total amount of time lost on the road was about 3 hours. Anyone to pay for my lost time? No body.Can i complain to any office? I doubt if anybody would be willing to listen to such issues.
Kampala is a good place, but one of its downsides is the heavy traffic Jams and flooding during rainy seasons.

Now, Over 50% of Ugandan’s wealth (GDP) is concentrated in this area of Kampala and Wakiso.
The highest number of Ugandan Physical/city planners , some even with PHDs stay in Kampala/Wakiso.
The highest number of Ugandans, who have lived, studied and traveled in organized and developed western societies stay in Kampala/wakiso.
The highest numbers of Ugandan Pastors/ “men of God” with larger than life personalities who think (ignorantly) that they are more closer to God than anyone else stay in Kampala/Wakiso.
Most of the top Ugandan government officials/technocrats who ideally should be well learnt and exposed live in Kampala/Wakiso.
The highest number of Uganda’s top politicians/policy makers stay in Kampala/Waksiso.
Most multi-national aid agencies/Research Institutions/Embassies, etc have offices in Kampala/Wakiso.
Most of Uganda’s cultural Leaders(Kabaka,Kyabazinga,Omusinga,Iguru of Tooro and others ) live in Kampala. For the Kabaka,its okay, while the other ones i don’t even understand why they don’t live in their kingdoms.

Now with all those resourced and seemingly educated people people living in that territorial area known as Kampala/Wakiso,i don’t understand why they can’t find a solutions to the traffic Jam problem and flooding. As it stands,it seems either no one or very few individuals  have  any idea on how to go about it.Even those who may have an idea, no one has yet put it in practice or the idea is being put in practice at a very slow pace. Many other African Countries like Tanzania had a similar problem,but were able to solve it.

Every time I make an appointment to meet with any Ugandan politician, especially members of Parliament they either come late or even sometimes bounce appointments. To them, keeping time seems not to be an important issue, remember these are our national policy makers. So if they don’t value time, why would they be in a hurry to approve/allocate resources that would build infrastructure to solve the traffic jams problem?

Is there anything I can do about it for now? Will I just keep on complaining like that as the problem escalates? Earlier in our leadership class, we were told about how people are, on a daily basis, writing the stories of our lives with or without our consent.

So instead of sitting on the fence quietly watching and endlessly complaining, I may have to do something.The idea I have for now is that if this problem is not solved by the powers that be in the next ten years, I may look into the possibility of standing for a political office, and if necessary even the top office. That way, I will be an active participant in the story of my country.

Blessings- Edward