Everyone wants to be a leader or be the person in charge. A nice important title can be a major motivator for people to take up leadership positions and all the recognition and perks that come with it.

One of the most unpleasant tasks that a leader has to undertake is to discipline people; unpleasant but necessary. For the most part, it’s usually the difficult and unpleasant tasks that define a leader.

Holding people accountable and disciplining them is no easy feat. As a matter of fact, many say it’s unpleasant, but it is critical and necessary for a harmonious relationship. Disciplining people doesn’t come naturally to many people, even to parents whom I believe have to do it more than others. Actually, I strongly believe parents have to administer more discipline than what is currently being administered to

their children while they are still ripe for straightening. But it doesn’t come easy even to seasoned parents.

Disciplining people is a skill. I grew up hearing my dad always say to me: “I know how to discipline you because I have a ton of experience disciplining people that were not even my children”. He was right, but more importantly, he taught me that disciplining people is a skill like any other skill. If you were not born with it, you can learn and hone it like any other skill you want to pick up in life.

Please don’t get me wrong; disciplining people does not necessarily entail beating the daylights out of someone, insulting, or abusing someone for something that could’ve been dealt with in a more amicable way. In fact, that could be counterintuitive in teaching that person a lesson.

While disciplining people is synonymous with punishing them, disciplining entails inducing them to conform to established rules, with the aim of helping and guiding them to develop moral values, skills and attitudes for their effective participation in society or organisations.

Everyone has their own operating system and their own set of values and attitudes. As such, people have their own way of administering discipline. It will always depend on the circumstances in which people find themselves.

It doesn’t matter in what position you find yourself in; whether you are on the receiving end or administering the discipline, it is an absolute necessity for the development of everyone involved. In addition, if you are the leader, you know by now that it is a lifelong activity and skill that you will always be called on to do when the need arises.

* Olavi Popyeinawa

Twitter: @olavipopyeinawa

Email: olavipopyeinawa@gmail.com