Innocent Onoh
Nigerian stakeholders in the coaching profession have joined their counterparts in over One hundred and forty nations globally to celebrate the 2025 International Coaching Week, with a call on leaders to thrive to be innovative in their activities in order to transform the country and uplift the citizenry.
At the event in Lagos, the stakeholders also stressed the importance of continuous coaching of the nation’s leaders at various stages for them to be current and deliver impactful leadership for the well-being of the masses and the nation at large.
In a keynote address on the theme, “Innovative Leadership Coaching as a Catalyst for Transformation,” Dr. Tunde Reis PCEC, OON, defined an innovative leader as one with vision and a risk-taker who is bold enough to embrace change.
Pointing out that such a leader is also empathetic, accepts opinions of others, and creates opportunities to unlock the potentials of members of his cabinet, Dr. Reis argued that “the present leadership in the country has done a lot of innovative things which might seem to be causing pain right now, but eventually if he sticks to it might bring rewards in the long run.”
According to the keynote speaker, who is the Founder & Executive Chairman, First World Communities, even when innovative ideas fail to yield the desired results, they serve as lessons for intelligent leaders to make wiser decisions in the future that will offer far-reaching benefits to the people and the nation at large.
He said “What people forget is that innovation is a risky business, there is no guarantee.
“When I try to innovate as a leader taking risk, it might work, it might not work.
“The thing is that innovative leaders learn to fail intelligently. They learn from their failures. So we should not expect that government leaders must not fail.”
Reis advised that for the society to be better “we need to have innovative leadership mindset that draws lessons from diverse experts, not relying on for instance our finance people alone. Involve everybody. Innovative mindset is looking for something new.”
In his remarks, the President of the International Coaching Federation, Nigeria Charter Chapter, Akanimo Ekong explained that the event was a double celebration as it marked the 30-year anniversary of the International Coaching Federation and a decade of its establishment in the country.
“We are celebrating coaching generally. We belong to the International Coaching Federation global, present in over one hundred and forty countries with about sixty-two thousand coaches.
“Every year, we celebrate coaching profession. This particular year, however is unique for two reasons. One is that International Coaching Federation is 30 years today; here in Nigeria, we are celebrating 10 years. We started in 2015,” he explained.
Ekong, who underscored the contributions of the coaching profession in empowering leaders, urged state governments to emulate the Lagos State Governor, which created an opportunity for all top government officials to be coached, thereby enhancing their competence.
His words, “We are helping people to transform lives and think differently. Very often, coaches engage with leaders- political or corporate leaders who very often may have a style of thinking or leading that they feel is effective, but no longer effective. But we are now in a new dispensation where that type of autocratic leadership style doesn’t work any longer. If you continue with that style, people will leave the organization, people will have mental issues and there will be disharmony. Leaders are now seeing the need to engage coaches.
“International Coaching Federation says that one of their visions is make coaching and integral part of transforming society, and we are seeing coaches engaging a lot of corporate individuals, entrepreneurs and political leaders. About three to four years ago, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu asked us to coach his entire executive cabinet. We can see that Lagos leads the way, we expect other states to do the same,”.
On his part, a membership director of the body, Mr. Charles Okeibunor pledged their commitment to support the country’s leaders to continue delivering innovative leadership for the attainment of the much-needed democratic dividends to make life better for Nigerians.
“Our organization is positioned to support the government and provide institutions in developing their leaders to think critically, tactically, think strategically and think analytically, solve problems and bolster resilience.
“We are equipped with people who can provide the necessary capability to address these issues. Many of our challenges are borne out of ineffective or inefficient thought process,” added Okeibunor.
A panel discussion at the event involving panelists Dr. Mirian Kene Kachikwu PCC, Femi Odelusi PCC, Linda Uneze ACC and Samson Umurhurhu PCC identified robust awareness creation, embracing of modern ICT tools including artificial intelligence ,amongst others as some of the ways of deepening innovative leadership in the country.
The event also featured a workshop where coaches sat in groups to further dissect the theme.