“A baby who watches the hearth will someday carry the flame.” — African proverb
Management growth in lots of Nigerian organisations is usually handled as a search train: recruit externally, rent seniors, promote quickly and hope competence seems. But the organisations which have persistently produced resilient management pipelines have relied not on luck, however on apprenticeship — the deliberate switch of judgement, accountability and tradition over time.
Apprenticeship is typically mistaken for an outdated apply, but it stays one of the crucial dependable mechanisms for management continuity. It’s not silent commentary nor passive proximity. It’s guided participation: studying via doing, with the help of those that already perceive the burden of selections. Apprenticeship doesn’t merely switch information; it transfers judgement, timing and context — qualities that can not be acquired in a classroom.
A number of Nigerian corporations have constructed reputations for growing leaders internally via structured publicity. The banking sector affords notable examples. Entry Financial institution and United Financial institution for Africa have invested for years in inner academies that help expertise growth lengthy earlier than people attain senior government roles. These programmes are seen, aggressive and deliberate. They create pathways the place younger professionals observe decision-making intently, take part in actual obligations steadily and perceive not solely what should be achieved but additionally why it should be achieved.
In shopper items, companies equivalent to Nigerian Breweries and Nestlé Nigeria have quietly nurtured management depth via rotational assignments, frontline publicity and disciplined mentoring. Many executives who now lead divisions throughout the business spent early years carrying accountability in gross sales, provide chain or manufacturing earlier than taking strategic roles. The result’s seen continuity: management transitions that seem clean as a result of functionality has been formed steadily behind the scenes.
In indigenous enterprise, apprenticeship takes different types. Some family-owned enterprises have recognised the significance of getting ready successors early, not solely via formal titles but additionally via engagement with clients, suppliers and monetary companions lengthy earlier than succession is mentioned publicly. When the second of transition arrives, continuity feels pure fairly than abrupt. The enterprise stays recognisable even because the voice on the high adjustments.
These examples illustrate that apprenticeship will not be nostalgia; it’s infrastructure. It reduces threat by guaranteeing that management functionality will not be found by chance however cultivated deliberately. With out apprenticeship, organisations face hidden fragility. When senior leaders withdraw or transfer on, successors might inherit authority with out judgement, accountability with out preparation and popularity with out the expertise wanted to maintain it. The organisation pauses when it ought to proceed.
“When the second of transition arrives, continuity feels pure fairly than abrupt. The enterprise stays recognisable even because the voice on the high adjustments.
Apprenticeship additionally protects tradition. Values are not often transmitted solely via manuals, insurance policies or slogans. They’re noticed in how leaders negotiate with out vanity, defend workers when errors are made actually, converse to clients in tough moments and stability urgency with restraint. Apprenticeship permits rising leaders to soak up not solely choices but additionally the way through which choices are made.
For apprenticeships to work, leaders should decelerate lengthy sufficient to clarify and contain. They have to enable others to battle productively earlier than stepping in. They have to settle for that management will not be absolutely expressed via private functionality however via the capability they construct in others. Apprentices, in flip, should strategy accountability with humility. Apprenticeship requires curiosity, resilience and endurance; titles come later.
Some fields have all the time understood this. Aviation calls for supervised hours earlier than impartial flying. Drugs requires residency, not simply examination. Engineering and regulation count on structured tutelage. These professions settle for that judgement can’t be rushed. Enterprise management calls for the identical endurance, although it’s usually neglected.
As Nigerian organisations broaden, compete and transition throughout generations, the leaders who spend money on apprenticeship will construct establishments that outlast personalities. Apprenticeship doesn’t diminish the chief; it multiplies management. It ensures that when one particular person steps apart, another person is prepared not solely to occupy the seat but additionally to hold the accountability with confidence.
The proverb teaches {that a} baby who watches the hearth will someday carry the flame. Apprenticeship ensures the flame doesn’t fade. It turns promise into functionality and ambition into continuity.
There’ll all the time be leaders whose brilliance carries an organisation ahead. However the organisations that endure perceive that brilliance will not be sufficient. They construct successors early, not as a result of management is ending, however as a result of the work should proceed.
Dr Olufemi Ogunlowo is the CEO of Strategic Outsourcing Restricted, a number one supplier of personnel and enterprise course of outsourcing companies in Nigeria. He’s additionally a daily columnist on employment and workforce technique.
