By Francis Ogwo
A call has gone out to stakeholders in the banking industry to leverage on ’emotional intelligence’ to build ethical leadership in the industry.
This is coming from the outgoing President/Chairman of Council of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Dr. Uche Messiah Olowu, while delivering his Presidential Valedictory address via a webinar on May 25th as the 20th outgoing President/Chairman of Council of the Institute on the theme, ‘Ethical Leadership in Banks and Emotional Intelligence’.
In his speech contained in a release signed by Nelson Olagundoye, Head, Corporate Communication & External Relations of the CIBN, Olowu told over 1000 zoom/YouTube participant that leadership would succeed if people are emotionally engaged by priming good feelings in those they lead.
“Ethical leadership influences people to exhibit right behaviour that could maximize values such as integrity, honesty, consistency, and while Emotional intelligence aligns with ethics to achieve organizational success,” he said.
Speaking further, he said that emotions in interpersonal relationships, service delivery and intrapersonal relationship influence the major parameters in service-oriented firms like the banking profession, which are amplified by the digital landscape in which banks operate as pressure are exerted on these parameters.
He lamented that insufficient attention paid to emotional intelligence in the banking industry as cognitive processes, which are adopted for performance assessment, recruitments, and selections, has aided the proliferation of wrong performance, wrong interpretations of human actions and erroneous reflection of organizations’ values in the characteristics of top management as stated in underlying theories of emotional intelligence.
Olowu noted that “it is generally perceived that numerous scandals in the banking industry create the impression that corporate culture in banks tolerates unethical behaviour, apart from the fact that banking is a business premised on the capitalist ideal of profit at all cost”.
This, according to him, has damaged customers trust.
He explained that “the four domains of emotional intelligence that predicts success are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. These domains are strengthened by emotional competencies which comprise individual thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and it is divided into personal and social competencies.”
He, however, recommended that “Ethical leadership behaviour should be encouraged in banks to facilitate success through leadership commitment to ethical values, prudence, and exercise of fair judgement.
“Emotional capabilities should be developed to create an atmosphere of trust, cooperation, and ethical leadership.
He urged the banking industry to eschew pressure of the moment, which may tilt towards unethical behaviour while adding that “training for emotional intelligence across the broad spectrum should be executed to arrest discomfort and provide reassurances in time of turbulence and threatening change”.
While concluding, Dr Olowu said his visible success as the 20th President/Chairman of Council of the Institute were predicated on these five-point agenda of:
“Rules and Standards, Skills and Competence, Research and Advocacy, Technology and Resources, Brand and Visibility”.
The online valedictory address was chaired by Mazi Victor Okoronkwo, Group Managing Director of Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company Ltd/1st National Vice President of the Nigerian Gas Association, and Mrs Osaretin Demuren, Chairman, GTBank Plc & Chairman, Bank Directors Association of Nigeria Dr Uche Messiah Olowu held the enviable position for two years (2018-2020) as the President of the banking institute.
Before his election as President, Dr Uche Olowu has been the Institute’s first Vice president and Chairman, Board of Fellows/Practice Licenses of the Institute.
He is a seasoned professional banker and astute scholar with over 30 years of cognate experience. He has a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) in Management from Rivers State University of Science & Technology (RUST), Port Harcourt, where he traditionally capped it with a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) in Management-Organisational Behaviour.
He started his professional banking career in 1985 with United Bank for Africa Plc, where he rose to become the Manager, Corporate Banking (Energy South) in 1999.
He joined Equitorial Trust Bank Ltd. in 2000 as Senior Relationship Manager before crossing over to Fountain Trust Bank in the same year as Senior Relationship Manager and was promoted to Assistant General Manager (South) in 2005, a position he held until he pitched his tent once again with UBA Plc in 2006 as Head, Upstream & Oil Services South.
Again, in 2008, he left the service of UBA for Union Bank of Nigeria Plc as a Deputy General Manager.
The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in 1992 established an all-purpose consultancy unit, which was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission as CIBN Consult with the mandate to address the increasing demand for high quality multi-disciplinary consulting services to serve the needs of diverse sectors of the Nigerian economy.
