Leadership: Listening to the Inner Voice

Alaba Apesin, Associate Professor of Business Administration

BY SUSAN SALTER REYNOLDS

What are some of the key ingredients of good leadership? Alaba Apesin has the recipe: humility, perseverance, good listening skills, willingness to act when necessary, influence, and the ability to inspire others to be the very best versions of themselves.

In her classes, Apesin encourages students to lead from behind, to be part of a team. She incorporates team projects in every course she teaches, and randomly assigns the members to their respective teams— “in the workplace, you can’t always choose who you work with!” she explains. They must meet required deadlines and develop a strong, consistent work ethic throughout the semester.

“I used to think that leadership meant being more vocal, but now I see it differently. The best leaders are more quiet, more purposeful, and more action-oriented,” she says. Apesin references the famous video of a young boy in India trying to push away a large tree that was causing a traffic jam on the road. His willingness to act inspires others to get out of their cars to help. She uses the video in her classes to encourage students to look for leadership in many different places. “Are you a leader?” she might ask her students. “Look around you. Look at your relationships. Do your friends look up to you? Do they come to you for advice? If so, well, that’s leadership.”

Asked about key leaders in her own life, Apesin recalls her grandmother.

“‘Look at every action you take,’ she told me, ‘and ask yourself, who will be affected? The only person you can control is yourself, so try not to have a negative impact on the world.’” A mentor in high school impressed on Apesin the importance of ethical behavior in this life. She believed in life after death, and that everything in this life happens for a reason. “If things do not turn out as you expected or wanted, let it play out. Have patience. Persevere. It may take time, but things always work out for the best.”

Apesin grew up in Nigeria. She got her undergraduate degree in food technology, an MBA, and a PhD in organizational leadership. Her background is primarily in operations management. Working in a multinational as an assistant quality assurance manager, Apesin was charged in her first month on the job with overseeing a large laboratory. After a few years, she was transferred to the training department as a manager, where she trained employees on the company’s operations. This is where she discovered her true calling: teaching.

Professors are leaders, she admits, but Apesin thinks of herself as a facilitator of student learning. “I am not the custodian of knowledge,” she says. “I provide a safe space and create openings [students] can move through.”