A Conversation on Leadership and Balance

There are a thousand reasons why you should read this article if you want to succeed in 2026, but I will give you just one.

In this article,Dr. Covenant Osonducompletely redefines the concept of “balance”. While many see leadership and extra skills as a sacrifice of study time, he proves that they are investments that grant access to mentorship and growth. If you are tired of choosing between your faith, your grades, and your personal development, Dr. Covenant offers a practical blueprint on how to expand your capacity so you can carry it all.

He is proof of what one can achieve and become if they strive for balance despite the rigors of medical school.

 

Q1: Many student leaders grapple with balancing service and studies. What did you sacrifice in order to balance service and studies?

Nothing much!

 

Many a time people confuse investments for sacrifice. They look at someone else’s life and all they see are sacrifices, whereas to the person he/she is just making investments.

 

Let’s look at it this way, if you are in a phase of life where you need mentors where would you likely see/access these mentors? It is at your place of service and leadership, right? So for an individual who realizes this and decides to show up every day, is that a sacrifice or an investment? It is an investment indeed. It is now a sacrifice when you go above and beyond what is considered an investment.

 

Let’s look at two scenarios that illustrate the contrast between investments and sacrifices:

1. Travelling on a regular day for conferences where you get to serve and network, and
2. Travelling for conferences few days to your exam.

The first is an investment and the second a sacrifice. It is important to note therefore, that sacrifice is subjective and what might be a sacrifice to one might just be an investment to another.

 

Q2: So what is balance to you, and how did you balance all you do so well that you did not need to make too many sacrifices?

Let’s look at the aspect of balancing service/leadership and academics. A lot of people think that leadership would affect one’s academics, but that’s not true.

 

There is this definition of what balance is that I would like to reference.

 

“Balance is essentially the ability to set and adjust your targets across different areas and achieve them”. _Anonymous

 

That’s to say that, in the immediate, you will have to make those adjustments, but you must always remember that balance compounds competence.

 

This process balance begins by setting goals in isolation—for academics, finances, spiritual life, and personal leadership—as though you were to focus on a singular goal. After setting these maximum achievable targets, you must then realize that you cannot possibly achieve everything, and that is when you begin to adjust them according to your present capacity. The resulting adjusted targets represent a balanced state.

 

Note that, balance is that singular quality that makes a C-student an employer of an A-student.

 

But for the question of whether Leadership will affect your academics. Yes, it will certainly affect your academics but not in the way people think. It will affect your academics in the same way family, business, or whatever you are doing apart from academics will affect it…in that you will have to make those necessary adjustments.

Q3: Since life constantly throws new responsibilities at us (like the need to upskill, relationships, career…), how do we sustain this balance?

Balance is not static; it is dynamic and changes as your life phase changes. 

 

As life progresses, you take on more responsibilities—like relationships or business, which also affect academics—and you must constantly adjust your targets.

 

When faced with increased responsibility, you have two primary options: either reduce the targets in one area or prepare to expand your capacity to produce.

 

The more capacity you build, the higher your balance level goes. For example, a person who handles pressure, project management, and public speaking well did not start that way; they started small, perhaps fidgeting, and worked on themselves. By gaining expertise and platforms, they began rising in one area while still managing others.

 

So, what exactly will leadership do for you? Leadership will expand your capacity by helping you take up more responsibilities. It builds discipline, personal management, time management, strategic skills, planning, vision, delegation skills, and systems—all things that do not come because you need them immediately, but because you need to achieve goals. If you later remove external responsibilities and focus solely on one area (like academics), you will find that you produce a 100% result with less effort because of the capacity you have built. The world is looking for people who can balance and produce results, the world is looking for leaders.

 

Q4: Speaking of capacity building, can you tell us how leadership roles helped you build capacity?

Leadership positions always gave me access to mentors, mentees, and challenges—all of which are essential for growth. 

 

You need people to guide you, people to impact, and then you need the problems or challenges to practice against. You must consistently have all three for continuous growth.

 

A key principle here is that if you only have a mentor and a problem, solving that problem simply ends in self-satisfaction; however, when you teach somebody how to solve that problem, you learn how to solve it even better. This demonstrates the necessity of mentees—a key benefit leadership opens up.

 

Q5: I stopped chasing mentors because of this saying that stuck with me, “When the student is ready the teacher appears”. What do you think about this saying? Does it hold?

It is very true that when the student is ready the teacher appears, but we will never be ready until we start implementing. We can spend years planning, but without implementation, we never know what would have happened. The “teacher” is not necessarily a person; the teacher can be the experience itself, and until you take action, you will not gain the necessary experience.

 

My journey into data analysis illustrates this well. I applied for national statistical data on maternal health, but due to busy travels, I didn’t start the work until I decided that any time I sat down would be dedicated to it. Once I finally opened the data and started engaging with it, I realized I had a big problem.

 

While attending a health leadership training institute, a facilitator who was a data analyst working on the exact type of data I was struggling with appeared. This person was a professional with years of experience. I went to him, explained my challenges, and he provided guidance and resources. 

 

The urgent need to get the work done brought a different layer to the concept of that quote. In that moment all three aligned – problem, the readiness to engage, and a teacher.

 

I knew I needed to learn statistical analysis using coding software like Python or R Studio to make my work easier. I searched for someone who not only knew R Studio but was also a data analyst working with that specific data type. By chance, I met this professional who was already doing everything I wanted to start doing over the next five to ten years—machine learning, AI, and advanced analysis.

 

The fundamental principle I use is to jump first. I learned how to analyze data and manage projects because I told people I knew how to do the work. I believed I could learn the skill quickly. While it turned out to be more complex than a “short time” learning curve, I still finished the work, gained a skill, got paid, and learned how to properly value my expertise.

 

Q6: As a leader, how do you manage to maintain spiritual discipline—like waking up for morning devotion—amidst constant demands and responsibilities?

Time management is always a problem. Those who manage this successfully, especially at the national level, often achieve it by drastically decreasing their wake-up time. Some successful individuals are actually waking up by 3:00 a.m.

 

Waking up early gives you dedicated time before external demands, like messages or calls, start coming in around 4:00, 5:00, or 6:00 a.m. This adjustment falls under building capacity, specifically through time management. 

 

The core principle is: if you value something enough, you make time for it. One effective way to secure that time for something you value is to bring it up as early as possible.

 

Another option is making the practice flexible but constant across the day—it must happen within 24 hours, though this approach can be more prone to failure. There are times when you can be so busy serving or working that you don’t even have time to read your Bible. The solutions are creating an early time or ensuring it is a non-negotiable part of the day.

 

This need for consistency brings up the concept of discipline. You don’t learn things because you like to learn them; you learn things because you have to learn them—that is true discipline. I have realized that discipline unpacks destiny. You may have tremendous capacity, but without discipline, you can never fully unpack it. Discipline ensures that you do not always have a part of your life where you feel you could be doing more but are not.

 

When managing spiritual life, especially when the routine feels less fulfilling (like when you don’t “feel” God’s presence), remember that if you look for God everywhere, you will find Him everywhere. We often look for God only in morning devotion or church, but sometimes you realize God’s presence when someone smiles at you or does you a favor. You are carrying Him along.

 

If you fall behind in a reading plan, do not try to “overfeed yourself” by catching up on all the missed days at once. Break it down to process the information, ensuring the routine is alive and not just checking a box.

 

Q7: Coming in during 100level, I knew you to be the bookish kind of Scholar, and your evolution is one that has always amazed me.

Did you always see yourself evolving from a focused scholar to a national-level leader and expert data analyst? And did you use any form of guidance in this amazing journey?

 

Well! I won’t exactly say I saw myself evolving, but one thing I know is that everything happens in phases, and whatever phase you are in, the best thing to do is give 100% or as much as you can. When I was in my early years, I knew I enjoyed reading, teaching, and that academics came easily, and the thought of data analysis and research only came as a nudge, one that I finally gave in to after my first MB.

 

No one has a 110% assurance of the straight line between A and B, but what we can be assured of is that where we are now, there is something we must do, and we will be helped to get it done. God often provides “flashes,” assumptions, or random nudgings that may initially seem meaningless.

 

As earlier mentioned, my initial thought about research and data analysis came from a simple nudging: “Why not solve future problems now?”. It was not a clear message from heaven then, but looking back, I can now recognize that it was guidance. Many people who get ahead in life receive these quiet nudgings: “Why not do this? Why not start this?”.

 

Here are two primary ways you can recognize a word or nudging from God:

1. Peace: When you receive that word, even if it leads to a challenge, you receive a level of peace that encourages you to proceed.
2. Repetition: The thought will keep coming back. If you ignore it, the thought will come around again, and every time you think about it, you still feel the original encouragement.

God will not detail every intricacy of your future—those details are left for you to uncover in the process, as knowing too much might be discouraging.

 

Q8: If you could advise your younger self in medical school, what foundational changes would you suggest?

If I could advise my younger self, I would offer two main points: pray more and study foundationally. It is always a good idea to build foundationally because you never know the type of building God is planning; if He intends a skyscraper, your foundation must be able to carry it, not just a duplex.

 

Building foundationally applies to every aspect of life:

• Academics: Foundational knowledge in medical school is clinical knowledge. The speed and amount of stuff you can gather will depend on your residual foundational knowledge. Some people spend four hours doing what others with a solid foundation do in 30 minutes.
• Spiritually: The amount of God you experience depends on how early you seek Him. I would advise taking time to read about the foundational teachings of Christianity, such as the pillars of faith, the doctrine of baptism, and the resurrection from the dead, as listed in the Book of Hebrews.

I would also strongly advise reading books early, particularly leadership books. The world is looking for leaders.

 

My top recommended leadership books, especially for those who prefer listening over reading, include books by John C. Maxwell. Additionally, books focused on personal development, vision, purpose, and specifically Christian character are very beneficial.

 

Q10: This is the last question. You are one man who is truly convicted by the house of CMDA. What would you say is your greatest benefit from going through medical school in CMDA?

My greatest benefit from going through medical school in CMDA is best summarized by this choice: you have two choices—either you go through medical school, or you go through medical school in CMDA. They are two different experiences.

 

If you go through medical school alone, you are exposed to all the rigors, competition, tiredness, weakness, and the incessant problem of giving up. But if you go through medical school under the umbrella of CMDA, you become so busy trying to do the work of God and please Him through your knowledge that you are shielded from many of those problems. My greatest benefit was the cover—being protected from the difficulties of that sort of work.

 

Dr. Covenant’s journey exemplifies that professional and spiritual growth hinge on distinguishing investments from sacrifices.

 

The ability to build capacity through consistent discipline and to achieve maximum output across diverse areas—academic, spiritual, and leadership—is maintained through a dynamic sense of balance, constantly adjusted and expanded by the inevitable challenges encountered. By starting, failing, and seeking out mentors and mentees to solve problems, the student is truly ready for life’s teacher to appear.

 

 

 

 

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