adminof articles and it is my desire to reach and impact you dear leader in the following areas:
- Leadership development
- Coaching and mentoring
- Team building and
- Personal development
I believe that there is a leader in every one of us, we have just not explored our inner self enough to extract what great leadership potential lies within.
Leadership requires the ability to do more than one thing well. Successful people understand the importance of focus vis-à-vis achievement.
Success is also defined as doing the best you can with what you have wherever you start in life. But leadership is more complex and goes beyond the success horizon.
The Greek philosopher Aristotle observed “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit”.
Your daily habits and daily agenda as a leader will determine the outcome of your life.
To borrow from a few of the critical habits of Dr John Maxwell as he has developed himself into the leadership authority voice he is today:
- Reading on the subject of leadership every day.
- Talking about the subject of leadership every day.
- Asking questions about the subject of leadership every day.
- Talking to other leaders on the subject of leadership.
- Learning about leadership from other leaders.
There are certain behavioural traits synonymous with or expected of leaders, I will mention but a few common ones
- Leaders take responsibility for their actions and their decisions.
Good leaders take responsibility for their subordinates’ actions without passing the blame to others. A typical example of leadership gone bad is Adam in the Garden of Eden. On being confronted by God, Adam as the leader of the family decides to shift the blame to the woman (Eve), even to the extent of insinuating the unsuitability of the woman God gave him.
- Leaders associate with other like-minded or even greater minded-people without losing focus of their mandate, dream or identity.
- Leaders inspire and motivate their followers.
- Leaders take time to know their subjects, subordinates.
Have you ever noticed how some leaders (bosses at work, pastors at church, etc.) have got no clue about the people under them even just the name.
Granted, some have a large number of subordinates but you will never know the potential of your cleaner for example save for the finely-polished floors at the office.
In the movie “Invictus”, newly elected President Nelson Mandela played by Morgan Freeman realises a potential strategy to bring his subjects/people together and taking out the apartheid mentality, was going to be through the most unlikely of all sources — rugby. And so he begins to learn about the game to an extent of knowing the players by their names and he literally gets “his hands dirty as regards rugby” and at the end of it all he is able to bring the entire nation, across all racial divides together in support of the Springboks at the World Cup final.
As we begin to explore these laws I would like you to keep in mind these four important points:
1. The laws can be learned. Some are easier to understand and apply than others, but every one of them can be acquired.
2. The laws can stand alone.
Each law complements all the others, but you don’t need one in order to learn another.
3. The laws carry consequences with them. Apply the laws and people will follow you. Violate or ignore them and you will not be able to lead others.
4. These laws are the foundation of leadership. Once you learn the principles, you have to practise them and apply them to your life.
Consider each law as a tool ready to be picked up and put to use, helping you achieve your dreams while adding value to other people.
And remember “. . . everything rises and falls on leadership . . . ”
Firstme Vitori is the Marketing Manager at the John Maxwell Company in Zimbabwe. Email: [email protected]; Cell: + (263) 773 493 061
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