By Kuwait times: ‘Mommy wants you to grow up to be a sales person!’ Really? Other than divine intervention, our success (as a country, a company, a team, a family, even an individual) depends on leadership. And leaders are everywhere, aren’t they? Just read the newspaper, or subscribe to Twitter or Instagram (the two most popular social media in Kuwait) and you will be dazzled by leadership, or at least by people who think they are leaders. You’ll know who they are because they have something important to say, and they want you to follow them, and ultimately do what they say. Leaders shape our future There’s no doubt that leaders shape the future, but where do our leaders come from? Some inherit their role, often to their dismay (Prince Harry can’t possibly enjoy all of that publicity), but most rise to the occasion, either propelled by their own energy and ideas, or because someone (or a group) encouraged them to stand up, speak up, and lead. Regardless of where they come from (occasionally it must be divine intervention) we’re grateful for leaders because through them we can come to our own conclusions about important matters. We need leaders to help us understand our circumstances and ourselves. Leaders help us decide who and what to support, how to vote, where to travel, which topics to study, what to believe, etc. Without leaders, our future is doomed. And with the wrong leaders, our future is doomed for sure! We all know people who followed the wrong leader. I pray daily for a young man who followed a series of drug dealers into a hopeless addiction. Are drug dealers leaders? They are if they get people to follow them. Leaders are sales people The most popular leaders, good or bad, are sales people. And what do we think of sales people? How many moms tuck their babies into bed at night and say, “Some day, mommy wants you to grow up to be a sales person!” It doesn’t happen, and that’s unfortunate, because ideas must be sold. At some point, effective leaders understand sales principles, including the fact that in general people initially “buy” ideas (or any product, really) based on emotion. We make decisions to “buy” almost everything based on our feelings, and then we justify the decision with logic. “I love the way I look in a Porsche, and I need to look good so that people will think I’m successful.” . . . “I’ll feel happy when I take this (illegal drug), and that’s better for me than feeling stressed, because stress kills.” These are the lies we tell ourselves, and sales people know it. Fortunately for us, we can decide who to follow. So why not follow the most qualified leaders? They’ll lead us to the Promised Land, won’t they? Unfortunately, not necessarily, but with a little help from divine intervention, yes. Good or bad leadership? We can’t forget that God helps those who help themselves, and when it comes to recognizing quality leadership, we need to do our part. That means we at least need to be able to distinguish between good and bad leadership. But how many of us can do that? In the throes of a campaign, or when we’re about to make a decision, it’s difficult to separate emotion from logic. Perhaps we don’t know to do that because we’ve never thought much about leadership. Few people get or take the opportunity to study leadership. It’s not usually a required course in high school or college. How foolish is that when we’ll spend a lifetime trying to make decisions that are influenced by leaders? We should continue to pray for divine intervention for our success, but we can also help ourselves by exploring and understanding the qualities of good leadership. Future columns will offer you some ideas about how to do that. NOTE: Dr John P Hayes heads the Business Administration department at GUST and he taught leadership skills to 60 youth at the Kuwait Leadership Mastery. Contact Dr Hayes at questions@hayesworldwide, or via Twitter @drjohnhayes. By John P Hayes
Posted on: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:46:24 +0000
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