UNDERSTANDING LEADERSHIP THE ROOT OF LEADERSHIP • Authority for leadership; the Bible is the most reliable authority for leadership; every sound leadership principle were taken from it; it is a manual for living (Matthew 4; 4); it is a manual for profitable living (2Timothy 3; 13 and 16); it is a manual for maximizing destiny(Deuteronomy 28; 1-3) and it is not a mystical book to be conjured but a practical book to be applied (Matthew 7; 24-25) WHAT IS LEADERSHIP • Taking the lead; not taking title. • Setting the pace in one’s own field; not occupying a place. • Blazing the trail; not telling the tales. • It is not occupying a seat; it is accomplishing a feat. • It is not an appointment; it is a product of one’s attainment. • It is not an endowment; it is an accomplishment. • To bear a leadership does not make you a leader. • That you are a founder does not mean you are a leader. • That you are bishop or archbishop does not mean you are a leader. • There is no entitlement in titles; the entitlement is in the price paid. It is in the accomplishment. • It is not occupying a position; it is making outstanding contributions. • It is not necessarily political • More than 80 percent of men who changed the world aren’t political leaders. • More than 80 percent of men who changed the cause of history in the world are not presidents of any country. • There are individuals in this country today that are much more valuable than all our senators put together. So, that you are a senator does not necessarily mean you are a leader. • The subject of leadership is simply the subject of outstanding success in ones field. • Scripturally we are in the greatest era of leadership when every piece of information you need to become a great leader in any area of life at a record time is cheaply and easily accessible. • We live in a wonderfully glorious era when God’s grace for leadership is so immense and readily available to anyone who taps into it. • However, it is also an era of the worst satanic distractions. You have to make a deliberate choice of leadership. FUNDAMENTAL STEPS OF LEADERSHIP ABOUT STEPS • Yes, leadership is about steps and not about flying or jumping. • Nobody can ever fly or jump into leadership. • The Bible teaches that the steps of a good man are ordered by God (Psalms 37; 23). • The Bible did not say the fly or jump. It says the steps. • The steps teach you patience; they teach you tolerance and you get stronger per step. • The steps teach you process. • While climbing a step remember that each step gets you taller until you arrive at the podium of leadership. • When you go through the steps you can always get back there since you already know the steps. • Nobody becomes a leader by accident. He may become something else but not leadership. SO WHAT ARE THE FIVE KEY STEPS TO LEADERSHIP DIRECTION • Leadership is field defined. Therefore, locating your field is the number one step to emerging a leader. • It means locating where you belong; locating your mission on earth. • It is also called vision. It is about having a clearly defined direction for your life. • Direction will help prevent you from fighting as one merely beating the air. • Your journey into leadership must unavoidably begin with a clear definition of your mission on earth. • If you go to a motor park you do not just say you are going anywhere or everywhere. • There is no such place as anywhere or everywhere. • Unfortunately in Africa today, there are so many people going anywhere and several others going everywhere. Sadly and as would always be the case, they arrive nowhere. • No wonder the Bible teaches that where there is no vision people perish but he that keeps to the vision happy is he (Proverbs 29; 18). Happy is he only when he keeps to vision. • You must have your field since leadership is field defined. Leadership as we defined earlier is taking the lead; blazing the trail and setting the pace in one’s own field. Which one is your field? • The reason for the terrible and horrible scarcity of leaders in Africa is because many Africans are going anywhere while a great multitude of others are going everywhere. • There is even a wrongly used African proverb that says that there are many ways that lead to the market. You will never be an outstanding leader following this proverb. • This is a basic inescapable step. This is the starting point. You cannot jump over it and expect that other steps would make any sense. Direction is not only the basic step. It is the basis and it is fundamental. WISDOM • This is how to get there. How to get to your clearly defined direction. • Wisdom is the capital price for leadership. • It is capital because it must be there throughout anything that has to do with leadership. There is no graduating from the school of wisdom. You must always be in the school of wisdom to remain relevant and on cause. • Wisdom is the acquisition and intelligible application of relevant knowledge. • Wisdom is about you knowing what to do (know how). • One Million Dollars without know how is equal to failure. • Wisdom is not common sense. There is nothing like common sense in leadership. • Schooling is not necessarily education; schooling only empowers your literacy. Schooling is not equal to wisdom. • You must learn to become a leader by reading books that are relevant to your area of endeavor. I mean books relevant to your clearly defined direction (your field). • That means you must have your own library. • You are either building a library or building a mortuary. • A person without a library has a mortuary because the day you stop learning you simply start dying. • You must attend workshops, seminars, conferences, leadership trainings etc. • Africans do not like reading. Some people even with First Class Degrees hardly read anything else after graduation. So African does not only abhor reading, they also hardly attend workshops, seminars etc. They do not really believe in continuous education! They mostly want to succeed be accident! • Africans don’t believe much in value talk more improving value. • Many Africans graduate from high institutions with civil service mentality. • A civil servant in Africa is not always promoted according to value. He is majorly promoted according to longevity. How long he has worked at a particular place. • If you wait for longevity promotion then you must wait for a very long time. But if you want to burst into the leadership circle in a record time then you must emphasize value. Pay close attention to your value. Improve on it by acquiring better and greater information via continuous education. • That is why you must read, you must get trained. If you are not trained then you cannot triumph. • Improve your value by improving your know how. That is your level of wisdom. It is not about how beautiful or handsome you are. It is not about your ethnic group. It is not about how smart and manipulative you can be. It is about what you know; it is about the problems you can solve; it’s about the level of information available to you and how you can practically apply them. • As important as paper qualification is, it is not necessarily wisdom. It does not guarantee a ‘know how’. • Our none-reading and none-studious attitude must change if we want to get better and if we want to become leaders because only readers are leaders. DISCIPLINE • This is the efficient management of time, energy and resources. • It is investing your energy appropriately. • Discipline determines your distinguishing. • It is operating as demanded and not as convenient. • It is the ability to do what we ought to do even when we don’t feel like doing it. • It is also the ability to refrain from doing what we feel like doing because we ought not to do it. • It is crucially about controlling your feelings. • It is ultimately about self control. Self means you doing the control and not somebody else or life. • You better start on self control now or other people or life will take over the control. DELIGENCE • This means hard work. • It further means doing your best. • Only hard workers become high flyers. You must work your field because it will never work itself. • Hard work does not wear people out it is wrong work that does. • If you are not a hard worker you are a life waster. • Hard work does not kill but laziness does. • A leader is inescapably committed to hard work. • A leader does not sleep like other people and does not rest like everybody else. He does not socialize like everybody else. He only works in a way other people do not dare. No wonder he is outstanding. No wonder he is their leader. SACRIFICE • This means going beyond your best. It means going the extra mile. • It also means paying the extra price. • It involves investing the extra time, energy and resources. • There is nothing extra ordinary by itself. It is your extra input that makes it so. • There is no star without a scar. The scar of every star is his sacrifice.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 10:21:07 +0000
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