Leaders are at the center of progress. They are consumed with vision and the passion to serve people. History records many leaders, major and small, who showed the power of leadership and the damage it can cause if done incorrectly. Leadership is murky. One wrong move and your life and others could be in for a tough call. There are rules of engagement in leadership. The following quotes, said by exceptional leaders can help us navigate the world of leadership effectively.
- Humble leadership doesn’t mean you think less of yourself. It means you think about yourself less and you think of your team more CS Lewis
Effective leadership demands humility. Humility is a controversial word because it contradicts our innate desire to be recognized and heard. Others think humility is a weak character. Leading void of humility is a high way to destruction and shame. It sent Idi Amin running when he ignored it during his 8 years tenure as the president of Uganda. CS Lewis clarifies the meaning of leading with humility. According to the Theologian and author, humility is denying yourself privileges for the team’s success. It is giving yourself for the benefit of people following you. Leadership missing humility is evident in African nations. Poverty, instability, and ignorance are all a result of leadership without humility. Unless we embrace humility in leadership we can say goodbye to prosperity.
Read: The Power of Humility
2. A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other.
Nothing gives a leader an easy time like a strong team. Every great leader had a strong team behind them. The team’s responsibility is to control the systems and structure the leader builds. They are the hands and the feet of leaders. Trust is the glue that binds the team together. Alexander the Great had built a formidable team of warriors who helped him conquer Europe, Asia, and North Africa. His famous battle the Battle of Guatelamala proved a strong small team and beat a large big one. The secret was trust. A team must trust each other to accomplish a task. You must trust your teammate will handle their responsibility as you would like. Otherwise doubting their performance or the leader’s vision breeds resentment and division.
3. Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position.
The source of a leader’s power stems from his position and personality. All great leaders have mastered a way of using their position and personality to influence followers. They develop their character and their character gives them positions of power. A leader depending on positional power alone will fail if he ignores character. Such was the fate of leaders like Adolf Hitler. Our pursuit to become influential leaders must involve working on our character, actions, and expertise. These qualities attract people and resources towards us. People will voluntarily follow anyone with a character that promotes the needs of the masses. Jesus never had a position but people left everything behind to follow him. This is the type of leader we should become.
4. Your role as a leader is to bring out the best in others, even when they know more than you.
Leadership is not about the knowledge we have but the character we possess. Global leader Myles Munroe once said that most countries suffer from leaders with Knowledge but without character. Character exceeds knowledge at the time. The main responsibility of a leader is teaching others his modus operandi. He must educate his followers on how he views the world. This includes those who know more than him. A powerful leader is not intimidated by the knowledgeable. He should see knowledge as a tool to communicate his way of life. A leader must have the ability to make the weakest member of the team as strong as he is because the team is as strong as the weakest member.
5. “Clients do not come first, EMPLOYEES come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” Sir Richard Branson
The client comes first is a popular quote in the business world but Sir Richard Branson differs. Happy employees equals happy clients. Dan Price proved this in his experience as the CEO of Gravity Payments. Price increased the minimum wage in his company from $40,000 to $70,000 per year. Five years after this major decision, the value of payment his company processed increased from $3b to $10.2 billion a year. He satisfied the needs of his employees and in turn, they worked harder. His decision influenced other companies to follow suit. A leader must create an environment that promotes employees’ gifts, individuality, and creativity. This way, a leader can bring out the best from people working under him.
6. One of the first steps in learning leadership is to learn to be a willing and able follower. Laurels E. Echichinwo
Never trust a leader who was never a follower. The ministry of Jesus started after his baptism. We must follow this pattern to become successful leaders. As a follower, you observe how a leader operates, how he makes decisions, and his close ally. You learn his moves and things that keep you in power. We apply these lessons when we rise to leading positions. Followers who rise to leadership must be willing and able to follow the leader. They must be loyal to the leader’s vision regardless of his personality. This type of commitment guarantees actualization and continuation of the leader’s vision. The follower committed to the leader will most likely take the lead when the leader retires.
Leadership is an exciting journey. If you want to grow your character with speed embrace leadership. In leadership, we learn about ourselves and others. Most importantly, we learn ways to apply the most effective forms of leadership in the institutions we serve. And, is there a better way to learn effective leadership aside from the successful ones?
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