This is What I Was Born to Dotekstalks

The Foundation Stone of Leadership All Entrepreneurs Must Know“Our problems are man made. Therefore, they can only be solved by man and not spirits.”Anyone can become a leader – anyone who has the will and the courage to step forward, accept change and effect it, can be a LEADER. Leadership is an art. Leaders are made and they are also born.It’s easier for a born leader to be corrupted than a made leader. The strongest leaders in the world are the ones that are made. Proven leadership finds the potential hidden within a person and brings it forth. The problems we face today cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. Leadership must be innovative for it to be able to strive and succeed all through.

True leaders vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon what they believe. But character is key to leadership. Research at Harvard University indicates that 85% of a leader’s performance depends on personal character. Therefore, true leadership begins from the HEART and not the HEAD, but the irony is, we have a lot of head leaders in the world today especially in Africa. Sometimes God calms the storm. Other times, He lets the storm rage and calms His child. So most often, the acid test of true leadership is in the midst of storms. That’s the reason character is very important in leadership.3 foundational elements of leadership Values precede productivity. Africa has a lot of valueless leaders, leaders who don’t know their self worth, reason why they steal, manipulate, tell lies, slander, backstab, are corrupt and even kill others. These three key elements are very fundamental for sustainable and good leadership: IntegrityA servant’s earStewardshipIf you are not thinking all the time about making every person more valuable, you don’t have a chance.

Success is the progressive realization of worthwhile, predetermined personal and organizational goals. And successful leadership is the consistent realization of a leader’s amplifier (successor). Besides, any success without a successor is nothing but a failure. The stones of Leadership(How to bridge the leadership gap in an organization)Crystallize/solidify your thinking What do we want? Why do we want it?Why do we not already have it? Can we obtain it? How will we measure it? Whom will it affect? Whom will it benefit? Where will it lead us?These are vital questions that every true leader or entrepreneur must think through if success is their key. Leaders must, therefore, learn to develop a crystallized mission. “If you don’t have goals, there is nothing to accomplish.” “If there is one thing that is clear from a century of leadership research, it is this – Leaders have a clear and often obsessive sense of what they want to achieve.” But sad enough, most heads of organizations and most of our African political leaders don’t have goals at all. Leadership is not POSITION, leadership is RESPONSIBILITY.

Note that desire and passion are not things you sleep and get in a dream; they are virtues you create, build, and generate. These are virtues you work to get. Your passions, zeal, and desire must be strong enough to enable you lead a successful business, organization or nation. You have a never-giving-up attitude until what you have in your mind looks like what you have in your head.

But funny enough, we have lots of leaders without passion or desire, that’s why you see them sleep in their offices during work and during sessions. Many of them today, don’t have either their job, organization or nation at heart. All they care for is their belly, the reason they can even go as far as stealing from their own pockets.The art of leadership is an embarrassment in Africa, both at the personal and general levels. We need to wake up. But first, it must begin from personal leadership before it can get to the public. Leadership is key, both success and failure rotates around it. 5 steps to rekindling your desire and passion for good leadership:- Strive to gain self-knowledge.- Make sure that the goals, targets and rewards are personally meaningful.- Work to find wisdom and knowledge in those who are in a position to advise you.- Visualize your success.- Be willing to work harder than you’ve ever worked before.“Its passion probably more than anything else that separates the A’s from the B’s.” – Let me quickly say this, there is one common epidemic among most LEADERS either at the personal or general level. I call it the ARROGANCE epidemic. And this epidemic is stemming from the misconception of the true definition of the word LEADERSHIP. Listen guys, LEADERSHIP simply means servant hood. A leader in the truest sense of the word means a servant. If you are called, appointed, delegated or even elected to LEAD a group of people, you have been called to SERVANTSHIP not LORDSHIP. Our leaders and upcoming leaders should get this clear before they start acting as if they created this world. Please if you truly want to be a great leader, shun arrogance, learn humility and always have a coach or a mentor, real leaders requires continues learning. Develop confidence and trust“This may be a networked world, but a virtual trust is an illusion. Trust develops when we get to know each other. There is no substitute for spending time with people face to face.” –

Develop a team spirit from this movie! Spartacus – 73 BC – leader against the Roman Empire. 71 BC he died in a battle, but the Romans didn’t know he died. Each follower continues fighting. They captured the gladiators and questioned them: Each said: “I’m Spartacus”. Furious, the Romans crucified them all. My question to you is-If the Romans came to your organization today, how would your followers respond? Betray you or believe in your cause enough to risk something or themselves in your name?“Trust men and they will be true to you. Trust them greatly and they will show themselves great.” –Most organizational leaders have low self esteem, so they use violence to intimidate followers they think is better off than they. Listen you can never lead people beyond your level of knowing, so go grab some more info, and stop fighting your subordinates. Knowledge they say is power, if you need power as a leader, spend your time, resources and energy to acquire some more knowledge. Knowledge makes a man to be self confident, so one of the fasted ways to build your confidence is to acquire knowledge. “It’s fine to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.” –Some leaders don’t also have foresight, that’s why they can’t see the good in any of their subordinates. Continuity and true leadership is your ability to see the greatness in your subordinates and nurture them to fruition. Leadership is all about passing over the baton. It’s like the kind of marathon race we did in the primary school, where you pass the baton to the next person and so on; no one athlete is permitted to run the race till the end, leadership is continuity. You know sometimes it amazes me how we have leaders who want to rule us forever, as a good leader the only way to see how good or how poor you have performed is to hand over the mantle or baton of leadership to your successor. This is because the eyes that see far cannot see itself. Sometimes, CEO of companies, leaders of organizations, presidents of nations should just hand over powers and watch how their subordinate leads.

This will take me to my 5th point; LEADERSHIP is all about distributing responsibility. Foster commitment and responsibility Don’t quit!“When anyone tells me I can’t do anything, I’m just not listening anymore.” 4 elements of persistence

1. Raw determination, which is refusal to give up, to quite or to be defeated.

2. Patience to willingly keep at a job, task or goal despite temporary setbacks and encroaching difficulties.

3. A justifiable sense of pride for using more of your full potential for success.

4. A willingness to take appropriate risks in order to ensure the achievement of a goal. Effective leaders rely upon adversity to call up the best that is within them. All leaders will face problems. Have courage to dream. Leaders bear the responsibility of sharing the necessity for dreaming with team members who may lack the courage to visualize greater achievement. Have courage to face yourself. Have courage to start. The quality most crucial to attaining success for yourself and your organization is the courage to begin! Have courage to risk. Without risks, no leader can become truly great. The source of leadership is courage. Accept personal responsibility for what happens to you and your organization. It’s only in Africa I have seen that things go wrong in an organization or nation and leaders will say I don’t know and the people will applaud him for not knowing. Can I tell you this guys, LEADERSHIP doesn’t give excuse but result. You alone are responsible for what you can become! You must accept personal responsibility for the actions you take. Are you willing to pay that price for personal growth?“The price of greatness is responsibility.” – 3 keys to constructive change:

1. Learn to deal constructively with any kind of change.

2. Learn to encourage the personal growth of team members.

3. Learn to involve team members in the process. Surviving crisis and change demands one thing of every leader – flexibility.

Flexibility is the ability to bend without breaking. Effective leaders have learned to delegate low-cost items, routine activities and anything that can be done by someone else without personal attention and intervention on the part of the leader. How Keeping in touch with the changing organization and be accountable as a leader: Clearly defined procedures that govern all routine functions within the organization.

Get Regular reports requested on a monthly basis from each team member in a position of leadership or management. Ensure the availability and accessibility of the leaders. Make sure you are a good listener and keen observer of people and events.“Unless you take change by the hand, it will take you by the throat.” In the quest to manage change, you cannot forget to continue working to change yourself.“I’m convinced that if the rate of change inside an organization is less than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight/failure is inevitable” “Fail to plan, plan to fail.”You are the organization! Your followers and the organization can only go as far as you can go. Effective leaders who are genuinely concerned with team member efficiency, productivity, and happiness, realize that training and personal development are absolute necessities.“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” You are a role model – Your team members mirror your own attitudes.