LEADERSHIP IS SERVING. SERVE EFFECTIVELY. by William Mbogo

Leadership is all about saving people! Lao Tzu said “A leader is the best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say; we did it ourselves”. The quote point out what I’ve just shared with you in the first sentence. Good leaders put first, the team behind him, and have a deep desire of seeing them succeed.

One of the top sales manager once said “The day you stop learning in sales is the day your professionalism dies”. I love this! As the matter of fact, this is as much applicable as on other aspects of life including leadership. A leader must learn.

I believe we are all leaders (it’s not about position but the mentality and the desire from within us). As effective Leaders we know that learning is our lifestyle (if you are not yet to know this, you should probably get it in mind) Leaning widens our ability to think and decide correctly as we have been entrusted with special task of leading.

WHAT DO WE LEAD?

We lead people to their destinies, to where they suppose to be and to where they actually belong. We lead companies, businesses, and other institutions to that desired level of success/achievement; therefore, to fulfill this we need SKILLS.

In the process of leading we always encounter number of challenges especially from the individuals we are leading. In most cases we find ourselves disappointed, sometimes we do not know what to do and even worst, sometimes achieving the results below the expected/planned or desired standard.

The following are some tips I find very helpful and worth sharing, with the aim of improving your leadership efficiency.

1. TRUST

Any leader must first trust the people he leads. Trust is a choice a leader has to make for successful leadership. He must have faith in the potentials of his people and believe that they both (leader & his people) can do something remarkable through cooperating with one another.

An individual’s potential, talents and abilities will only be active when a leader chooses to have trust in him/her. It feels awesome to be trusted. It feels so energizing and motivating. I have been subjected to different leaders and I have seen how vital being trusted is. It contains indescribable energy that usually drives us to work and come up with remarkable results.

I challenge leaders, that, to anything they do with individuals, they should choose to trust them, and to believe in potentials, talents and abilities in them.

Trust goes with having an attribute of listening to one’s ideas, thoughts and contributions. Listening skills are not part of inborn character, it is something that we develop and practice it.

Ability to listen can be developed when we set our mind to: “listen-to-understand” and not on: “listen-to-talk back". This is of very important.

Trust is risk taking. Sometimes a member can do something negative intentionally or unintentionally. For that be the case, still you should never mistrust your members! Eventually there is always a great reward of having trust in them; I strongly advice “CHOOSE TO TRUST YOUR MEMBERS”.

2. TREASURE

A leader is and expected to treasure the people he leads. A leader has to know that his people, each of them have something very peculiar to offer for the achievement of goals set to be achieved.

A Leader is supposed to see the best in his members because in real sense, the best dwells within every single one of us (it is what we call Potential) everyone has it in a unique way.

Potential is the inner power or ability to do something that has never been done before or never to be done after. That power put at work talents that each one of us has one or more.

Karen Kain said “Treasure the things about you that make you different and unique” this simply mean, there are things you as an individual have, which makes you unique and different.

Dr. Myles Munroe once said “Nothing is yours until you understand it; even yourself”. Get involved in the process of knowing yourself, know your strengths and weaknesses, Get involved in the process of developing your strengths (your ability to communicate, your diligence, how honesty you are etc.) and put less attention to your weaknesses (how boring you can be sometimes, how rude you are etc.).

Note; both your strengths & weaknesses makes you.

There are several ways you can develop yourself. Like taking some courses, reading books, blogs and websites, watching television programs, involving yourself in activities that will put at work your talent.

3. TEACH

John F Kennedy, the former American President once said “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other”. As I pointed out in the introduction part, learning is very important when it comes to leadership. How can you teach your members if you don’t learn? Primarily a leader must know where the team is and where it’s heading to. By having the actual picture of the present and the future, will help him to know what kind of knowledge is needed, along with providing the team members with the required information and the required environment to enhance their learning. You don’t learn something so as to dictate others! We learn to serve others.

4. TRAIN

This is all about putting people you have taught into practice or act to bring the output. What have you taught your members? Now on the training part is where you can determine the extent to which the knowledge is clearly and well imputed. Doing something practically will lead them to not only know what it takes to do their tasks but also make them understand even more how effective they ought to do.

LEADERSHIP IS SERVING. SERVE EFFECTIVELY.