Leadership & Work Ethics – Part 1

As we’ve entered the 2nd quarter of 2016, I’ve been inspired to start looking at the areas of leadership & work ethics that guarantees success & winning in life.

For those who have been following my posts, you will recall that the 1st quarter was dedicated to family as I shared on the LOVE LANGUAGE series.

In these series, I will be sharing combined gleaned snippets from 3 books which is currently in focus for me.

WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?

John C. Maxwell ( the No.1 leadership expert in the world) says “In basic terms, leadership is INFLUENCE”

INFLUENCE, is the ability to have an effect on the character, development or behaviour of someone or something.

He says that everything rises & falls on leadership. You can trace the greatness of one individual, company or nation to leadership & you can also trace the failure to leadership ( the lack of it).

The annals of history are full of leaders from religion, to politics to military, etc. Moses & Joshua leading the children out of Egypt & into the promise land respectively, King David ( who won all the battles he fought), Alexander The Great, Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Ladin, Graham Bell, Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, Henry Ford, Mahatma Gandhi, Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello, Barak Obama, President Buhari, etc.

These people displayed ( or are still displaying ) a high level of influence that has changed & is changing the course of history.

In these series, I will be talking about the 5 levels of leaderships, habits of winners & highly effective people.

John Maxwell indicates that a leader ” Knows the way, Goes the way & Shows the way “. A leader must have the knowledge, strategy & courage to aim for a target & ensure that the objectives are achieved not as an individual but as a team. An African adage says ” If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far go with people”

Levels of leadership – LEVEL 1 POSITION

The first level of leadership is position. Everyone start from here, positional leadership is about rights. At this point the level of influence is zero & majorly compliance is the order of the day. The level of influence doesn’t extend beyond the lines of job description or contract.People just tend to do stuff because their leader says so, because they have to & they must comply with it, no other reason is attached.

Position & leadership are not directly related. You might have the position & not have the leadership ( or influence) & you might not have the position ( title) & yet be the leader.

I love kids a lot ( I have 2 of my own), I love watching them play & relate with each other & its really fascinating sometimes when I observe the levels of influence displayed amongst them.

Sometimes its not the oldest or biggest among them that holds the most influence, it’s usually the youngest or smartest or most courageous of them that leads the group.

As we run through these series, I will challenge you to take a look at yourself & assess the level of influence you have in various circles ( At home, work, among your friends & associates, in church, business, etc) & begin to close any gap you see.

Do note that there is always room for improvement, no one knows it all. 1Cor13:9-10 (NLT)  says “Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless”

I am also learning on a daily basis, but what is most important is to ensure measurable progress as time passes by.

Are you a leader? What is the level of your influence?

This is my snippet, I am SHALOMESQ!!!