Saturday, February 18, 2012

5 qualities of skilful leadership


It’s about how you lead you and if you’re a leader in whatever capacity learn
If you want to be a leader who attracts quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself. Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills, and opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. I call leadership the great challenge of life. What's important in leadership is refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until they become effective. Here are some specifics:

Learn to be strong but not rude (be assertive)
It is an extra step you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It's not even a good substitute.

Learn to be kind but not weak (be assertive)
We must not mistake kindness for weakness. Kindness isn't weak. Kindness is a certain type of strength. We must be kind enough to tell somebody the truth. We must be kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.

Learn to be bold but not a bully (be assertive)
It takes boldness to win the day. To build your influence, you've got to walk in front of your group. You've got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first problem, and discover the first sign of trouble.

You've got to learn to be humble, but not timid (be assertive)
You can't get to the high life by being timid. Some people mistake timidity for humility. Humility is almost a God-like word. A sense of awe. A sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and spirit. An understanding that there is something unique about the human drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we're part of the stars. So humility is a virtue; but timidity is a disease. Timidity is an affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem.

Be proud but not arrogant (be assertive)
It takes pride to win the day. It takes pride to build your ambition. It takes pride in community. It takes pride in cause, in accomplishment. But the key to becoming a good leader is being proud without being arrogant. In fact I believe the worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance. It's when you don't know that you don't know. Now that kind of arrogance is intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that's just too much to take.

Develop humour without folly (learn to enjoy each day)
That's important for a leader. In leadership, we learn that it's okay to be witty, but not silly. It's okay to be fun, but not foolish.

Lastly, deal in realities. Deal in truth. Save yourself the agony. Just accept life like it is. Life is unique. Some people call it tragic, but I'd like to think it's unique. The whole drama of life is unique. It's fascinating.

I've found that the skills that work well for one leader may not work at all for another. But the fundamental skills of leadership can be adapted to work well for just about everyone: at work, in the community, and at home. How can we help you, well simply contact us and we will be in touch.


Sunday, February 5, 2012

Your personal invitation to lead

Let’s take the word lead to a wider sense.  I'm not talking about leading a church, a business or a team, I'm talking about you leading you and the call we all have to lead others to Christ. Let me clarify.....

Genesis 1:26 (AMP) ~ God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth.

God gave us complete authority to rule over everything including ourselves. We have not been given a spirit of timidity 2 Timothy 1:7 (AMP) ~ For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.

"Know Thyself"
Let's compare your journey at this point with building a new house. Healing past trauma is like the basement.

You have dug into the dirt and made a great hole.

Then you proceeded to fill the hole with right-thinking.

Finally, the dirt (old trauma) was carted away. You no longer have to live in the basement of life. You have left the victim aspect of your life behind.

You are now entering into possibly the most exciting phase of your personal growth journey! Understanding you and how you influence others.

Steven Covey once said: “We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.

Another quote I like (author unknown) ~ “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness or abilities that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again”.

The first step to greater authority over how you lead you is to understand psalm 23 and let the Shepherd lead you, provide for you, He alone knows your needs, know where you need strength.

To understand you, do this exercise, ask those closest to you to do the same for you learn do not object the first step to become wise is to know you have been once foolish.

This activity we use all the time both on a personal level, professional level and through the ministry it is a powerful none threatening way to grow all the steps are positive.

The Cross-(based on force field analysis)

Ask yourself:
                             What am I doing well      l             Where can I improve
                                                    _________  l _________
                                                                           l
                                                                           l
                                                                           l
                                                                           l
1.  List all the things you do well on the left side and celebrate.


2.  List all the things on the right hand side that have been highlighted work out is it my attitude,     
     behaviour or simply a wrong mind set and each day work at improving yourself one step at a  
     time.

From today plan how to improve one step at a time to build from today a new foundation for you.

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