“Show me a man who cannot be bothered to do little things and I’ll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things.” ~ Lawrence D. Bell
Welcome to this week’s edition of Next Generation Leadership blog. I hope your plans and goals for the year are already falling into place? One thing you can’t afford to do is not to have your goals written out clearly for the year, so as to enable you to run with precision and be a goal-snipper!
In this edition, we’re looking at the costs of leadership. There’s a price to pay, a sacrifice to pay, to get anything that has value. In the first place, you don’t see anything that commands value on the surface, you have to dig deep to lay hold on it. Gold is not just found anywhere, there’s a price to pay to get it and that requires you to employ state-of-the art tools, human resources and technical expertise to be able to get and refine it to become something that will command value.
In the same vein, leadership is a rare concept and virtue that is invaluable and therefore requires a lot of sacrifice and effort to be able to become a global leader people will want to pattern their lives after. That is, there are prices to pay to become a person of influence in your field of endeavor.
Becoming a leader of worth will cost you some things which you have to make up your mind to part with.
My mentor, Dr. David Oyedepo said and I quote: “There is no glory without a story, there are no heights without depths, there’s no prize without a price and there are no stars without scars!” That goes to say that to be a leader of repute, it will cost you some things which will be very painful to do away with,but you must remember,’no pain, no gain’. To become a leader is not by chance, it is a choice that you make and you must be conscious of the demands and be ready to pay the price. There are some habits you indulged in last year that you have to do away with to arrive at the top. There are relationships you have to stop now or else they’ll set a limit on your leadership scope. The time you spend watching home videos has to reduce if you’re going to be a leader-Those who are watched don’t watch others.
Below are some prices that need to be paid to become a leader of repute you’re created to be:
1. Be a learner- Whether you’re 20 or 80, the day you stop learning you start dying. To be relevant in this information age, you’ve got to be humble enough to learn. One of the attributes of world-acclaimed leaders is the fact that they’re always ready to learn. I have come to realized in my short life that people that make impacts in this life are people who are not ashamed to admit their ignorance of something, but ready to learn what it takes to move from the realm of ignorance to knowledge. Knowledge is Power. When you know how something is done, you become an authority in that area to produce results. To be a continuous learner, it will cost you your time in observing how something is done and your resources.
2. Be a reader- Readers are leaders. A reader today becomes a leader tomorrow. Most of us want the product, but we are not ready to follow the process. There can never be any product without a process. Every great happening is preceded by series of efforts and preparations put into that same thing to produce results. The world number 1 in the game of tennis, Djokovic didn’t just get there by accident. He had invested time and energy into practice to be able to perfect his skills to arrive at the top. One of the attributes of a leader is Information. The leader has access to things his team members don’t have access to. If you’re a leader who has no access to information, your leadership scope will soon lose its relevance. Why? Because your level of relevance as a leader is dependent on the level of information you have access to. If you’re not informed, you will be deformed. The reason why Africa is largely behind in the global developmental map is because we have deformed leaders who have not put much premiums on reading, they have no value for information. Information doesn’t just fall on people, you have to make a conscious effort to be information-hungry and go for it. One of the leaders of our time, Dr. David Oyedepo said he devoured every material he could lay his hands upon on how to run a mission university before he founded Covenant University. Today, the school is setting the pace among the private universities in Nigeria. To be a leader, you must have a budget for buying and reading books in your field of endeavor. Also, it’s not just enough to read, but you must apply the knowledge acquired from those books as it applies to your career, business, family and other aspects of your life.
3. The price of time- To be an effective learner and reader, you have to trade your time to acquire relevant skills and information to arrive at the top. One of the things you have to learn as a leader is how to manage your time. A wise man once said and I quote ‘Time cannot be stored, it cannot be stretched, it can only be managed!’ Time is managed mainly in two different ways and that’s what amakes the difference between high achievers and non-achievers- Time can either be invested or spent. High achievers invest their time in destiny-enhancing activities, while non-achievers spend their on frivolous activities. The choice is yours. Time is life. We can’t afford to waste time this year. We have to invest time in the pursuits of our dreams. Time is a convertible resource and what we convert it to and the way and manner we go about its conversion is what makes the difference between a mediocre and a successful person.
Friends, I just want to encourage you as you read this piece to take the driver’s seat of your life. Take charge of your life. You cannot be a leader or become successful by accident. Destiny is not a product of chance, it is a product of choice. Make a choice to be a success. Don’t settle for mediocrity. Don’t die a local champion. You have the potential of a global leader. Go and conquer your world, because the world is awaiting your manifestation. Forget about the failures of the past, a new day has dawned on you, shake off the dust of regrets and failure. You are meant for the top. And you will get there. You will succeed!
Have a highly productive week!
Olumide Olaoye
It was one of the world’s leadership experts,John C. Maxwell that said and I quote: “Leadership is influence,nothing more,nothing less!” How true that is. It is your level of influence that determines the coast of your leadership. I believe there’s no other way to define the leadership capability of a person than to look at the extent of his influence at his place of operation.
The English Mini Dictionary defines Influence as “the power or ability to affect beliefs or actions.” The word that strikes me most in the definition above is AFFECT. To affect means ‘to make a difference to’,’to effect a change’,’to make something better than it was’,… It therefore means that a leader is a’ change-agent’, a ‘path-finder’, a ‘pace-setter’, someone that people want to pattern their lives after. When this understanding about the concept of leadership dawned on me,I discovered that just anybody can and should aspire to be a leader.
Friends, you can as well ask yourself these questions: ‘How many lives did I touched,influenced,affected positively in the year that just passed?’,’Who’s that person I influenced his/her life that will never forget the day our paths crossed?’, ‘What price did I pay last year that made the life of another person better?’, ‘What did I lay down for another person’s life to go up in 2012?’,… If you cannot give concrete answers to these questions, may I therefore challenge you as you’re reading this to make a life-time decision to be a change-agent. Determine in your heart that right where you are (in your school,office,church,home,neighborhood,community,or nation), you will make a difference.
We need leaders of influence in our nation today. People that have developed the ability to affect the lifestyle of the citizens of this country. We are tired of the status-quo in leadership. We need people of integrity and character, people that will challenge the traditions of old and cause a paradigm shift in this nation. And we are that people, we are the generation of change-agents. We are the future of this nation. You that are reading this is the person I’m referring to. Don’t look elsewhere…YOU ARE THE ONE!
To be a leader of influence requires a lot of efforts and commitment. It calls for responsibility. It requires that you will have to leave your comfort zone. It requires lots of sacrifice.
Next time on this page, we will be looking at THE COSTS OF LEADERSHIP. Watch out!
I will like to use this medium to say happy new year to you and I wish you a very productive 2013. Make each day of this year counts.
You’re lifted!
Olumide Olaoye
One of the attributes of the 21st century is the IT explosion,which has never been in this fashion before now.IT is one of the most phenomenal industries in this age that is driving every other businesses in other indusries.No business can compete successfully in this age without leveraging on the opportunities that the IT world has got to offer.Don’t be out of time but flow with the time and make the most of the opportunities available to you.
Friends,I will like to take a minute of your time to check the link below.
Your partner in success,
Olumide
http://iearn123.com/ref.php?page=act/ref&invcod=55273
One of the attributes of the 21st century is the IT explosion,which has never been in this fashion before now.IT is one of the most phenomenal industries in this age that is driving every other businesses in other indusries.No business can compete successfully in this age without leveraging on the opportunities that the IT world has got to offer.Don’t be out of time but flow with the time and make the most of the opportunities available to you.
Friends,I will like to take a minute of your time to check the link below.
Your partner in success,
Olumide
http://iearn123.com/ref.php?page=act/ref&invcod=55273
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