#MyWordForToday is #Leadership

#MyWordForToday is #Leadership

So much has been written on leadership and leadership skills. I very much doubt that there's anything I want to write about today that you haven't heard before.

But have you read leadership from my own point of view? No?  let's talk about my view of leadership.

In these dark and uncertain times, we need to understand that the styles of leadership must evolve. We must look for better ways of connecting with each other in order to create a greater community.

The cool thing about leadership is that the style is not the same for everyone.  And, your title does not make you a leader; your influence and impact on others is what does the job.

So, whether you are referred to as a leader or not, please be aware that someone somewhere is paying attention to the choices you make.  Not only are they paying attention, but some are also been led by those choices.

Like I always say,  a lot of destinies are tied to yours. Some of these destinies are unknown to you but the choices you make or making are so far-reaching that they are touching lives around the globe.

It is so profound that the life you may touch may yet be unborn. I have never met Maya Angelou, and she definitely wasn't aware of my existence, but I have learnt so much from her leadership style.

I am careful to create my style of leadership from compassion, empathy, humanity and humility.

I've also taught myself to self-lead, therefore, I will never be able to direct any of my team members to do stuff that I am unwilling or unable to do.

I have been scorned many times for my leadership style, but I have also been appreciated. I learnt not to take this scorn personally, of course, it stings to be scorned. I, however, chose to see it as a lesson and therefore took it as feedback instead of criticism.

As a leader, you would be one who is emotionally in touch with yourself. When you become emotionally intelligent, you are on your way to being called a leader.

I am not even halfway there but I am learning, adapting, and making allowances. I have always said and reiterated that there's no such thing as "bad" leadership you are either a leader or not. Periodt 😎

All those adjectives such as weak, ineffective etc are anomalous and cannot sit side-by-side with leadership. Like I earlier said, your title is not a determinant.

Being a leader does not suggest that you have it all figured out, it certainly does not mean that you know it all.

It does, however, mean that you are possessed of such self-confidence that allows you to bring others to your point of view,  but you're also humble enough to learn that which is outside of your expertise.

All too often, we see "leaders" that are not only closed up to other people's perspectives but are also prisoners of theirs. Inflexible, unyielding, belligerent to other viewpoints, unwilling to see their team members as possessing any kind of intelligence.

I worked with someone who would always tell us at meetings that "you don't think".

Belittling your team or thinking that you are higher in intelligence is an unintelligent way of leading anyone, even the children from your womb.  It is the worst kind of way to lead.

As a leader, although you project self-confidence, secure in your own strength, you want to also actively discourage groupthink or go-alongnism. You want to encourage healthy debates.

And this is why I say as a leader, you must never surround yourself with sycophants.  You must like Sara Canaday said, "purposely disrupt your own thinking, and challenge your own ideas" by surrounding yourself with people who are willing to point out your weak or blind spots to you.

I did do a post about blind spots, please find time to read. I am of the view that it is very important that as leaders, we are aware of our blind spots and we work towards eliminating those.

You cannot do this by yourself. A candle although brightens the room is unable to give itself light.

Leadership this way does not infer that you would not be assertive. What it means is that you are secure in your own strength and working on your weaknesses.

Leadership starts with YOU and ME, of course.

Would you be willing to tell me what your idea of leadership is?

Namaste

Bibireosefowora 💕💌
(Neither Pedigree nor Class can be bought with Money).

#MyWordForToday is #Clarity

#MyWordForToday is #Clarity

Sometimes life throws raw eggs on our figurative windscreens, and our first natural instinct would usually be to use our wipers to clear it off.

This would be a grave mistake because using your wiper to clear off eggs from any windscreen would impair or even totally block your vision.

How does this apply to #MyWordForTheDay? Seeking clarity in areas of our lives requires that we do stuff that will not block our vision.

What is clarity? When I was about 25 or so years old,  I had a terrible breakout of acne all over my face. In fact, I had an episode that made me stay indoors for weeks. I was unable to step out of my house because of those disfiguring spots on my face.

My cousin eventually told me of Oxy10 and glycerine, and these helped me clear up the acne. I also used a clarifying lotion to smoothen it up. People who saw me afterwards marvelled at how pretty my face had become.  

This could only have happened because I had succeeded in clarifying my skin and so my beautiful face could shine forth.

Clarity,  whether of the face, the Vision or of our purposes in life is very important. We have often said one of the best things you can do for yourself is to know and understand your purpose in life.

I want to believe many of us have read "The Alchemist" by Paul Coello. One of the most profound lessons therein for me is "realizing your purpose and living it to the fullest, each day of your life".

In order to do justice to this blog post on clarity,  a talk about purpose is inevitable. Purpose,  to many people, sounds like a really terrifying concept. 😊 It doesn't have to be.

I'm going to demystify it by simply referring to it as "your message". So, purpose = your message to the World.

In the blog post, I did on personal branding, I identified one way to decipher what your message to the world is. Please check through my blog for that post.

The Bible also did say "wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure", meaning “your message” is where you spend most of your time, your interests, stuff that keeps you going, where your heart is.

I had said before that it is important to identify your message, but what is even more important is clarifying that message. This means that you have to keep evolving and honing your message until it becomes synonymous with your name.

Mother Theresa was anonymous with kind acts of charity,  Jack Ma with e-commerce, Michael Jackson with best-selling dance and music.

These folks have carefully cultivated and clarified their brands up to the point that their names come up in connection with those things I'd mentioned.

Going back to the analogy of the raw egg on the windshield, you must understand that although clarity comes by taking hold of your message and finetuning it,  how you do so is very crucial. Using your wiper is doing the right thing in a wrong way, because rather than clear your vision, the wipers will totally blind you.

Thankfully, there are many resources you can deploy to get clarity on your message. Seek for the right kind of help whilst remembering that your vision is not just about you, and so you must be very intentional about your how.

I sent a blog post of mine to a friend and asked if he thought I could publish it as a book, he responded by saying, the best way to know is to publish it. I will get the feedback that I need, and this will go a long way in helping me clarify my vision.

Having an unclarified message ( I say this because some of us have multiple messages) is akin to having many tabs open on your PC, this slows the PC down,  thereby reducing its ability to work optimally. No matter how great your message is, leaving it directionless will cripple it.

My old Boss was often wont to say " direction is more important than speed". 

In my case,  self-leadership is an intrinsic part of my message, this means that more than anything else, I value growth and everyone with a growth mindset, it is a core value for me. And I have set about clarifying my message along these lines.

If you have read my write-ups, you would see that they are all centred around "self". It is my unshaken belief that change begins from me; if I cannot change myself, how do I change the world?


What would you like you and your personal brand to be synonymous with?  Therein lies your message. Clarify it.


"Let your light shine before others ".

Namaste 🙏🏾

Bibireosefowora 💕💌
(Neither Pedigree nor Class can be bought with Money).