Excerpts Of My Book (BECOMING A LEADER) For Your Young Adult.

Leadership is something that is being spoken about every so often and since people are consistently seeking those who will provide authentic leadership for our society, it follows therefore that there is a dire want of leaders in our society today. Everyone knows what a leader should do and how such should act but who is taking time to be one or raising one for the future.

A leader is someone who makes people do what they would not ordinarily have done. A leader makes things happen by having a vision and making others see what he/she can see. A leader exerts power without coercion and people follow. That is why we say ‘Leadership is Influence’ and influence is the ethical use of power. What people see compels them to follow. What rather we see today, is someone who is called a leader either by position of authority or by the way he/she does things. The first is erroneous, the second comes close to it. The first is one given legal authority through positional power to lead other people but may not necessarily make things happen but the second is someone who even without positional power impacts his or her surrounding by virtue of what the person does. To become such a leader, one must be seen to be doing and saying things that bring benefits to others.  

To become a leader, use a power tool that we all have been given but few use well. It is the power of imagination. Imagine yourself making impact everywhere you find yourself, no matter how trivial the assignment is. Imagine yourself making a difference. Different people make a difference and impact their surroundings differently.

To become the leader that makes things happen, a true leader, an individual has to start early to inculcate leadership values. By the time an individual turns 21 years, everything that he or she needs to succeed has been ingrained in the person according to behavioral scientists. And at about that age, some individuals have sorted out what they want to do and how they want to impact their world. Write that impact you want to make down. What you have written down is called a vision statement. Everyone wants to achieve something. It could be just writing good poems to uplift people’s spirit to making the next boeing aircraft for your generation.

Organizations write their vision statement and place them where every staff can see and read to remind them of where they are going. A vision statement is futuristic.  Are you a young girl/boy reading this? Put pen to paper, write your vision statement. Example: To be the best everywhere and in every assignment I am given.

The second thing to do is transform this vision into a mission. That written vision remains on paper until you convert it into a mission. Remember the missionaries, they left their homes and comfort to travel to places they have never been or seen before, only heard of, because of their vision of impacting the world with what they knew and had. If they had remained in their countries, we would not have the education and enlightenment we have today. So convert your vision into a mission. Get up and begin to do something in the direction of your vision.

For a reminder, you also need to write a mission statement. A mission statement goes one step further than a vision’s, it adds how you want to become what you have set out to be. A personal mission statement focuses on what you want to be (character) and to do (contributions and achievements) and on the values or principles upon which being and doing are based. Example: To be the best in every assignment I am given by operating with the highest values to achieve an excellent result.

Values are very important to achieving your set vision because they will help you stand when the wind of contradictions blows. Values are those things which an individual or group of people use to make judgments about an issue. They are the things a person or group holds in high esteem. So people can hold different things in high esteem. Indeed, people can hold the wrong things in high esteem, these people will be said to have the wrong values or warped ones, while some others will have very high and impactful values. Values are maps. If you can read a map, then you will not get lost.

Principles are territories. The territories are where a lot of people want to be but are reading the wrong maps or rather following the wrong arrows on the map. Values serve as compasses, they are always pointing the way and if we know how to read them, we will not get lost, confused or fooled by conflicting values. Principles are universal truths; they apply at all times and in all places. They surface in the forms of values, ideas, norms and teachings that uplift, enable fulfillment, empower and inspire people.

Everyone likes to be referred to as a man/woman of integrity. Integrity is a territory. However, consistently they are following the wrong arrows on the path of life, the arrow of dishonesty, pointing them in opposite territory. Put it another way, they are boarding a different vehicle (value) daily to get to integrity, which is not possible. The right vehicle to board daily or the arrow to follow consistently is that of honesty, it will end in integrity. In management, integrity is categorized as an ‘end state value’ and honesty an ‘instrumental value’. Honesty consistently practiced will be instrumental to one being called a man/woman of integrity.

As a leader that will make things happen, you must be principled. People have to know what you stand for. Which is your territory? Integrity or falsehood? Purity or Impurity? Paul told young Timothy in the great book “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” ITim4:12. He was simply telling him, live by the highest values you can. No one should be in doubt of what you stand for. Be an example, a role model without even holding a public office. In other words impact your immediate world. He was telling him to showcase his values, so that the he can inspire people to follow his God. The values you showcase can either inspire people to follow your God or the devil. 
The third thing then to do to become a leader is to be principle-centered. You may say I am so young, how can I have principles. If you want to be a leader that will make things happen, thereby impact your generation, then you have to start early to inculcate the right values so you can grow into a principled person.

MEI

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