DEVELOP YOUR PERSONAL LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Good morning! Trust your week went well. Some children have resumed, others will follow this weekend.

I am still on Personal Leadership for our children. I strongly believe God is helping us and will continually help us as we partner with Him to do parenting right.

This particular write-up is meant for our children. However, I appeal that you read first so you can explain anything they do not understand to them. Thank you!

DEVELOP YOUR PERSONAL LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Young boy/girl, there is need to have personal leadership. Ability to lead yourself to where you want to go is important, hence the need to develop your PERSONAL LEADERSHIP. Knowing that you can exercise some form of leadership in your life will give your parents peace and confidence to drop you off in the tertiary learning environment trusting that with God’s guidance, you will wake up, take yourself to class and do all you need to do in a day, week and semester.

To develop your personal leadership, use a power tool that we all have been given but few use well. It is the power of imagination. Imagine who you want to become and the kind of impact you want to make everywhere you find yourself, no matter how trivial the assignment you are given to do. Imagine yourself making a difference. Different people make a difference and impact their surroundings differently.

To become the leader that makes things happen i.e. 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.

As a young boy or girl, ask yourself, how do I want to impact my world? Of course I am not talking about the whole world. Your world starts with your immediate surroundings (home, school etc). Ask yourself, what do I want to achieve and become as a young girl/boy. Write the VISION down clearly. The Bible says “write the vision down, for it is for an appointed time”- Hk2:4. What you have written down is called a vision statement. Everyone wants to be somebody or want to achieve something. Organizations write their vision statement and place them where every staff can see and read to remind them of where they are going. Do same. A vision statement is futuristic. Example: To be the best everywhere and in every assignment I am given starting from home. Note, the best does not always have to be the award winner. Forget about the award, just strive to do your best with your best self. When focus is the award, people end up hurting those they should be of benefit to/impact.

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, 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 starting from home 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 contradiction 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. Put a bit more simply, values are the vehicles you board everyday to go to your defined destination (Vision).  

So if you the young boy/girl have the right values, another person, young or old will not take you off your CRAFTED VISION even if you school far away from home. Agree with your parents on where you are going, pick up the right VALUES and set sail on your mission.

Principles are territories. The territories are where a lot of people want to belong but are reading the wrong maps or 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 in the same way. A principled person will not steal either by the pen or gun, because if caught, definition of a thief is the same round the globe. A thief is someone who took what does not belong to him/her, it does not matter how it was taken. A principled person knows that, so chooses his/her territory – Integrity. Daily this individual operates with the values of honesty, faithfulness and keeping of promises made. These will eventually make him/her be referred to as a person of integrity(territory).

Which is your territory? Integrity or falsehood (duplicity)? Purity or Impurity? Paul told young Timothy “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. Let people know your territory.  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 he can inspire people to follow God. The values you showcase can either inspire people to follow God or the devil. The third thing then to do to become your own 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. Let me tell you a true story I heard of a young teenage boy who joined an club in the university. The test of resilience for the new entrants was to drink alcohol. Other wise, the person drinks milk from a long tube and the milk must not spill. If it spills, raw eggs will be thrown at the person to mess him up. This came as a surprise to him. The young boy said he doesn’t drink alcohol. ‘Then to the milk pipe he must go’, shouted everyone. He wanted to leave but since there was an option, he will go for that. He said he prayed for God to help him then proceeded to the milk point. He made it, no drop of milk. At the end of the meeting that day, another young lad fell into step with him on his way home, congratulating him for standing his ground and not taking alcohol, telling him that he couldn’t do what that boy did on his own welcome night even though his father is a pastor. He told him he will like to be his friend. The next day was a Sunday, the latter went to church with that milk drinking boy. A pastor’s son drawing strength from a pew member’s son to choose his territory, not from his father’s preaching. That milk drinking boy exhibited ‘Personal Leadership’, showcased strength in an area someone couldn’t and that pulled the other person up. ‘Yes I want to be in this club’, he told himself, ‘however, I can be different and I am not afraid to be different because I have chosen my territory- TEETOLLE. Faraway from home, where my parents are not watching, I can still hold my value of not drinking alcohol’. Paul told young Timothy “Let no one DESPISE (toy with; look down; mess up) your youth, but be an EXAMPLE to the believers in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity” ITim4:12.

N/B: Young boy/girl choose your territory and do not be afraid when it looks like you are the only one there. Remember your creator is there with you. I grew up to hear this adage- One With God is Majority. If your way is a higher way of doing things, you will eventually have company. We are being consistently deceived that the wide way with many people (friends) is the right way by even those who should preach otherwise. Do not be deceived by such.

Next is, continuously be PROACTIVE.

To be proactive is usually defined by people as being able to take initiative to plan ahead. But it means much more than that. Stephen Covey says, proactive people not only take initiative, they hold themselves responsible for that which they start peradventure plans go bad. Pro-activity therefore means having the initiative and responsibility to make things happen. To be responsible is to be “response-able”. Ability to respond in the most positive and constructive manner even when things go wrong. Not blaming circumstances, conditions or people. Reactive people are often affected by their physical environment, they flow with the prevailing weather. Proactive people affect their surrounding environment. The weather makes no difference to them because they carry their own weather. The sun is shining on their inside, let it be raining cats and dogs around them, sun is simply shining. Irrespective of the external stimulus, they know that they have the freedom to choose their response and they do that using their well placed values. Proactive people are value driven, that’s why they can take responsibility even when what they initiated go wrong.

Reactive people flow with the leader on the seat. If the leader on seat right now says do the right thing, they do that. If another leader comes and tells them to do the wrong things, so be it. Be the former – a proactive person, not the latter.

I say thank you to the parent who just read this. Please make the child/children read it and please add your beautiful points borne out of your rich experiences for we have all traveled some distance on this road of life.

As we release our children to boarding houses and universities, may the almighty God go with them and help them exhibit personal leadership that pulls fellow students up to higher/better ways of doing things.

I have a final point, I want to address it as a stand alone point next week.

Enjoy both your weekend and the upcoming week!

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