Generosity...Recipe for Leadership

Leaders must be generous and predisposed to give their resources to others. As leaders, we must believe that a candle loses nothing when it lights another. The biblical law "Love others as yourself" is synonymous with leadership. Show concern, show care, show love and people will follow you.

According to John C. Maxwell, "You can give without loving, but you can not love without giving." Leaders who fail to display generosity should ask themselves: Do I really love the people I lead? Researches have shown that when great leaders err, they always err on the side of generosity. And do you know the resource they seldom give? It's TIME.

Beloved leaders, kindly create time for caring, loving, listening, sharing and giving to your followers.

Art of Delegation

Time has become so inadequate! As owner or manager in charge, it’s too easy to believe you should be the best at or involved in everything in the business, which is impossible. You should be spending time identifying the strengths and weaknesses of you and the team then using everyone (yourself included) as effectively as possible. Most people, myself included, sometimes guilty of trying to mould a set job around people or vice-versa rather than looking at individual tasks separately then assigning the various aspects to the people whose strengths are in those areas. We get preoccupied with 'a job' sometimes rather than sets of specific tasks which require certain skills. Sadly easier said than done when involved in an owner managed business and after throwing the bane of all our lives into the equation - ad-hoc work!

Leaders, let's take advantage of delegation of duties...so that you could free up time to think about other areas of the business.

Habits...Future

According to Mark Victor Hansen, “If you want to distance yourself from the masses and enjoy a rich and unique lifestyle, understand this - your habits will determine your future."

The fact is, if you keep on doing things a certain way, you will get a predictable result. That's the simple law of Cause and Effect. Successful habits create positive rewards. Negative habits breed negative consequences.

If you want to enjoy longevity, you must have healthy habits. If you are in the habit of starving your most important relationships of time, energy and love, how can you expect a happy outcome? If you spend money extravagantly or don't save any money, your bad habits will lead you to a never-ending cycle of work.

Shift yourself out of your bad habits and always believe that you have a destiny to be great.

THANK - FULL

Someone once asked me, "SMO, is it necessary to be thankful always?" Perhaps most of you would respond with emphatic Yes. And I will add that thankfulness is a key to survival. Are you saying "Why?" Most of us believe that being a graduate or affluent, we have probably already solved the necessary problems of survival, gone beyond that and are now working to achieve our desires. But let me give you this key phrase, “Learn to be thankful for what you already have, while you pursue all that you want.” I believe one of the greatest and perhaps one of the simplest lessons we can learn in life is to be thankful for what we have already received and accomplished.

Years and experiences have brought us thus far, but it is thankfulness that opened windows of opportunities, of blessings, of unique experiences to flow our ways. Believe me, I am a testimony to that.

Don't end this week without thanking one or more people that have made your life worthwhile.

Beyond The Economy

Economic disaster begins with a philosophy of doing less and wanting more. If you want to amend your mistakes, you must begin by amending your philosophy. Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out. Only human beings can reorder their lives any day they choose by refining their philosophy. The key factor that will determine your financial future is not the economy; the key factor is your philosophy.

Don't borrow someone else's plan. Develop your own philosophy and it will lead you to unique places. If you learn to set a good sail, the wind that blows will always take you to the dreams you want, the income you want, and the treasures of mind, purse, and soul you want.

The Buy-in: Leadership

People consciously or unconsciously always ask, "why should I follow you?" Leaders must understand that they themselves go on display before they ever get the chance to display their vision. In other words, people peruse and scrutinise your person and personality before they can buy-in into your dreams. Once followers gain confidence in the leaders, they'll feel confident about the vision.

Seven qualities that attract people to a leader are:
1. Calling
2. Insight
3. Charisma
4. Talent
5. Ability
6. Communication skills and
7. Character

Take stock...do your plus or minus. And ask, "do I possess all, some or any of the qualities mentioned above.

Easy to NEGLECT

People often ask me how I manage to write and post inspirational tips consistently in the past three years on this forum while many people could not. The answer is simple: The things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people. They said it probably really wouldn't matter. If I had to sum it up, I would say what I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. Since several years back, I've made up my mind to adopt tenets of contentment while some are still blaming the economy, the government, and company policies, yet they neglected to do the basic, easy things.

In fact, the primary reason most people are not doing as well as they could and should, can be summed up in a single word: NEGLECT.

Thank God for a new day, week...start building your own Rome now.