Three Simple Mantras for Leadership Development
In the South and East Asian Christian context
there is a potential leadership gap. The success of the business world is that
it has adequate talent pool of leadership availability. Even though lot of
people write, talk and preach about leadership, one thing I realized with my personal
experience in ministry was people are not interested in developing leaders.
Everyone is interested in developing followers. In other word, one of the
challenges I faced in my journey related with leadership development is that people are developing underdogs and not top dogs. This is also can be connected with
the cultural implications. In the Indian context the tragedy is that the primarily
leaders are born not grown. It is the tragic story to look for succession
within the family tradition and it is part of the culture in the religious and
political scenario of India, Middle East and elsewhere. This kind of religious
and political leadership style can be called mushroom style, everyone in the
dark except their family members.
According to research mostly innovation
takes place while group of people working together to resolve the problems and
it is not always from top down. We should be able to trust our selves enough
to trust others. One of the reason why I
spent last 6 years of my research work in the field of counseling was because of
one fundamental fact i.e. "Improving your leadership skill can only be possible by
improving yourself ". One of the greatest reward in my personal life is to see
people’s potential reached.
If you are serious about developing
leaders please look into the following mantras. First of all, EMPATHY (ability to
feel and recognize the feeling of others). If you want to be a best leader or
if you want to develop the best leaders remember the word empathy. Being in the periphery is dangerous and not pleasurable so
everyone wants to be safely surrounded and wanted to be valued by others. Empathy stands
always in the opposite pole of sympathy. It is not always agreeing but
understanding the frame of reference of the other. This will allow one to be
free, feel safe, courage to take risk and can have a healthy relationship. No one
cares how much you know, until they know how much you care said Theodore
Roosevelt. Without innovation and growth every ministry stagnates and eventually
fades away. One of the reason why I wanted to see young leaders coming up
because they have innovative ideas and willingness to think outside of the box.
One of the tragedy I see with the Christian leadership in India is that even at
the age of 95 the leaders wanted to be in power and it is not different from the
political parties.
The second most important aspect in
leadership is LIFELONG LEARNING. We
live in a complex and rapid changing context of technological advancement and
demographical shifts. Great leaders are lifelong learners. Leadership is a
journey and a good leader never stop learning. Some people are stagnated in
their learning. It is same like the polluted water. In the biblical context
there is no life in Dead Sea, because it had no out-let. Leadership and learning are inseparable to
each other. Leaders learn constantly and continuously, not only from his or her
superiors but from every one and from everywhere. The good news is that every person
is a leader in some capacities. Keep
learning as part of your everyday life. Recently I heard someone saying me it
takes only 20 hours to learn a new thing. The question is are you still
learning a lot?
Third is, leaders helps to FULFILL THE DREAMS IN OTHERS. Leaders identify the dreams and maximize the
potentials not only in themselves but in others. The power of a leader is his
or her capacity to use the dreams. Often people say dreams are free but the
cost of achieving those dreams are pricy. If dreams are free why can’t you free your dreams?
Dreams are like road map or GPS but the road map or GPS will not take you there
until you take the efforts to drive. It is an assurance but not a fulfillment. If your dreams inspire others then dream more as you
are a leader the world is waiting for. A leader is eternity designed because it
doesn’t stop with him or her. Michelangelo once said: "The greatest
danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that
it is too low and we reach it." The best way to predict the future is not
to approach a prophet or an astrologer but to create one for yourself. The windshield
may not be clearer in comparison to the rearview mirror but that is the
direction we need to travel.
Blessings
Binu Peniel © 2016
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