The 2nd book I have read about leadership is again by John C Maxwell - Developing the Leader within you. It has been classic for lots of leaders and I have decided to re read what John has to share about leadership. Here goes...
The title of chapter 1 said it all about leadership. It is Influence and the ability to obtain followers. I think most leaders would agree that it is heart wrenching when your influence with your organising is waning because the influence is reducing. And that is why I am committed to grow my leadership skills as part of my personal development.
"The best investment in the future is a proper influence today!"
Alot of people has been asking how to learn leadership. I would wish to agree with John that leadership can be developed and learned. The best platform to train and learn about leadership is to start a business yourself, be it traditional, franchising or network marketing.
John mentioned about not missing any of the 5 levels of Leadership, I just want to highlight what I felt I missed out most of the time is Level 2: Permission. Fred Smith said this, "Leadership is getting people to work for you when they are not obligated."
"Leadership begins with the heart and not the head. It flourishes with a meaningful relationship, not more regulations."
In short, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. I had failed on this rather dramatically for the past 10 years. I knew this theory since like almost 10 years ago but applying it proves to be pretty hard. But as I have said I am committed to change.
"People who are unable to build solid, lasting relationships will soon discover that they are unable to sustain long, effective leadership."
This above sentence hit me like a brick. Why? Because I am experiencing the consequences of noy able to build the relationship...I had been too focused on building systems and structures rather than relationships. But luckily, the business don't just depend on my leadership but others too, hence, I am able to weather through the mistakes I made in my business. I need to systematically meet and build relationships with key influencers in my organization. Only when that is done, then things can start to happen :-)
And the last piece of advice on leadership on influence by John is we never should leave base level. Building relationship is always needed at all times so that work can be fun. I think I will need to heed this advice so that people who work with me together can stick with each other through thin and thick :-)
Your Humble Servant Leader,
Max Tay
P.S.: if you have similar experience or something to share, please fill free to comment. Thank you!
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