The topics of “leadership” and “how to be successful” are
surely the subjects that are the best-selling topics on the market at the
moment. I therefore thought that we could talk and meditate on these subjects
so as to encourage one another.
We must remember that the difference between management and
leadership is that management is a carrier and leadership is a calling. For managers,
it is all about my job and how high I can get on the ladder of success. A
leader, on the other hand, is driven because of a vision and the sense that
there is a calling upon his/her life that he/she need to respond to.
President Nelson Mandela was, and still is, such a leader.
In the years of liberation he was prepared to give his life for the cause. He could
not ignore his calling because his calling took possession of him and he would
have failed himself if the price to live out what he believed in became too
big. Today, regardless of what the color of your skin is, you will agree that President
Mandela was faithful to his calling. Managers put the success-ladder against
the wall but leaders make sure that it is the right wall.
To be proactive in life is a leadership trait, if leaders
don’t discover their own qualities and don’t have the courage to stand up to
lead, we will be forced to be reactive
one of these days. We cannot allow our own personal world to take us in
captivity!
There is much more to all of us than our current reality. It is true that we need to discover our
hidden selves. It is also true that not all of us are leaders but that there are many undiscovered leaders amongst
us. The majority of our true identity cannot be seen with human eyes. It is
when we start to experience that irritation towards our environment, and we
start to sense that we can make a difference, that self-belief and the
discovering of hidden potential becomes important. Our growth stalls when our invisible potential is not fed
with positive attention and expectation.
There are some areas in our lives that, at times, get too much of our attention
and, as a result, start to overshadow the leadership-potential in us.
One of the most important traits of leadership is relational
capacity. Once again I want to use Mister Mandela as an example. It is known
that, when he meets somebody, he will remember that person’s name even if it
was only a once-off meeting. Relational capacity is an art that we need to
develop however it is also important to know that it comes with the realisation
that another person’s success becomes more important than your own. This is
when we become fathers, when we are not afraid to give everything for the
calling.
Leaders dream dreams. They refuse to let anyone or anything
get in the way of achieving those dreams. They are realistic, but unrelenting.
They are polite, but insistent. They constantly and consistently drive forward
toward their goals.
You can be a leader. You will
be – when it matters enough to you.
