Touched by a Leader:

Touched by a Leader:

You are a great leader when your people don't need you, yet they want you. 'Tis one of the paradoxes of true power. Another is, “Those who need power, to have people follow them, don't have it. Those who have it don't need to use it.”

Great leaders work themselves out of a job. They grow their people to be self-sufficient and capable leaders, thus leaving an enduring legacy by default. To quote Lao Tzu, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

This is one of the secrets to building an enduring organization and culture, that grows from merely being good to being great. It is not how imposing the supposed leader is that matters. It is how the leader can help the people see what the leader sees, feel what they feel, and thus see themselves as a part of the whole.

Think about the cleaner at NASA, who when asked what her role was, answered, "It is to take the man to the moon." She had evolved from being just a mere cleaner to embodying the mission of the whole organization. She had been impacted by a leader and thus became one herself.

The Saint.

#leadership #transformativeleadership #saintakin #thesaint #uncleakin

An Enabler:

A leader is a life giver, not just one who is alive, but one who gives of the life within to others. A great leader once said, "I did not come to be served, but to serve." He said, "It is more blessed to give than it is to receive."

This is the hallmark of living things, that they affect the environment where they are found. Any dead thing can be acted on or given to. ONLY living things give to others. That is what leaders do. They serve others in such a way as to help them come alive - be turned on.

Leaders help others grow to the fullest expression of all they have been created to. They create both the tangible and intangible, visible, and invisible, environment that enable such. They in effect are enablers. They are ONLY able to do this because they themselves are winning the inner war of their being. And are thus being enabled themselves.

Are you a leader? Are you enabled? Are you enabling?

The Saint.

In this series:

The Hand of Leadership.

The Hand of Leadership:

Rabbi Daniel Lapin lets us know, the Hebrew vocabulary only contains or refers to a leader as per what they do, not the position they occupy. Leadership, in the Hebrew vocabulary, is revealed by what a person does when faced with the occasion of life.

Leadership is the capacity to perform the act and art of moving people from one position to another in such a way that they intrinsically see themselves as a part of the movement. It is as though it is what they would have done if they were left alone to do the things themselves.

The hands of leadership are invisible, yet very visible. They blend in with the hands of nature in helping direct a course. They find the right rhythm and frequency for and of the team, such as to make it blend in producing the needed orchestra, that meets the organizational objectives and vision.

Leadership occasions the right people, the right thought (culture, tradition, etc.), and right action (execution) in taking people from just being good to being great.

Do you know such a leader? Are you one?

The Saint.

In this series:

It Starts with a Seed.

An Enabler.

It Starts with a Seed

It Starts with a Seed:

We are the prophets over our lives, not any other person or thing. It is what we accept over and in our lives that germinate and bears the fruits that become who and all we manifest. It all started with a thought, then a word and over time becomes our reality.

Everything that is visible came from that which is invisible, otherwise known as thoughts and words. If we take care of the invisible, we determine the visible. The visible is no accident of nature or any other thing. It is predetermined by the activities of the invisible - thoughts and words.

Everything produces after its kind, including thoughts and words. You cannot plant a mango seed and expect an orange tree. You cannot plant an orange seed and expect a mango tree. Every thought and word will answer for us and to us according to their kind.

To create the future of your dreams, you must plant the kind of seeds - thoughts and words - that produces them. Everything starts with a seed. You pick the seed, you pick the fruits, you pick your future. You nurture the seed, you nurture the fruits, you nurture your future.

What are you waiting for?

The Saint.

In this series:

Our Leverage.

The Hand of Leadership.

An Enabler.

Our Leverage:

Different animals are endowed with different things, assets, to necessitate and enable their survival. Some were given size, others strength, speed, ability to camouflage, amongst other qualities. Man (unisex) was given one thing and one thing alone, his mind. Without his mind, he is nothing. With his mind he is everything.

Our mind is our leverage position, our greatest and possibly only indispensable asset. It determines our personality, sense of self, and general disposition and outlook to life. As one who has been in depression, I know this intricately personally. In one day, I was poor. In one day, I was rich. My account balance did not necessarily change. My mind made it so.

Our mind creates our own reality. NONE of us sees the real reality. We ONLY see the map our mind creates of it. The map is never the same as the territory. It is only an interpretation of it. That interpretation is what we call perception. Perception is how reality affects us - our extraction of it, which is truly within our power.

This power is determined by the extent to which we have control of and use our mind. Our mind was given to us to use, not to be used by it. The extent to which we control and use our mind determines the soundness of it and thus our mental wellness. The extent to which it runs riot on us determines or exposes how deprecated it might be.

The call of life is to own our mind and exploit it to actualize in becoming the fullest expression of all that we have been created to be. Anything short is a failure.

Do you own your mind?

The Saint.

In this series:

Empowering People.

It Starts with a Seed.

The Hand of Leadership.

Empowering People:

In his management classic Good to Great, Jim Collins defines the "right people" through his core principle: "First Who, Then What"—meaning you must get the right people on the bus before you figure out where to drive it. But it does not end there. The thought and action also must be right and disciplined.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, a great company needs all three. It is not enough to have one or two. Getting the right people into the bus is possibly the easiest of these. Having the discipline to release them to do the reason for their employment is where most organizations fail.

I was in a meeting the other day with a manager arguing on a position she has little to no experience on. She wanted her way, without evidence on why the alternatives will not work. It was about being the boss and pushing her way through. She is an example of a round peg in a square hole.

Organizations are bedevilled with such people who have risen into positions they lack the telemetry for. No wonder, it is said "People don't leave companies or jobs. They leave bosses." Everyone wants to be in a place where they are actualized, and their opinions and contributions are making a difference.

Are you enabling the persons working with and for you? Are you enabling yourself?

The Saint.

In this series:

The Power to Influence. 

Our Leverage.

It Starts with a Seed.

The Power to Influence:

We are each created as creatures of influence - to influence and be influenced. It follows therefore that we are each created to lead and be led. There is possibly no better place to see this than when you see two people going on a walk. They both walk at a new pace, different from their individual paces, but in sync with the terms of the engagement. Each is influencing and being influenced.

Equally true is the fact that these dual influences are not equal. One is determined by the environment one finds themselves. The other is determined by the state of the persons inner organization and war. A disorganized inner organization and a defeated person have little to nothing to influence others with.

Your power to influence and thus lead others is determined by the power obtained from organizing yourself, finding your own peace, winning the war within, and thus leading yourself.

Are you winning?

The Saint.

In this series:

Power Does Not Corrupt.

Empowering People.

Our Leverage.