Week 1:-: Introduction

Welcome to #Team21s training on Servant Leadership. 

We’re thrilled to have you embark on this transformative journey. Throughout this training, you’ll have the support of a dedicated mentor who will guide you, review your submissions, and walk alongside you every step of the way.

To make the most of this experience, we strongly encourage you to keep a physical journal or notebook to document your thoughts, questions, and learnings. Additionally, you’ll be required to post weekly reflections on your blog and LinkedIn.

Welcome again, and we pray that this journey leads to profound spiritual. personal and professional transformation as it has for so many others before you.

What is your definition of leadership? Write it down prior to watching the video below.

Now watch the video and answer the questions that follow. Please do sign all your posts so we know who is commenting.

1. Who is/are the leaders in the video? Why?

2. How has this influenced your previous definition? 

3. Based on what you saw and how this has influenced your thinking, who is a leader?

Our focus of course will be on servant leadership and we want to encourage you to be intentional about change as you engage in the process of learning, un-learning and relearning. What you become depends on a large extent on the changes you choose to make.

Are you a leader? What makes you one or not? 

Servant leadership is a journey that starts from the heart and determines the leader’s character (integrity, humility, courage etc). This (character) precedes a focus on building others (relationships) executing leadership tasks, improving processes and hence transforming society.
Servant Leadership is therefore radically different from "personality type" driven leadership paradigms, which focus on learning various skills to “fix” the leader’s public image and help them get things done. 

We start with the declaration that: Everyone is a leader, yes you are a leader! Why? Because we were all created, by God (in His image), and have a specific assignment. In the creation story of the book of Genesis in the Bible, it is recorded that man was created, by God, in His image and likeness. He also gives man the assignment to dominate over everything He created. Notice that God's image is in every single human being, with no exceptions, and everyone of us was created for a specific purpose. Your position in society, possessions, talents, skills, titles, connections and knowledge do not make you or anyone else more human than another. 

We may have different skills, aptitudes, knowledge and so forth but we were all created by one God, in His image and with the same ability to influence others and create positive impact albeit at different levels. You have the potential and just need to make that choice to reflect God's image. In order to maximize our potential as individuals however, we need to take proactive, rather than either passive or reactive steps, towards our desire to manifest our God given ability to lead and hence effect positive change be it within ourselves, in others, our spheres of influence and our communities. This process will require patience, intentionality and commitment. If your goal is to experience long lasting change (results), the desire should come from within (intrinsic motivation) and be driven by your values and mission. We will talk about this in greater detail throughout this training.

Are you intentional and personally committed to your growth? 

Any object in motion will stop somewhere, someday when it runs "out of steam".  What kind of legacy do you plan to leave when your day comes? Do you want to be known as someone who was bold enough to take charge when leadership was required? Do you want to hear the words "well done", from The Creator of the universe when your time on earth expires? Do you want to join God in bringing positive impact in your family, community and different spheres of influence?

If you said either yes, or maybe then this training is indeed for you.

Legacies don't fall from the sky. "Failing to plan, is planning to fail" (Alan Lakein).

Week 1 Assignment

1. Call 3 leaders you know and take an appointment with them this week to discuss the following:
a. Explain to them you are taking a 21 weeks leadership course and will like to pick their brains on various issues. Don't forget to thank them for their time once the discussion is completed. This must be a face-to face assignment please do not do social media, email or phone call interviews. 
b. Ask them to share their life mission with you.
c. Ask them to share 4-7 of their personal values 
d. Ask them to talk about their understanding of leadership and what they have done to intentionally change habits that hindered their effectiveness as leaders.

2. List 4-7 of your own values and write down what you believe is your personal (life) mission statement.
3. What one thing can you do to help you adopt new habits as you continue on this training?
4. What will you like to change in your life to become more effective?
5. What have you learned about the people you interviewed and about yourself? List their names and summarize what you learned from each person.
6. What do you understand by by the words proactive and intrinsic motivation?

7. Draw up your plan for different thing you would like to change in your life to become more effective.

8. Write a brief summary of what you learned this week. Post on your blog and share the link in your group.

9. Write a short leadership point based on what you learned this week and share with your mentor. Once they validate, post on your LinkedIn and #Team21, #ServantLeadership #NotSoWithYou

Please e-mail your answers for this week and all other weeks to team21online@gmail.com and your mentor at the latest on Saturday. Also post a summary of what you have learned on your newly created blog.