Our first lesson focused on defining servant leadership. Personally, I was reminded that everyone is a leader since we were all created by the same God and in His image. It follows naturally from this conclusion that everyone therefore has both the capacity and responsibility of working to become a better leader! This is a proactive choice that can only be sustained by intrinsic motivation. Are you motivated to become better at leading both yourself and others?
Per John C. Maxwell, "Leadership Ability Determines a Person’s Level of Effectiveness", this implies that you can only take yourself, family, organization and the people that you lead, as far as the level of your current leadership. Drawing from this, we can conclude that no matter how hard you try to achieve more, you first need to work on intentionally dealing with the limitations on your ability to lead yourself first, then others. Without this, you will be living in a dream world full of a lot of talk but no palpable results. In other words, your effectiveness as a servant leader, is directly linked to the intentional steps you take daily to deal with the limitations on your ability to lead.
The more limitations you have, the less effective you are and vice versa.
The bottles in the image below are of different sizes but are useless if the lids stay on. Even though the one that is circled is the smallest of all the bottles, at this point, it is more useful as it is open and therefore has the capacity to receive. The others may have more physical capacity but they are useless if their lids, stay on! If lids are limitations, what are some of the lids you can identify in your life which are limiting your effectiveness as a leader? Take some time out, to run a self examination.
Examples of limitations: procrastination, poor/no planning, low/poor self image, lack of self (intrinsic) motivation, distractions from different sources (social media etc.), lack of focus, poor habits, lack of trustworthiness, fear to take risks, wrong beliefs, lack of integrity, no passion, laziness, lack of vision/goals, bad friends, pride, fear, etc.
Lids serve to make you ineffective and will cheat you from reaching your goals.
In 2009, Bernard Madoff and his associates were convicted of pulling a fast one on the American public with their Ponzi scheme. Through his evil leadership, many bought into his “house of lies” which came crumbling down when he was exposed as a fraud. His lack of integrity was a major flaw in his leadership and had real consequences on the people he led. Later on, his son committed suicide and many Americans lost their life savings.
A lid is anything that serves as a limitation, hindering the leader from being effective. The biblical character and first king of Israel, Saul, started off great. He however became jealous of David, lacked courage and was afraid of his people dispersing which led him to disobey God. We can see multiple lids on his leadership in this line.
Your effectiveness is dependent on how effectively you deal with your limitations. Let's do something about them!
Your effectiveness is dependent on how effectively you deal with your limitations. Let's do something about them!
So how do you overcome your personal lids?
I suggest 3 Ps:
Pray, Plan & People - that's your secret weapon.
2. Plan. Have a plan for dealing with your limitations. If it is sin, confess it. If it is procrastination, have a to do list to help you prioritize your time and work on it. Delegate tasks where and whenever possible. Work on your self image. What God thinks about you is more important than what people think about you. Do something rather than nothing.
Iron sharpens iron.
1. Identify and write down a list of limitations which are negatively impacting your leadership effectiveness.
2. Find a close family member (adult child/spouse, If you are married) and discuss lids with them.
2. Find a close family member (adult child/spouse, If you are married) and discuss lids with them.
Ask your family member to point out some lids he/she can discern in your leadership. Do not be defensive. Compare their list with yours. What did you learn about yourself? What are you going to do about it/them? Spend sometime in self-reflection and prayer.
3. Repeat the process above with 3 colleagues or school mates. One should be a peer, the second someone you lead and third your supervisor (anyone who supervises your work).
4. Write a short paragraph on what you have discovered about yourself and how you intend to work to change things to become a better Servant Leader ( use the 3 Ps).
3. Repeat the process above with 3 colleagues or school mates. One should be a peer, the second someone you lead and third your supervisor (anyone who supervises your work).
4. Write a short paragraph on what you have discovered about yourself and how you intend to work to change things to become a better Servant Leader ( use the 3 Ps).
5. Using the 3 Ps, draw up a plan to intentionally deal with all the limitations identified during this exercise by yourself as well as the others.
Write a brief summary of what you learned this week and explain why it is important for all leaders. Post on your blog and share the link in your group.
Write a brief summary of what you learned this week and explain why it is important for all leaders. Post on your blog and share the link in your group.
Leaders should take note of those who are around them because, the people around you will determine how far you will God. Come sincerely to God with your leads if you want to effective. Thanks so much slead team21.
ReplyDeleteYour leadership level is directly proportional to your level of leading effectiveness. You can't lead people above the level where you are . Your lids or limitations are responsible for your level of leadership effectiveness. Identify them and Work them out together with the 3ps and triumph!!
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