Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Daniel Otabor: Why am I Not Leading Effectively? (Young Voices, Day 3)

http://olatunjispeaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/daniel-otabor.jpg



When we discover we aren't doing too well as we would like to and things aren't going as we would like them to and we eventually have the time to reflect on our leadership effectiveness on ourselves and others, we then ask the question, why am I not leading effectively?



But first, it is necessary you understand what leading effectively means, and in a short note, leading effectively is associated with growing effectively, either as an individual, a team or as an organisation at large.



John C Maxwell said and I paraphrase, "if an organisation is not doing well, check the leader and if possible, change the leader."



What really could be the cause of my ineffectiveness? Truly there are surely quite a number of reasons why you might not be effective as a leader and I'll be explaining some.



On a very sunny day, a student called my attention and said he needed to talk to me, so I told him, “Okay bro, walk with me”. So he did and he asked me, “Mr President (because I was the Vice President of my Faculty, highly regarded as the President), how do you lead so effectively?” I smiled because that wasn't the question I was expecting, not that I would have known what he wanted to ask. I replied him and said, well, you just serve effectively.



You see, you lead well when you understand that you are to serve and not make servants. With that said, you need to check your procrastination margin; you need to get things done at the right time not at the time you want to.



Effectiveness can be your habit, all it takes is consistency in practise. You need to always do the right thing at the right time, regardless of who is doing the wrong thing.



To lead effectively, values must guide you, you must be a man or woman of purpose, your vision must be able to carry you and others; you must be a go getter.



Just so you know you might as well not be leading effectively because your priorities haphazard and you don't even follow them.



I'll leave you with these words: Effective leaders are leaders that live forever; they are leaders that are followed even after they are dead. Some notable examples are Margaret Thatcher, Martin Luther King Jr. and Theodore Roosevelt.



Effective leaders are made daily, not in a day. So keep on growing and never give up on being the best of you.



Daniel Otabor is the coordinator of Gemstone Leaders Connect. He tweets from @DanielOTABOR



(Young Voices is a quarterly 15 days campaign on this blog where 15 notable young role models will share their story – today is the third day in the first season of #YoungVoices. It continues tomorrow with another inspiring young role model)




OLATUNJISPEAKS.com is Africa’s Number One Blog on Inspiration!

Would you love to get our FREE eBook in your mail? GET it HEREhttp://bit.ly/1nYEET8

We will love to hear from you! Follow our blog on Twitter: @OLATUNJISPEAKS and add us on

BBM: 2BAC2A15 | Send us a mail: olatunjispeaks@gmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment