Quick Note About Leadership

After reading one of our Squire's posts about the leadership conference he attended at UNCW, I was inspired to write a quick note about leadership. I have learned most of my notions about being a good leader from my father, so this much of this post can be attributed to his influence on my life. Here are a few quick thoughts that have changed my life.

1. Who Can You Serve Today?

With the windows down going seventy miles per hour down the highway on our daily forty five minute commute to school, my dad and I would have our "man-to-man" talks. They would alway begin with his question, "who can you serve today?" At that moment he would ask that question I was usually getting over some annoyance I had with my younger brother or trying to shake off the six o'clock sleepiness, and thinking of who I was going to serve was not exactly high on my mental priority list. "Being a true leader is about being the biggest servant," he would say. "Humility and true compassion are what brings followers." He spoke truth.

 source: funnyshare

2. Build Others Up

The ultimate testimony to leadership is being able to build up the most difficult people, and expect nothing in return. Upon entering my first class of my first day of school, I realized that I was one of few underclassmen. After sitting I realized that my location was in the middle of a clique. These gentlemen did not seem to feel as welcoming as I would have wished. Their exclusion in conversation, jokes, and camaraderie was not wained by my friendliness. Even though I did not loose any sleep over their ignorance to my existence, I remembered what my father had told me about high school friendships (phew... never going back to that place again... not a fan of high school). My father had said, "People operate out of fear, so move towards them with love. Fear of rejection is what can make people treat strangers with such disregard." So I did. For 3 weeks I would encourage them (not brown nose... there is a difference). "Good job on that presentation, man." "Thanks for taking the lead on that last project." And finally something interesting happened, I became "the man." These groups of jerks that I almost wrote off from the beginning became my personal fan section when I would enter the class. Not every situation works out the way this one did. However, the lesson of moving towards people out of love, and not doing it for any reason but to bless them, will have an impact when you put it into paractice.

3. Get Personal

My father is the best leader I know. He is a non-profit pastor (believe me his treasure definitely is not being stored up on earth), church planter. The movement that he started has lead to the creation of churches around the world. His secret is simple. The real test of a mentor's influence is what your mentees' mentees do. Impact on first generation mentorship is fairly common, but can you instill a legacy that is passed on to inspire the second, third, and even fourth generations? How do you do this? Get personal. Learn about who your mentees really are. Find out their needs, wants, dreams, and desires, then hold them accountable to get there. Credit for this philosophy of leadership goes back to many much older than my father, one in particular who died on a cross. I am grateful to have a father that exhibited these teachings to me in such a way that I never forgot them.

source: erasmatazz

There are many more aspects to growing from a good leader to a great one, but these have had the biggest impact on my life and the way I try to lead.

What is some of the most influential advice you have received in regards to being a great leader? Please help me and everyone else reading by posting a few thoughts in the comments below. I appreciate you taking the time to read this post!

Feel free to check out Geoffrey Fox's (one of Hüify's Squires) post, Leadership Conference 2013, that I mentioned at the beginning of the post.