It's NOT about you.........!

I recently attended a funeral where a certain leader had to say something about his (dead) friend, but spoke more about himself than about the friend he was suppose to honour.  He was telling us what a great friend he, the speaker was, in literally every sentence!!

What is your leadership about?  Or may be I should ask : Who is your leadership about?

Some of us leaders just have to get over ourselves!!  Face the fact: Leadership is not about you.
At least not in the way that we tend to think about it. Leadership is not so much about what you have achieved and how long the list of your qualifications are. It is not so much about your title(s) and the size of your staff or office.  -It's more about hów you lead the organization, the staff, the people that you work through and with, to achieve purpose!  It is about what THEY have done under your guidance and how they see you and feel about you after they have done that.

Leadership should always be about others. We should be asking ourselves questions like: How do I lead them to achieve what we all have agreed upon?  How do I lead him to achieve growth and be his personal best?  How do I lead her to experience fulfilment and success??

In the context of colleagues, employees and/or followers it is all about how a leader relates to those he/ she works with.  It is about the opportunities that he/she makes available for the staff to grow and achieve and not about how he/she could use them to look better! It is about mutual trust and loyalty and how that is attained.

In an organizational context we should ask ourselves: What do I have to do (and be) at any given time in the growth cycle of the organisation that I currently lead, to take it to the next level?

That said: Leadership is about servant hood. How the leader serves the staff, an organization,
a group, a country -by leading them to be all that they could and should be!  I like this quote of Loyiso Bala * : "Strength is not for status, but for service."

Leadership is not about you!
-If you don't believe me: Study the lives and example of all legendary leaders!!


* Loyiso Bala is a South African R&B and Gospel singer, songwriter.
www.loyisomusic.com