I was introduced to Wisdom a few months ago. He positively inspires!
His personality and aptitude really reflect his name…wisdom. He is indeed a veritable fountain of wisdom.
He is our guest blogger this week and has an interesting take on self-awareness and leadership. Read this and tell me he does not remind you of a young(er) Robin Sharma!
Don’t forget to connect with Wisdom on social media… find his handle at the end of the post.
LizSpire
I was a leader once. I always was until I choose to stop seeing myself as one.
I wasn’t sure any more what leadership meant. I mean, I’d stay up late at night, sometimes just casting my thoughts into the future that is far beyond reach; while the people I’m leading slept in their homes.
I’d have rising blood pressure whenever the month draws to a close and the paychecks of those being led are due.
Is this leadership? This can’t be leadership, it has to be slavery.
So yes, I slipped to some level of depression in my mind, I regarded myself in fact as being the slave, not the leader.
I’m grown now, and things are a lot clearer, I’ve finally exited the maze of mental slavery. I have now come to understand what it really means to be a leader. At the very least, everyone in my company is a leader.
Leadership isn’t about one man or one office.
It is a communal effort of different organs of an organization; everyone has a role to play.
So indeed, everyone is a leader – they either don’t know it yet or you’ve not requested it of them.
Leadership is about responsibility: This is the first thing that qualifies anyone as a leader, even if you don’t have an office.
Taking responsibility for carrying out a task, or taking responsibility for an action or even taking responsibility for people and their wellbeing, that too is leadership, regardless of the office.
A leader is one who accepts responsibility and lives up to it.
Leadership is about sacrifice: Being able to reduce so others can increase.
Imagine if each department thought of others before themselves, how their productivity will affect others, or staff thought of how their downtime could affect the bottom-line of the organization and in turn affect others?
You see, leaders would consider others first. If the security guard understood that he is also a leader, he wouldn’t mind staying up at night to keep watch knowing that, the well-being of other staff is in some way influenced by the safety of the assets and properties in the organization.
Leadership is about teamwork: Think of it as the body, with different parts and organs. Also, every organization has different departments and staff. Agreed, there has to be an obvious head, but everyone is a leader in their own capacity. To be successful as a leader, you need to rally the support of every element of your administration to contribute their quota, else, there is only so far you can get.
Finally, leadership is a gift. People only look up to you as a leader because they believe in you and in your vision and that you can make it come to reality. You can forcefully take an office, but you can’t take up the role of a leader, it has to be given to you. What is a leader without his followers anyways??
So here I am, burning the midnight oil, trying to get this message across to you. I’m hoping this will stir up the leader inside of you because it is in this that I will fulfil my true essence of leadership.
My name is Wisdom Ating, a Media consultant with interest in digital communication and strategy. I am the current Media Director of Ngage Media Global a creative & digital communications agency in Abuja, Nigeria. You can find me on social media @wisdomating let’s connect, I’d love to hear from you.
