The Leader Within

It's easy to determine the type of the tree by it's fruit. Similarly it's easy to determine one's leadership by it's result. How many people are willing to follow you and for how long. How many people are influenced by your values and how many feel protected by you. When the tree is young and has not born fruits yet, you have to be an expert to know what type of tree it is.

You have to look at the bark, the leaves, the position of the branches, the buds and the flowers. An expert can tell you what tree we are speaking about and at the same time can tell you if any problems seem apparent along with how to treat them. In this way an expert can improve the condition of the tree. By considering the qualities and the values of the leader and comparing their activities, we understand how the followers view the leaders, so then we can tell the capability of the leadership of that person. These are the bark, the leaves etc. of your leadership tree.

There is another important aspect of these qualities. These are not some kind of sentiments and it does not apply to priests or religious leaders only. Don't fool yourself by saying that these are not important. These are human values that are extremely important when it comes to leadership since a leader shows the example and others will follow it. If the leader doesn't show the best possible example, then how would they be able to influence others in a good way, and how would the mission of leadership, namely helping protecting and elevating people to a higher level of living, ever happen.

It is for sure that there are dozens of leadership philosophies that may lead to success in a shorter or even on a longer time. The principles I concentrate on, are those that have been distilled from those sources I personally feel are the most relevant and time-proven, and that I have personally experienced in my life.

There are 12 good qualities that will develop as you progress on the way up on the leadership ladder: (1) rejecting bad things, (2) accepting good things, (3) good attitude, (4) mercy, (5) forgiveness, (6) truthfulness, (7) simplicity, (8) equality, (9) steadiness, (10) soberness, (11) humility and (12) contentment. With each of these I'll give you 3 exercises that help you to deepen, nurture and gauge that quality. Let's look at these one-by-one, one quality a every week!

Rejecting bad things
It's obvious that if you would like to achieve a result, could be sports, politics, leadership, or business, then there are certain things that you have to reject. You will need to reject all those things that are distracting you off the road to success. You will reject all the bad influences that could detract you away from your goal. This is the first thing you have to learn. To be able to learn this you have to perceive a clear vision of what you would like to achieve, you have to know what is the result of the activities you perform, and what is the result of the influences that effect you. You have to see many steps ahead. Just like in chess, the more you can foresee your opponents strategy of thinking, the more successful you'll be in the game. There are temptations that could influence you.

I was a soccer player. I remember the physical training especially just before the season began. Every day that training meant at those times, extreme and heavy exercises to get into shape, developing steadiness and certain physical and mental conditions to help us concentrate on the right things during the game. There is always a temptation to loosen the tightness of the training. There were some people who went to the doctor and said they were sick, or figured out some excuse so that they could take a break from the tough regime, indulging back to those unhealthy habits. We were trained so that we kept on track and we kept focused. Our attention was not whether we can run for 90 mins chasing the ball, but on how to play properly. I've never had any problem with focusing on the right thing in soccer since my attention was never diverted by a poor physical condition, or lack of stamina.

In the same way you have to train yourself to such a degree that your conditions allow you to focus on the right thing at the time of your own game. I had to reject a number of things like hanging out with friends after school, adjusting my daily schedule, waking up early in the morning, no parties, aching legs along with sore muscles, you name it. But the end result was that we came first in the tournament year after year. Was it all worth doing? For me certainly. It taught me a lot of things that I can use in my life even now. I learned that I should give up to go up.

Exercises to be able to reject bad things

1. Select a few people that are close to you and who know you enough and you trust. Ask them the following questions:
o I am doing this right now, these are the results I have. What do you think are the things that hold me back?
o Can you point out three of my worst qualities that stop me from attaining my goal?
o What was your last and most annoying or frustrating experience with me?
o Could you help me understand what things I should do differently?
o Explain to me why I should do those differently!

Then just listen, and don't try to convince them that you're already doing this and that. It's not the time for showing off or for an ego trip. It's time to listen.

It is basically similar to a 360 degree feedback. Having such a practice in place is perfect, so let it continue. What I'm proposing here is simple, yet a highly effective version of it. Inquiring and then listening is an art that helps in personal and professional life alike.

2) Read about people who have given up things to be able to achieve their goal. Read biographies, historical books. Always look for good examples of sacrifice.

3) Make a list of things that you think are obstacles in achieving your goal. Make a conscious effort to avoid those activities, situations or even people. Write down that list every week without looking at the last weeks one first. Then compare the two and see what has changed. You have to look for those things that you could get rid of and consider it as a victory, focusing on the repetitive ones more intently.