THE NECESSITY OF LEADERSHIP PART2. LEADING OTHERS

THE NECESSITY OF LEADERSHIP Part2. LEADING OTHERS.

Leadership has to do with directing a course. For there to be leadership, there Must be vision. In the PART ONE of this series, I wrote on leading yourself. You can click to read that first, because for you to be able to lead others you must lead yourself first. What do you want to be? What is your vision in life? How are you leading yourself to achieving that vision? All these were addressed in part one. In this part, I want to focus on leading others. Leadership is so necessary that you can’t escape from it. There is leadership in different  spheres of life, in the family as a father, mother, in the school, in the work place etc. There are necessary skills one must have to be able to lead others. One of the problem of leadership is that people  think leadership is all about position. Positional leadership is the least form of leadership.

To start with, for one to be able to lead others, one must have a clear cut vision. You must understand the vision  clearly so you can talk to people about it and lead them to follow the vision. How well  do you know the vision of your business, the vision of your ministry, the vision of your  family, the  vision of your school?  Never forget that leading others  is all about influencing them   to achieve a particular vision. For example, as a man, you must have a clear cut vision of where you want your family to be, a leader should not be tossed to and fro. The knowledge and conviction of your vision will make others to join you. No man will like to join a confused person, unless the person is confused himself. As a leader you must be CONVINCED of the vision. An atheist  was seen running to John Wesley’s meeting. They asked the atheist why are you going for the meeting? I thought you don’t believe in God. He replied, I don’t believe in God but John Wesley believes in what he is saying. That is conviction. Let look at Apostle Paul. He was a renown leader. He had an experience with King Agrippa in his trial and defence. See what king Agrippa said of him, 
Acts 26:28 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. This was due to the conviction of Paul of his vision.
One thing about being convinced of your vision is that it will help you to stand even in oppositions. Reading through the book of Acts of the Apostles, we see they suffered a lot of persecutions and were happy in the persecutions. This can only be out of convictions. It was their conviction that gave birth to the spread of the gospel. They will rejoice after being flogged for their vision. LIFE WILL ALWAYS MAKE WAY TO A MAN THAT IS CONVINCED. In leading others, you must be CONVINCED of the course you are pursuing. In ministry, you must be convinced of the vision God has given you. Even in business or an organisation, you must be convinced of what you are doing. You must believe in it first so others can join you.  One major thing that help us to build conviction is MEDITATION. Take out time to ponder on the course you are pursuing. When last did you think on that your vision ? This is very vital in leadership. Meditation can also be in the form of prayers. Talk to the Lord about the vison and always calm your heart to hear him talk back to you. Having talked on conviction, let’s look at other vital things in leading others.

LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES. These are skills , abilities and behaviour that contribute to the better performance of a leader. Let's look at some of them below.
1.CHARACTER. Webster in his dictionary defines character as the way someone behaves, someone’s personality. Character is what you are known for. It is someone’s imprints. Character can be good or  bad. As a leader, it is your character that protects your leadership. As a Christian our character is Christ. It is our nature. This is what is described as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. Love, peace, long suffering, self control, gentleness,  meekness, goodness and joy is all our nature. It is just that some Christians do not give expression to all these. (For more on this check my post on GOODWORKS.) Character is not perfection. Your aim should not be to be perfect in Character but to develop yourself and keep being better. No body will like to be associated with someone with an obvious weakness. If you have a weakness, first identify it, then work on it depending on your true nature in Christ if you are saved.
2.KNOWLEDGE. This is awareness of facts or information in a particular field. Knowledge is very key in leadership. It is what you KNOW that gives you an EDGE in what you do. A leader is a person who KNOWS the way, goes the way and shows the way. As a leader, you must give yourself to learning. You must keep learning and improving on your field. Every task given has a knowledge requirement. You must know sufficiently to direct a course. It is so painful that so many people give their time to learning many unnecessary things. You will see someone who wants to be a renown business man spending all his time watching movies. He knows all the actors and knows nothing about business. That is pure deception. As a leader it is good to be vast in knowledge though, but know more about the course you are directing.
3.ABILITY. This is the qualification power for a task. Every course require certain abilities or capabilities. A leader must of necessity have these abilities to be able to lead others. Prize ability more than packaging. Packaging is good because it makes you to be presentable and attract your target. What happens when they come? Be sure you have the required abilities. As a parent, you must have necessary abilities to father someone in different areas like finance.
4.SKILL. Skill has to do with mastery over what you do. This mastery comes from training, experience and practise.  As a leader priority should be placed on training and retraining. Strive to be better every day in your area. The only person you are in competition with is yourself. You should only be challenged with others and improve on yourself as a leader. A good leader should develop on some general skills like communication skills, problem solving skills , also specific skills necessary for the course he is pursuing.
5.EMOTIONS. One strong leadership competency is ability to manage your emotions. There are negative emotions and feelings like fear, anger, jealousy, envy, and the rest. This negative emotions must be suppressed. If not, the leader will be marred. Emotions like courage, should be developed . As a leader, you must learn to separate your feelings from the circumstances at hand. It is lack of maturity to transfer aggression from one person to another. So many people have been marred because of their inability to control negatives emotions like anger.
In addition to this competencies,  there are certain decisions every Godly leader must take and deliberately work on. Pst Eghosa Alvin Osunde summarizes them into twelve below.

12 DEFINING DECISIONS OF A GODLY LEADER

1.EMBRACE SERVANT LEADERSHIP. Leadership is all about rendering service. Jesus  modelled this for us.  Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. CHRIST though He is fully God, became man to serve man. In all his life on earth He was always serving man, even to His death on the cross. It was all to serve mankind. 
2.VALUE PEOPLE . Take the vow of significance to always add value to people. Make it a priority to always impact people. There is no leadership without people. They must be given utmost importance.
3.PURSUE PERSONAL GROWTH. Growth is intentional. It is a deliberate act. Take necessary steps for your growth. This is what separate wishers from goal getters.
4.DEVELOP YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS. A leader must be a confident and skilled communicator.
5.LEAD FROM THE HEART. A leader must learn to always be compassionate and sacrificial. Compassion is key in leadership.
6.TEAM WORK MULTIPLIES YOUR TALENT. We is better than I. A good leader must learn to work with people and build a team.
7.CHARACTER PROTECT YOUR LEADERSHIP. Competence and abilities will lift you up, but character will keep you up.
8.TAKE A DECISION TO RESPONSIBLE. Leadership is marked with responsibility.
9.DELIGENCE WITH PERSEVERANCE HELPS. Every leader must be diligent . He must give full attention to the course of his leadership. He should also learn to persevere and be patient with the people He is leading and the course they are pursuing.
10.WIN WITH PEOPLE. A leader must value relationships with people. It takes good relationships to make a successful leadership. It also takes bad relationships to Mar leadership.
11.EXALT WISDOM AS THE ANOINTING. Wisdom is key in leadership. Decisions in leadership should be based on wisdom not emotions.
12.LEARN TO MINISTER TO THE LORD AND FOLLOW THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT. This is where many Christians fail. God is interested in all you do. You must learn to consult him always and take His instructions. LEARN to also always take out time to minister to the Lord. That is where instructions come from.

In summary, you can be a better leader. Be deliberate in pusueing the course of your leadership. LIFE IS INTENTIONAL.

(I know this bless you. Do well to share to friends and to everyone. Share to social media; Facebook, what’s app, Twitter etc., )

                     By OBIAZIKWOR EMEKE MODESTY
                           www.emekemodesty.com