Effective leadership is a skill that must be consistently developed and nurtured. It is a craft requiring constant study. And there are five areas of this discipline in particular that deserve special attention.
Number one is the area of possibility. It’s so important for leaders to play the “what-if” game. What if we had enough people? What if we had people with special talents? What if we had leaders? What if we had a good team? What if we accomplished our goal–what could we achieve? The what-if game is crucial, because possibilities are all around us. We must all be students of possibility. Dr. Robert Schuller calls it “possibility thinking.” This is the first area of focus for leaders.
Number two is the study of opportunity. Leaders must always be conscious and aware of the expanded potential for opportunity. And sometimes opportunity is closer than you might think.
Number three is the study of ability. Leaders must be good students of ability–their own ability as well as those of the people in their charge. Sometimes it’s easy to have somebody working right next to you without ever discovering all of their talent and potential.
Many years ago, I (Jim Rohn) discovered a young man in Canada named Harold Dyke. He’d worked for the railroad for ten years and was making about three hundred dollars a month. He became a good friend of mine. I recruited him, and he joined my company.
The second year he was with me, Harold made forty-five thousand dollars, and his income has continued to increase dramatically. He’s gifted and skillful, and he’s financially independent. He’s a leader in the community, and he’s a unique gentleman. The railroad had him for ten years, and they didn’t know what kind of person they had. They didn’t take this in-depth survey to bring to light some unusual gifts and capacities that nobody had yet discovered.
Leaders must be able to perceive ability. You’ve just got to find a way to uncover all the talent that may lay dormant right under your nose.
Number four is the area of inevitability. We should all be students of inevitability. Ask yourself, “In all honesty, if I keep up my current daily practices, where will they lead me in ten years?” You don’t want to just cross your fingers and continue down what may be the wrong road. And you don’t want to influence others to move in the wrong direction, either.
Imagine being two hundred feet from Niagara Falls in a little boat with no motor and no oars. What a tragic place to find yourself! If somebody would have painted you this scenario when you were still further upstream, you might not have drifted this far into what we now call the inevitable. As a leader, you have to help people by telling them about the danger of the Falls long before they get within two hundred feet of them in a little boat with no motor and no oars.
Some people around you may be drifting, and it’s your responsibility to perceive which one are drifting toward danger. You’ve got to tell them the truth, thereby giving them alternate choices while there still are options available. It’s the gift of leadership to help people make changes in their personal lives and career. You must help people change their thinking, change their attitudes. You must help them face the inevitable. It’s simply a part of leadership.
Finally, area number five is the study of rationality. Being rational allows you to come to the right conclusion based on the information at hand. You understand that what you do is the product of your own common sense. You take advice but not orders. You let everybody around you offer advice, but you then put it through your own mental computer and draw your own conclusion based on all the input. This is a true sense of leadership–to make rational decisions based on all the input.
These tasks are not easy, but they’re possible when you develop excellent leadership skills. Whatever price you pay at the outset will lead to greater riches–spiritually, intellectually, and financially–down the road.
* Source: Leading an Inspired Life by Jim Rohn