What is Leadership? 2
IT IS nice to have you around again. This is Leading Right and I am Abiodun Fijabi.
Let us consider another definition of leadership. It is one by W.H.C. Prentice.
Leadership, according to Prentice, is the discipline of deliberately exerting special influence within a group to move it towards goals of beneficial permanence that fulfils the group’s real needs.
The fact that leadership is a discipline means it can be learnt. It involves skills that can be acquired. It thrives on influence, which is deliberately exerted. There is a community involved. Expectedly, the community has common goals. The goals must be such that are beneficial to the group, i.e., such as promote or enhance well-being of the group. The more noble the goals, the more significant the leadership. The group needs being met must be genuine needs that advance the cause of the group. Those who create false needs and set to meet them are not leaders.
This definition negates what we often refer to as leadership. Influence, not position, is what is paramount. You can be a husband by position and not the leader of your home because you do not have the influence needed to steer the home along the line of your goals. If your goals for your society are to advance your self-interests, then they fall short of “goals of beneficial permanence” Prentice is referring to. For example, if you want power so you can settle scores with the people that have offended you in the past; you are not a true leader. A leader’s vision transcends selfish interests. If you intentionally create confusion in your group and then turn around to lead the group out of that trouble, you are not meeting real needs. Hitler set out to meet false needs of the superiority of the German race to the rest of humanity. Because those were not the real German needs, he lost to genuine leaders who, out of concern for the real needs of their own people engaged relentless war against Hitler’s Germany.
Dear friends, that there is a leader in you should be without doubt. God created you uniquely and with a purpose. Only a leader can create a leader. And God – the great leader – is your creator. That is why he created you in his class. You were created a leader. If you remind yourself of the blessings of God to our fore-parents, they will help you realize not just how much God has invested in you, but also how much the world is waiting for your manifestation. In blessing Adam and Eve, God had said, “Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it, and exercise dominion…”
Those words should challenge you to think differently about yourself. You are a leader and you are capable of influencing others to bring the much desired change to your community.
However, that leader in you is like a seed that needs to be nurtured and cultivated to full growth. In any group you belong, your main concern should not be about position, but about the influence you have and how you are using that influence for the common good.
Are you still wondering why Jesus was such a remarkable leader? He had a considerable influence. He met real needs for which He was ready to lay down his life. He said the good shepherd lay down his life for the sheep. He exemplified that leadership when He gave his life as a ransom for us. He has asked us to do the same for people in our community.
Let us consider another definition of leadership. It is one by W.H.C. Prentice.
Leadership, according to Prentice, is the discipline of deliberately exerting special influence within a group to move it towards goals of beneficial permanence that fulfils the group’s real needs.
The fact that leadership is a discipline means it can be learnt. It involves skills that can be acquired. It thrives on influence, which is deliberately exerted. There is a community involved. Expectedly, the community has common goals. The goals must be such that are beneficial to the group, i.e., such as promote or enhance well-being of the group. The more noble the goals, the more significant the leadership. The group needs being met must be genuine needs that advance the cause of the group. Those who create false needs and set to meet them are not leaders.
This definition negates what we often refer to as leadership. Influence, not position, is what is paramount. You can be a husband by position and not the leader of your home because you do not have the influence needed to steer the home along the line of your goals. If your goals for your society are to advance your self-interests, then they fall short of “goals of beneficial permanence” Prentice is referring to. For example, if you want power so you can settle scores with the people that have offended you in the past; you are not a true leader. A leader’s vision transcends selfish interests. If you intentionally create confusion in your group and then turn around to lead the group out of that trouble, you are not meeting real needs. Hitler set out to meet false needs of the superiority of the German race to the rest of humanity. Because those were not the real German needs, he lost to genuine leaders who, out of concern for the real needs of their own people engaged relentless war against Hitler’s Germany.
Dear friends, that there is a leader in you should be without doubt. God created you uniquely and with a purpose. Only a leader can create a leader. And God – the great leader – is your creator. That is why he created you in his class. You were created a leader. If you remind yourself of the blessings of God to our fore-parents, they will help you realize not just how much God has invested in you, but also how much the world is waiting for your manifestation. In blessing Adam and Eve, God had said, “Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it, and exercise dominion…”
Those words should challenge you to think differently about yourself. You are a leader and you are capable of influencing others to bring the much desired change to your community.
However, that leader in you is like a seed that needs to be nurtured and cultivated to full growth. In any group you belong, your main concern should not be about position, but about the influence you have and how you are using that influence for the common good.
Are you still wondering why Jesus was such a remarkable leader? He had a considerable influence. He met real needs for which He was ready to lay down his life. He said the good shepherd lay down his life for the sheep. He exemplified that leadership when He gave his life as a ransom for us. He has asked us to do the same for people in our community.
posted by Abiodun Fijabi at 5:57 PM
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