“To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.” – Steven Covey
Leadership is not about the position you occupy but how you influence human beings. Leadership is an intrinsic game. It’s about nurturing relationships, growth and making meaningful contributions. It’s not about fame, wealth and hotness.
Leadership comes down to authenticity. Authenticity is derived from the same word as author and it means to be author of your life or story. It means to be integrated, to have integrity and to be coherent. This means to be one with what you say and what you do.
Charles Ridley, a professor of counselling psychology at Texas A&M University made a determination that students in Ph.D. programs fall into two basic categories: doctoral students and students enrolled in doctoral programs. The difference between the two is that doctoral students are driven to make a difference in society; they go beyond the call of duty; they are internally motivated. These doctoral students place a priority on excellence; they are highly skilled yet continually seek to improve their skillsets. These students are courageous; they are neither afraid to seek answers to difficult questions nor take risks.
On the other hand, students enrolled in doctoral programs are externally motivated; they simply answer the call of duty; they place a priority on grades rather than excellence; have nominal and sometimes poor skillsets. They often resist improvement until they have no other recourse for clearing academic hurdles. These students in doctoral programs are cautious and do not wander far from their comfort zones.
I am certain that you will take your time after reading this and do some introspection. True leaders operate from Internal Locus of Control – this means they feel they are in control of their lives; they are happy; they feel a sense of freedom; they feel empowered and strong. External Locus of Control is the opposite and is not a good leadership trait.
When George Bernard Shaw was asked who he would have chosen to be if he had his life to live all over again, he simply answered by saying, “I would be the man I never was.” My interpretation of this is that no one will ever get to know their full potential in this life time, so keep on reading and developing yourself and in this way, you’ll keep on discovering yourself.
Veli Ndaba is a leadership and Insightful Speaker, Life-Coach and Neuro- Linguistic Programming Practitioner, Author of two books (You Are Born to Win and Your Dream is Calling You), Newspaper Columnist and Entrepreneur. To book him to help you and your team unleash your greatness, contact him on veli@velindaba.co.za , www.velindaba.co.za and 083 304 9773
