The Art of Leadership (by Daniel Otabor)

I am a member of "The Let's Talk About Series" community. I'll be sharing notes from Daniel Otabor on The Art of Leadership, a lesson delivered this year, in the month of January.

Let's Talk About Series is a personal and career development discussion platform that discuss diverse topics to help boost people's productivity and build personal confidence. They are passionate about self discovery, and believe the strife for personal development helps in adding value to one's life; creating opportunities and setting priorities for the areas that make them most effective.

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Daniel Otabor:

You know guys, Leadership is like the dilemma of life. It is both easy to understand and complex to grasp. Just like humans. This is because truly, Leadership begins and ends with understanding your purpose first, and then leading it.

There was a time I told an audience that as long as you breathe, you are a leader. This is because you came with an assignment. You were predestined to live out a purposeful life. Every leader has a purpose. Maybe purpose may sound too cliché. Let's use Job. So you have a job to do; and until you take responsibility for that job; until you understand that you need to constantly produce desirable results and that you can't do that until you come to the fullness of your leadership mandate... Until then, you would be a bunch of potential without action.
And without action, you cannot be influential. And do you understand that you can't lead what you can't influence?
You see, because, you are going to be working with human beings and not apps or machines, at least not yet. You need to understand that human beings even though we have a common race as humans, we think and belief differently.

So as a leader, You have a responsibility to understand when to talk, how to talk and what to talk about and where to talk about what you want to talk about.

One of the most essential spice in the three course meal called leadership is called Communication. Your inability to communicate effectively will ultimately lead to your downfall as a leader. No one wants to be around anyone that doesn't have Emotional Intelligence, not one that they call their leader or a leader.
That said, connecting Communication to its essence, I need you to know that the way you communicate is connected to your environment (where you stay and who you stay around), and also on what principles your life stands and what values you live by.

Moving away from Communication and focusing on Values, understand again that your Values is the foundation of what you think, what you say and how you act.

You know what, I am even talking too much. Do you know that when you are asked to name a leader, we are quick to mention Presidents that we admire, example; Obama or Pastors we believe are truly sent by God, example; Pastor Adeboye. You forget that YOU are a leader! And the same reason why we feel these men are leaders are because they are inspirational.
So truly what we need to be as leaders first is to be inspirational! Not just in public but in private from your homes. Because when you are only seen as Inspirational in public, on social media, and you are not in private, you are not a leader, you are a pretender.

See guys there are leaders that are respected in public but have terrible homes, and yes, they still lead somewhat effectively. But that's not the goal. The goal is to be a 360 degree leader - all rounder.
Just the same way the number of followers you have on Instagram or Twitter is not a direct representation of your leadership abilities, your goal should not be to have followers, your goal should be, to be so good a leader that people want to voluntarily follow you. And people follow those that are leading a life not living a life.

What will be said of you when your name is mentioned in a place? What example will your name be used for in a sentence? How will you be remembered? And what point do people come for you for help and what kind of help do they ask for? These are questions you should ask yourself and if your answer is not encouraging, you've got some work to do.

The Art of Leadership, really, is understanding your essence as a human being, understanding your place in a location, understanding your life's purpose, understanding your Job role and being the best at what YOU do.

As a leader, you are the sacrificial lamb. You are not the White horse kept for special occasions or when the King wants to ride out.

How well you serve your people, how well you serve those around you, is centered around how well you lead!

You are not a leader because you are the HR manager in a firm. You are a leader because you were created with a purpose and for a purpose. You are a leader because you are a human being. I have made that clear.

Knowing this, how well you lead, is directly proportional to how great you are as a HUMAN BEING.

Everyone, understanding that they are leaders, does not mean there will be confusion when a group gathers. Because leaders respect hierarchy, they respect authority and flourish where they are with what they have. They contribute not complain.
If you have to rise up and tell a group of people that I am leader, I too have to be heard, then there is a possibility that you mouth not by acts.

As a leader, you are a container filled with content that is meant to be a contribution to the good of others and yourself. So when you are just a container without a content, what then do you contribute? How then do you become influential?

In closing, let he who wants to lead, serve! Lead a life, lead people. Have a destination that is worth going and watch people follow you without question. Show people the light at the end of the tunnel - that's your responsibility. You don't have to be a first class student to lead (being a first class student is not bad oh), You don't have to be Tall Dark and Handsome to lead. All you need to do is connect to a purpose, find your assignment, lead it passionately and watch your followership. Above all, your responsibility is to grow more leaders. You cannot be a one eyed man in a blind man's country.

Daniel Otabor