The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. (Peter Drucker)

The art of leadership stems from within. It is a life stlye that people take notice of while you lead them. Some have leadership qualities gifted, some learn how to lead. Leadership initially starts from the leading of the ones' self. To lead a group of people to a stated destination starts from the leader leading him/herself  through self discipline based on life driven principles and values and after the destination has been reached acknowledges the significance of the followers

It is therefore necesary to be self discipline in order to discipline and lead people to a goal. You can n't take the spark in peoples eyes when a log is rooted in yours.

Mahatma Ghandhi, Nelson Mandela, Lao-Tzu have all taught us the practical nature of a leader. This is emphasized in the quote by Benjamin Disraeli who said "I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

Lets all live like leaders in our small communities. Little drops of leadership makes a wonderful world of positive change. Thus the task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already (John Buchan)

 

Creativity and innovation has made the world go round. Those who have impacted on the world created a path for others to follow. talk of  Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Google boys etc. The willingness to think outside the socially structured box. The ability to swallow mistakes and build on them has been one of the foundational stone of built leaders.

Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Harold R. McAlindon.

Trails show the path to a destination. Leaders leave trails for the progress and development of followers. Nkrumah left a trial for the gradual independence of the african continent from colonialism. 

Trails can be related to the light house for sailing ships, Jesus Christ for all christians, Aristotle for the development of democracy and the so on and on.

Roland Agmabire

So as future leaders lets create our trials or improve upon the old trails we are using for it to be straight enough for later generation just like Mr Roland Agmabire of RLG Ghana. 

leadership through service

To lead people, walk beside them … As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate … When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!
Lao-Tzu

So just like our Lord Jesus said, lead like a sevant. Its our duty as up and coming Leaders of the world and Africa to serve all those around us so to make them happy so when we are not around, our absence will mean a lot to Africa. Just like the the absence of Lucky Dube, Kwame Nkrumah, Heil Selasi has been felt across the continent.

Thus the price of greatness is responsibility

The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the gatness is there already.
- John Buchan

Greatness is an innate quality of every one. It is up to everyone to discover where his or her greatness lies. Others are on the field of play like great footballers, some in the governance of a country, others in acting and so on. We are born different and our difference is bring out the uniqueness of our greatness to the service of humankind.

To nurture our greatness begins with self-indentity, effective education, determination and hard work. This comes with the acceptance of our ignorance which paves the way for our brains to accept knowledge. As was stated by Socrates "I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing" .

An article from Geoffrey Colvin of Cable News Network (CNN) provides the secrets to greatness:

No substitute for hard work

The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. It's nice to believe that if you find the field where you're naturally gifted, you'll be great from day one, but it doesn't happen. There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.

Reinforcing that no-free-lunch finding is vast evidence that even the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established researchers call it the ten-year rule.

What about Bobby Fischer, who became a chess grandmaster at 16? Turns out the rule holds: He'd had nine years of intensive study. And as John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University observe, "The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average." In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 20 or 30 years' experience before hitting their zenith.

So greatness isn't handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work. Yet that isn't enough, since many people work hard for decades without approaching greatness or even getting significantly better. What's missing?

Practice makes perfect

The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.

Consistency is crucial. As Ericsson notes, "Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends."



Aliko Dangote- the Richest men in Africa.



Evidence crosses a remarkable range of fields. In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000. It's the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.



YLMP MINI-SEMINAR REPORT AS AT 08/06/12



YLMP



As part of the Young Leaders Mentorship Programme (YLMP), a Quiz between the two schools and a mentor-mentee session was held at the Accra High School. In attendance were three out of twenty junior mentors, a former junior mentor and nineteen mentees- five from Kinbu Senior High school and fourteen from Accra High school.

To make the quiz competitive and involving, we put the mentees into two groups.  Deborah Nana Ama Abbey and Appiah Godfred represented group 1 and Vivian Essi Avugla and Selasi Mensah represented group 2. The quiz master was Mr John Asamoah; a junior mentor who is currently interning with the Databank Foundation. John’s sense of humour made the quiz session an enjoyable one. By the end of the 22 questions, there was a tie between the two groups with each group coming up with 52.5 points. The tie breaker was a question on leadership posed to both teams. The group that best convinced Elinam Adadevoh emerged the winners. I’d like to say congratulations to group 1.

The mentee-mentor session followed with only 4 mentees having to meet up with their junior mentors. The other mentees had to go home due to the absence of their junior mentors. The deadline for submission of appraisal forms was on this same date; however as at today we have received only six appraisal forms from junior mentors. We would like to say a big thank you to the few junior mentors who have been able to submit their appraisal forms.We would also like to encourage those who have not submitted their's to do so.

We had a really really nice time and hope that all junior mentors would make it a point to be present the next time we have a mentor-mentee session.



The True Leadership Treasure

I went on search to be a leader,
Searching high and low above the meter,
 

I spoke with authority that I remember,
All would follow, all but one member,
 

“Why should I trust you?’ the one did ask,
“What have you done to achieve the task?”
 

I thought long and hard of what I did wrong,
Then I rolled up my sleeves and worked right along,
 

Shoulder to shoulder we got things done,
We worked side by side, all were one,
 

A mate of mine stumbled, I stooped to assist,
My hand he did grab, a smile did persist,
 

One was lost, didn’t know what to do,
I showed him how, the ropes, something new
 

I praised them one and all for their work,
All were unique, but I encouraged each quirk,
 

When the task was done, one did shout
“You’re a great leader!” they all turned about,
 

"Without you there to support our plight,
Lost would we be with no end in sight",
 

I learned that day that I lead best,
When I get off my butt and help the rest,
 

To lead by example is the true treasure,
The secret of leadership, in one simple measure.
 

Victor Antonio G., December 2004



In life we are what we think. Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny and most importantly a future. The quality of our thoughts determines our actions and inactions. the quality of our leadership skills determines the impact we make in people's life and the society at large. Positive thinking is a mental attitude that admits into the mind thoughts, words and images that are helpful to growth, expansion and success. It is a mental attitude that expects good and favorable results. A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and a successful outcome of every situation and action.

Not just a "Man"

Excellence is not an act but a habit and so is leadership. It is the reason for the development and underdevelopment of the world................  

Leadership is not about speed, ideas, efficiency, or power . . .

It is about knowing your own limitations and celebrating the gifts of others,

It is growing in wisdom, understanding the number of our days, and seeking to understand rather than be understood.

It is caring for people, always hoping for, and expecting the best.

It is being brave enough to be vulnerable in front of others.

It is seeing the big picture of where things are, and building a road to the future with limited casualties.

It is helping each person to sing their song from the heart, and leading the band in praise to their Maker.

-          Dan Beerens

To Mandela...........

         Courage is not the absence of fear — it's inspiring others to move beyond it

         In 1994, during the presidential-election campaign, Mandela got on a tiny propeller plane to fly down to the killing fields of Natal and give a speech to his Zulu supporters. I agreed to meet him at the airport, where we would continue our work after his speech. When the plane was 20 minutes from landing, one of its engines failed. Some on the plane began to panic. The only thing that calmed them was looking at Mandela, who quietly read his newspaper as if he were a commuter on his morning train to the office. The airport prepared for an emergency landing, and the pilot managed to land the plane safely. When Mandela and I got in the backseat of his bulletproof BMW that would take us to the rally, he turned to me and said, "Man, I was terrified up there!"

      Mandela was often afraid during his time underground, during the Rivonia trial that led to his imprisonment, during his time on Robben Island. "Of course I was afraid!" he would tell me later. It would have been irrational, he suggested, not to be. "I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world." But as a leader, you cannot let people know. "You must put up a front."

      And that's precisely what he learned to do: pretend and, through the act of appearing fearless, inspire others. It was a pantomime Mandela perfected on Robben Island, where there was much to fear. Prisoners who were with him said watching Mandela walk across the courtyard, upright and proud, was enough to keep them going for days. He knew that he was a model for others, and that gave him the strength to triumph over his own fear.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1821659,00.html#ixzz1x7agfsSO