The Leadership Principle of Navigation (part 2 of 3)

Continued from October 23... Anyone can steer a ship, but it takes a real leader to chart the course. They draw on past experience: Every past success and failure can be a source of information and wisdom – if you allow it to be. Successes teach you about yourself and what you’re capable of doing with your particular gifts and talents. Failures show what kinds of wrong assumptions you’ve made and where your methods are flawed. If you fail to learn from your mistakes, you’re going to fail again and again. That’s why effective leaders start with experience. They listen to what others have to say: No matter how much you learn from the past, it will never tell you all your need to know for the present and the future. That’s why the best leaders gather information from many sources. They get ideas from members of their leadership team. They talk to the people in their organization to find out what’s happening on the grass-roots level. And they spend time with leaders from outside the organization who can mentor and advise them. They examine the conditions before making commitments: Despite their often excellent intuition, before effective leaders make commitments that are going to impact their people, they take stock and thoroughly think things through. They count the cost before making commitments for themselves and others. They make sure their conclusions represent both faith and fact: An effective leader must possess a positive attitude. They’ve got to have faith that they can take their people all the way to the destination. If they can’t confidently make the trip in their own mind, they’re not going to make it in real life. On the other hand, they also have to be able to see the facts realistically. They can’t minimize obstacles or rationalize their challenges. If they don’t go in with eyes wide open, they’re going to get blind-sided. Realistic leaders are objective enough to minimize illusions. They understand that self-deception can cost them their vision. Sometimes it’s difficult balancing optimism and realism, intuition and planning, faith and fact. But that’s what it takes to be an effective leader. How are you at thinking ahead and planning the course of action needed? Truth@Life can help you, regardless of your location. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a free consultation. If you receive value from these blogs, please consider donating to keep this blog site up and running. This ministry cannot continue without the generous donations of its readers. Just click on the "Donate" button in the upper right. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/ or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com