UBCV2 - Semis

Leadership has different styles. These styles are based on the needs of the group,
either the company or society. Since there are different styles, an aspiring leader must
be able to use different processes and learn different methods that can be applied in
varying situations. By understanding the different types of leadership, one would be
able to improve or expand his leadership style and be able to lead the group to the goal
he desires. Here are the 10 common leadership styles (https://www.indeed.com):

1. Coach. A coach is the kind of leader who can quickly identify the strengths,
weaknesses, and motivations of every player or every individual member of a team.
Identifying the members’ strengths and weaknesses will help the coach to determine
how to help the individual members. Understanding the capacities of members will help
the leader plan for the necessary strategies to become fully competitive. A coach often
assists team members in setting smart goals. After identifying the goal of the team, the
leader must be able to provide regular feedbacks with challenging projects to promote
growth. A coach must have the skill in setting clear expectations and in creating a
positive and motivating environment.

2. Visionary. A visionary leader is someone who has a powerful ability to drive the
members to progress and usher everyone in periods of change by inspiring them and
eventually earning their trust for new ideas. A visionary leader also establishes a strong
organizational bond among the members of the team. He strives to foster confidence
among direct reports and colleagues alike. A visionary leader is especially helpful for
small, fast-growing organizations. But it can also be helpful to larger organizations that
are experiencing transformations or corporate restructuring.

3. Autocratic. Autocratic leadership is also called the authoritarian style of leadership.

Autocratic leaders are those who are focused almost entirely on results and the
efficiency of individual members of the group. Autocratic leaders often make decisions
alone or with a small, trusted group. With the belief that they are the most capable
member of the group, they would always make it a point that they should be followed to
obtain success. For this reason, they would expect employees to do exactly what they
are asked. In this regard, autocratic leaders are like military commanders. This kind of
leadership is useful in organizations with strict guidelines or in compliance-heavy
industries. It can also be beneficial when used with employees who need a great deal
of supervision. Nevertheless, autocratic leaders can also stifle creativity and make
employees feel confined.

4. Laissez-faire or Hands-off Leaders. This leadership is the opposite of autocratic

leaders because a laissez-faire leader focuses mostly on delegating many tasks to team
members and merely allow them to work on their own without anymore providing
supervision. Because he does not spend his time intensely on managing employees,
he can, therefore, devote time to other projects or activities. This kind of leadership can
be adopted if all the members of the team are highly-experienced, well-trained, and do
not require supervision. However, this kind of leadership can also cause a dip in
productivity if employees are confused about their leader’s expectations, or if some
team members need consistent motivation and boundaries to work well.

5. Democratic Leader. This is a combination of autocratic and laissez-faire leadership.

But what makes a democratic different from the autocratic and the laissez-faire leader is
that a democratic leader is someone who may require input from the members. He will
also solicit feedback from their team before making a decision. Since the team
members would feel that their voice is being heard and that their contributions matter, a
democratic leadership style is often credited with fostering higher levels of employee
engagement and would lead to workplace satisfaction.

6. Pacesetter Leader. This is one of the most effective types of leadership for driving
fast results. A pacesetter leader is primarily focused on performance. In this regard, a
pacesetter leader often sets high standards and holds his team members accountable
for hitting their goals. While a pacesetter is a motivational and helpful leader in
fast-paced environments where team members need to be energized, it is not always
the best option for team members who need mentorship and feedbacks because a
fast-paced environment will become too stressful for them.

7. Transformational. This style is similar to the coaching style because it focuses on

clear communication, goal-setting, and employee motivation. However, instead of
placing the majority of the energy into each employees’ individual goals, the
transformational leader is driven by a commitment to organizational objectives. Since
transformational leaders spend much of their time on the big picture, this style of
leadership is only best for teams that can handle many delegated tasks without constant
supervision.

8. Transactional. A transactional leader is someone who is very much focused on the

performance of the members of the organization. In this sense, it is similar to the
pacesetter style of leadership. However, under transactional leadership, the manager
establishes predetermined incentives. These incentives are usually in the form of
monetary rewards for successful activities. However, there will be a corresponding
disciplinary action for failures. Unlike the pacesetter leadership style, transactional
leaders are focused on mentorship, instruction, and the training of the members to
achieve their goals and enjoy the rewards. While this type of leadership is great for
organizations or teams tasked with hitting specific goals, such as sales and revenue, it
is not the best leadership style for driving creativity.

9. Bureaucratic. This type of leadership is similar to autocratic leadership because both

expect their team members to follow the rules and procedures precisely as written.
Bureaucratic LEADERSHIP focuses on fixed duties within a hierarchy where each
employee has a set list of responsibilities, and there is little need for collaboration and
creativity. This leadership style is most effective in highly-regulated industries or
organizations, such as finance, healthcare, or government agencies.
10. Servant Leadership. This is said to be the ideal system of leadership because of
their people-first mindset. This type of leadership follows the belief that when team
members develop personal and professional fulfillment, they will become more effective
and will likely produce great work regularly. The emphasis on servant leadership is on
employee satisfaction and collaboration. When the employees are fulfilled, they will
become highly effective and will achieve higher levels of respect. A servant leader is an
excellent leadership style for organizations of any industry and size but is especially
prevalent with nonprofits such as church organizations. This type of leader is
exceptionally skilled in building employee morale and helping people re-engage with
their work.

It is important to understand that leaders of any organization are borrowing different

styles of leadership depending on the goal that they are trying to set up and the kind of
output that their particular industry or system are requiring from them. For this reason,
leaders must be adaptive to adjust to the changing situations and in order not to be lost.
Accordingly, “only fools willingly follow someone who is lost” (Smith, 2010). Members of
any organization will only follow a leader when they feel that their leader knows what he
is doing and has a clear-cut plan for each member and the whole organization.

No one can deny the fact that the head of a department is the one in charge of making
big decisions. In this regard, the leader must be decisive and his decisions must be
always firm and wise. However, leaders must be asking also feedback from the
subordinates. In this manner, it will become easier for the leader to solicit good ideas.
At the same time, it will give the employees a sense of value. They will feel that they
are becoming an important contributor to the success of the organization. Jack
Canfield, in his desire to make the head of an organization an effective and respected
leader, enumerated the four major differences between leaders and bosses (2019):

1. Leaders Inspire. Leaders do not merely command their members to do their

responsibilities. Instead of merely commanding them, they should rather inspire them
so that they can do their responsibilities better. Leaders should be asking their
members for input and then provide them with a compelling vision that they are a great
part of the output of the organization. This will eventually boost the confidence of the
workers and it will lead them to perform their best because the action and the success
of the organization are theirs.

2. Leaders are Transparent and Open. Bosses usually only tell employees things on a
“need-to-know” basis. Too much information is giving an employee power and the
capability to manipulate things. Bosses would not usually want that because of the fear
that these may be used by the employees against the organization once the employees
decide to leave. This is a short-sighted strategy and one that often breeds suspicion
and distrust. However, when a member would feel the trust, he will all the more become
trustworthy and will cherish all the pieces of information given to him. Leaders should
always understand that people want to be valued. Members want their efforts, insights,
and ideas are recognized and appreciated. When members of an organization are
entrusted with financial information like salaries, expenses, and profits, they will be able
to feel that they are an important member of the team and that their contributions
matter.

3. Leaders Take Responsibility. Bosses tend to blame others when things go wrong.
Leaders, on the other hand, should not blame the staff if a job is not done well. Instead,
he has to take command responsibility. Bosses, on the other hand, would take any
credits for work that they did not do. Bosses would say that they have to take the credit
for being a good leader if their staff would be able to do something worth credit for. But
they will not take any responsibility for any wrongdoings. Because of this, a culture of
fear will be created among members because they know that the hammer will fall on
them if the expected results are not produced. Leaders are not like that. They take
responsibility for everything that goes wrong and gives their team all the credit when
things go right. Leaders roll up their sleeves and get to work. He should be a servant
first to be able to lead well. They do not just sit in an office and just merely wait for
people to report to them. They make themselves available to solve problems, to
support, or to jump in to help with the work.
 Leaders should be servants first to be able to lead well.

4. Leaders Listen to Their Employees. Leaders must be able to make their employees
feel that they are listening to the opinions and ideas of the people on their team. They
must be able to encourage their team to express their ideas and opinions without fear of
criticism or judgment.

Being able to identify the difference between a boss and a leader will make us realize who we
are in our school, in our profession, and our own family. Acting and interacting with others will
determine whether we are a “boss” or a “leader.” Becoming a true leader rather than an
authoritarian boss will help us gain respect from others.

Inspiring Others to Find their Voice—The Leadership Challenge

(Excerpt from Stephen Covey’s “The Eighth Habit from Effectiveness to Greatness [pp.
76ff)

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an
encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who
rekindle the inner spirit (Albert Schweitzer).

When I was a young man, I had an experience with a leader that profoundly shaped the
rest of my life. I had decided to take a break in my education to give some extended
volunteer service.

The invitation came to go to England. Just four and one-half months after my arrival,
the president of the organization came to me and said, “I have a new assignment for
you. I want you to travel around the country and train local leaders.” I was shocked.
Who was I to train leaders two and three times my age? Sensing my doubt, he simply
looked me in the eye and said, “I have great confidence in you. You can do this. I will
give you materials to help you prepare to teach these leaders and to facilitate their
sharing best practices with one another.”

His confidence, his ability to see more in me than I saw in myself, his willingness to
entrust me with the responsibility that would stretch me to my potential unlocked
something inside me. I accepted the assignment and gave my best. It tapped me
physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. I grew. I saw others grow. I saw patterns in
basic leadership principles. By the time I returned home, I had begun to detect the work
I wanted to devote my life to unleashing human potential. I found my “voice.” And it
was my leader that inspired me to find it.

I realized in time that I was not the only one he treated this way. His affirmation of
others, his ability to unite us in vision toward our work that inspired and motivated us,
his pattern of providing us with enabling resources and empowering us as true leaders
with accountability and stewardship became the norm in our entire organization. We
began to lead and serve others in the same way, and the results were remarkable.

I have realized since then that the principles that guided his leadership are common to
great leadership in any organization, regardless of the level of formal position of the
person. My teaching, consulting, and leadership experience in business, university,
volunteer, and church organizations—and especially in my own family—have taught me
that leadership influence is governed by principles. when you live by them, your
influence and moral authority increase, and you are often given even greater formal
authority. The biblical parables of the pounds and the talents illustrate that the more
you use and magnify the gifts or talents you have been given, the more gifts and talents
you are given. But if they are ignored or buried and remain undeveloped and unused,
the very talents or gifts that you have been given will be lost and often given to another.
So you end up not only losing talents but also losing influence and opportunities.

The Value of Questions

Maxwell held that if we want to be successful and reach our leadership potential, we
need to embrace asking questions as a lifestyle. He gave us this following reasons
(Maxwell 1976, 9ff):

1. You only get answers to the questions you ask. Sometimes we did not want to ask
questions because we were afraid that the questions might be dumb. However,
because we were thinking that the questions were dumb, we lost the opportunity of
gaining knowledge. Maxwell wanted to point out that it is better to look stupid than be
stupid. In this sense, we need to curb our egos and ask questions even at the risk of
looking stupid. According to Maxwell:

If you’re worried that asking questions will make you look bad, let me give
you some perspective. I enjoy reading Marilyn vos Savant’s column in
Sunday’s Parade magazine. Listed in Guinness World Records for “Highest
IQ,” she answers difficult and often bewildering questions from readers. In
her column of July 29, 2007, she decided to share questions she found
difficult to answer, not because they were too tough, but because—well,
take a look:

● “I notice you have the same first name as Marilyn Monroe. Are you related?”
● “Do you think daylight saving time could be contributing to global warming? The
longer we have sunlight, the more it heats the atmosphere.”
● “I see falling stars nearly every night. They seem to come out of nowhere. Have
stars ever fallen out of any known constellations?”
● “When I dream, why don’t I need my glasses to see?”
● “Can a ventriloquist converse with his dentist while his teeth are being worked
on?”
● “I just observed a flock of geese flying in a ‘V’ formation. Is that the only letter
they know?”

Now, don’t you feel better about the quality of your questions?
 If you want answers, you must ask questions. No one has helped me
understand the value of questions more than my friend Bobb Biehl. In his
book Asking Profound Questions, Bobb writes:

There is a gigantic difference between the person who has no

questions to help him/her process situations and the person who has
profound questions available. Here are a few of the differences.

WITHOUT PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Shallow answers

WITH PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Profound answers.
WITHOUT PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Lack of confidence.
WITH PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Life confidence.
WITHOUT PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Poor decision making.
WITH PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Wise decision making.
WITHOUT PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Life in a mental fog.
WITH PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Crystal clear focus in life.
WITHOUT PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Work on low priorities.
WITH PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Focused on high priorities.
WITHOUT PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Immature processing.
WITH PROFOUND QUESTIONS: Mature processing.

There is a need for us to ask questions. But if we will be asking the right questions
to the right person at the right time, it can surely lead to answers that can lead one
to success. However, we just have to take the courage to ask questions.

2. Questions unlock and open doors that otherwise remain closed. As we journey in life,
we are oftentimes meeting a lot of doors of opportunities, good experiences, and
knowledgeable people. However, we need to find these doors and find ways to open
them. To open these doors, the key is to ask questions. According to Maxwell:

Recently, I had the privilege to interview former secretary of state

Condoleezza Rice at Stanford University for the Leadercast event.
Knowing that more than 1`50,000 people would be watching, I
wanted to ask good questions about this amazing woman who has
such extraordinary knowledge and life experiences so that we could
 learn from her. I spent days doing research, reading her books, and
talking to people who would give me insight into her.

When I finally met her, I found her to be delightful and insightful. With
each question, I was able to open more doors of understanding into
her experiences. By the end of our time, I had found a wonderful
friend. I learned a great deal, and I believe the rest of the audience
did too (11).

Maxwell cited Peter Drucker who said: “My greatest strength as a consultant is to be
ignorant and ask a few questions” (12). The secret was actually on asking
questions. If we want to become a successful leader, we have to ask questions and
have the greatest desire to understand the minds of the people we meet, especially
the knowledgeable ones.

3. Questions are the most effective means of connecting with people. Aristotle held that
man is a social being, a political animal. Hence, we need others to become successful
in life and obtain happiness. Hence, we have to be with others. To be with the others
would require communication. The word communication comes from the Latin word
communis, which means “common” (12). In this regard, to communicate with others,
we have to establish commonality with them. If I would feel inferior to others, I will be
afraid to communicate with others because I do not want to be shorn off by the others
whom I am trying to communicate with. If I feel superior to others, my tendency is not to
deal with them because we are not on equal footing and I may not be able to get
something from them and it will just be a waste of time. To effectively communicate
with others, we have to feel that we are on equal footing with them and we should make
the others develop a “me-too” attitude. To develop such an attitude, we have to ask
questions to understand others. Questions connect with people.

However, we have to learn to ask the right questions. Maxwell narrated this story:
 In 2013, I was invited to play in the AT&T Pebble Beach National
Pro-Am. Every golfer dreams of playing this great course, but being
asked to play it with the best golfers in the world was beyond my
dreams! For the event, another amateur and I were paired with two
pros: Steve Lebrun and Aaron Watkins. We had such a great time.
But let me tell you something: over the four days of golf with them,
the professional golfers never once asked me any golf questions.
Not once did they ask me to help them line up a putt or to give advice
about what club they should use. Why? Those weren’t the right
questions to ask me. I have nothing of value to offer them in that
area of their lives. I am an amateur. On the other hand, they did ask
me a lot of questions about personal growth, leadership, and book
writing. They even asked if I would sign books for them.

Maxwell believed that the questions we will be asking plays an important role in
communicating with others. Asking the wrong questions would lead us to bring the
people away from us.

4. Questions cultivate humility. Most of the time, we often would not ask questions
because we do not want the people to know that we do not know anything. We are
always fond of pretending that we know a lot of things so that we can always be on the
upper hand. Maxwell would call this attitude: “Fake it all ‘til you make it!” Because of a
lot of faking, we failed to have a lot of making. If only we were able to learn earlier to
say “I do not know!” and “I need your help,” we could have achieved a lot of things
earlier in life. Maxwell quoted King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived and who
looked at the enormity of his leadership responsibilities, “I am only a little child and do
not know how to carry out my duties” (14).

Socrates once said that “knowledge comes from ignorance.” His admission
that he is ignorant became his starting point of acquiring knowledge. Because he
knew that he didn’t know, he started working hard to acquire knowledge. If he
knew that he knew everything, he tends to become too lax and complacent. And
this will be the beginning of ignorance. Our admission to our weaknesses
 becomes an opportunity for us to work hard and start growing. Asking ourselves
questions and becoming willing to admit that we can be wrong will help us desire to
search for what is right. If we become open to admit our weaknesses, people will
also start opening themselves to us. And this will be the beginning of good
communication.

5. Questions help you to engage others in conversation. Maxwell quoted the famous
talk show host Larry King when the latter said:

I’m curious about everything, and if I’m at a cocktail party, I often ask
my favorite question: “Why?” If a man tells me he and his family are
moving to another city: “Why?” A woman is changing jobs: “Why?”
Someone roots for the Mets: “Why?”

On my television show, I probably use this word more than any other.
It’s the greatest question ever asked, and it always will be. And it is
certainly the surest way of keeping a conversation lively and interesting
(14-15).

Asking the right questions can help other people realize that we are also valuing
them. Making them realize that they are being valued creates a good atmosphere
for a better relationship. Asking the question “why” at the proper time leads the
others to answer and we should listen. When others realize that we are capable of
lending an ear, they become at ease until they start opening themselves. It is then
that we start to get to know one another.

6. Questions allow us to build better ideas. Ideas are better when they are shared by
people. When people start sharing ideas, they can become more profound and
beneficial not only to a person but to society as a whole. Now, ideas can only be
shared if the right people would be asking the right questions at the right time.
According to Brian Tracy: “A major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions.
There is something about well-worded questions that often penetrates to the heart of
the matter and triggers new ideas and insights” (16).
 Any leader who asks the right questions to the right people has the potential to
discover and develop great ideas. Great thinkers developed their ideas out of the
ideas given by other bright minds. Immanuel Kant did not immediately develop his
philosophy. He was just reacting to the existing philosophies of the
time—rationalism and empiricism. From the philosophical ideologies of the two
schools of thought, Kant developed his philosophical principle which made him be
considered as one of the pillars of the modern philosophy and whose philosophical
ideology became the foundation for the development of contemporary philosophy.

7. Questions give us a different perspective. Most of the people, who had achieved
something in life have often been fixated on their own beliefs and they would not usually
accept any more new ideas coming from other people. They would consider the others
as their competitors whose ideas must be debated and overturned. Instead of
disallowing others to express their ideas, we should rather be open to the possibility that
others might have better ideas than ours. To find out whether the idea of others is
better, it is necessary to ask questions and develop conversations with them. By asking
questions and listening carefully to others, we will be able to discover valuable
perspectives other than our own.

All of us must be open always to the possibility that we can make faulty
assumptions about other people. For that reason, we are losing the opportunity to
obtain better ideas. Nevertheless, though there can be better ideas than ours, it
does not mean that everybody can be better than us. We can sometimes be better
than the others. If we will find ourselves to be better than the others, then we have
to take the initiative of sharing our better ideas with others. Without the necessary
questioning that will lead to better communications, we will lose a great opportunity
to obtain a better society. We, therefore, should develop self-esteem and hope for
a better world. Berton Braley wrote a poem entitled “Opportunity,” which runs like
this:
 With doubt and dismay you are smitten
Do you think there’s no chance for you, son?
Why, the best books have not been written,
The best race hasn’t been run.

The best score hasn’t been made yet,

The best song hasn’t been sung,
The best tune hasn’t been played yet.
Cheer up, for the world is young!

No chance? Why the world is just eager

For things that you ought to create
Its store of true wealth is meager
Its needs are incessant and great.

It yearns for more power and beauty

More laughter and love and romance,
More loyalty, labor, and duty,
No chance—why there’s nothing but chance!

For the best verse hasn’t been rhymed yet,

The best house hasn’t been planned,
The highest peak hasn’t been climbed yet,
The mightiest rivers aren’t spanned.

Don’t worry and fret, faint-hearted,

The changes have just begun,
For the best jobs haven’t been started,
The best work hasn’t been done.

8. Questions challenge mindsets and get you out of ruts. A lot of people are said to
have a flat-lined mentality. These are the people who are becoming stagnant. They are
those who try to avoid change because they are already contented with what they have;
thereby, avoiding growth. To avoid stagnation, Maxwell suggested that the best
question to ask would be: “When was the last time you had a good thought for the first
time?”
 To avoid mental laziness, we have to ask questions. In this way, we will be moving
out of the fissures and potholes. Most of the time, it is necessary to begin in
doubts to end up in certainties. Maxwell believed that “the future belongs to the
curious.”

Leadership author and trainer Mark Miller were listening to the 2012 TED
presentations when he noticed that most had a trait in common: the talks had
been prompted by a question beginning with why. Jimmy Lin, a computer
geneticist, asked the question: “Why do children with rare diseases have to
suffer?” The archeologist, Sarah Park, began her talk with a question: “Why can’t
we look for ancient archeological sites from satellites?” While Greg Gage, a
neuroscientist, asked the question: “Why don’t young people want to study
neuroscience?”

Maxwell held that if we want to make discoveries if we want to disrupt the status
quo if we want to make progress and find new ways of thinking and doing, we need
to ask questions. Questions, according to him, are the first link in the chain of
discovery and innovation (20).

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answer.”

-Anthony Robbins

Asking the right questions can also be life-changing. Speaker Anthony Robbins
observed that “Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better
questions, and as a result, they get better answers” (19). Maxwell held that this could
not be an overstatement because asking the right questions has changed his life and
became the markers of the significant events that happened in his life.
 Three Sons with Special Talents
William J. Bausch
(taken from the book “The Sower’s Seed”)

There was once a village chief with three sons. Each one had a special talent. The
oldest had the talent for raising olive trees, and he would trade the oil for tools and cloth.
The second was a shepherd, and when the sheep were ill he had a great talent for
making them well again. The third son was a dancer. When there was a streak of bad
luck in the family, or when everyone was bored during the hard winters and tired of
work, this was the son who would cheer them up with his dancing.

One day, the father had to go away on a long journey. He called his sons together
and said, “My sons, the villagers are depending on you. Each of you has a special
talent for helping people, and so, while I’m gone, see to it that you use your talents as
wisely and as well as possible, so that when I return, I will find our village even more
happy and prosperous than it is now.” He embraced his sons and departed.

For a while, things went well. Then the cold winter winds began to blow and the
blizzards and snow came. First, the buds on the olive trees shrank and cracked, and it
was a long time before the trees would recover. Then the village, because of the
especially long winter, ran out of firewood. Desperate, the villagers began to cut down
the olive trees, but in the process, they were destroying a part of the village.

Besides, the snow and ice made it impossible for traders to come up the river or over
the pass. The result was that the villagers murmured, “Let’s kill and eat the sheep so
we don’t starve to death.” The second son refused for a time but finally had to give in to
the hungry villagers. He remarked, “What good would it be to spare the sheep only to
have the villagers perish?”

In this way, the villagers received just enough wood for their fires and food for their
tables. However, the bitter winter had broken their spirits and they began to think that
things were worse than they were. They even began to lose hope—so much so that,
family by family, they deserted the village in search of a more hospitable environment.
 As spring began to loosen the icy grip of winter, the village chief, the father of the
three sons, returned to find smoke raising only from his chimney, “What have you
done?” he stammered upon reaching his house and seeing his sons. “What has
happened to the villagers?”

“Oh, father, forgive me,” cried the eldest son. “Our people were freezing and begged
me to cut down the olive trees for firewood, and so I did. I gave away my talent. I am
no longer fit to be an orchard keeper.”

“Don’t be angry, father,” said the second son. “The sheep would have frozen to
death anyway, and the people were starving. I had to send my flock to the slaughter.”

The father understood the sacrifices and replied, “Don’t be ashamed, my sons. You
did the best you could and you acted rightly and humanely. You used your talents
wisely in trying to save our people. But tell me, what has become of them? Where are
they?”

The two brothers looked with fixed eyes on the third son who said, “Welcome home,
father. Yes, it has been a hard time. There was so little to eat and so little firewood. I
thought that it would be insensitive and improper to dance during the sufferings, and,
besides, I needed to conserve my strength so that I could dance for you when you came
home.”

“Then, dance, my son,” groaned the father, “for my village is empty and so is my
heart. Fill it with joy and courage once again. Yes, please dance!”

But as the third son went to get up, he made a face of pain and fell. His legs were so
stiff and sore from sitting that they were no longer fit for dancing.

The father was so sad that he could not even be angry. He simply said to the third
son, “Ours was a strong village. It could have survived the want of fuel and food, but it
could never survive without hope. Because you failed to use your talents wisely and
well, our people gave up what little hope they had left. Now what? The village is
deserted and you are crippled. Your punishment has already fallen upon you.

A Leader Must Have a Vision: It’s More than Looking—It’s Seeing

(Excerpt from Glenn Johnson’s “Leadership That Builds: Nehemiah, a model for our
times of crisis” [pp. 17ff)
Soon after the completion of Disney World, someone said, “Isn’t it too bad Walt Disney
didn’t live to see this?” Mike Vance, the Director of Disney Studios, replied, “He did see
it—that’s why it’s here!”

What is the vision? It is the ability to visualize new things.

Understanding Vision

For the leader, vision involves two things. He must be able to see what God can do and
what God wants to do.

In the Old Testament, we find a man with that kind of vision. He was Nehemiah, a man
who could see a finished wall when he looked at a pile of rocks. Vision enables us to
see by faith the changes Jesus can and wants to make in any situation. In the New
Testament, an account of the life of Simon Peter, Jesus looked at Simon and said in
effect: “You are now weak, vacillating, unpredictable, and insecure.” That was a present
reality. “But by My power in your life, I’m going to transform you into a rock of reliability.”
And that is a future possibility.

It may seem strange to use the term future possibility. When Jesus said Simon would
become a rock, it was more than a possibility, it was a certainty. Jesus always
accomplishes what He has predetermined to do. But as humans, subject to imperfect
wisdom, righteousness, and power, it is better to use the term possibility (James 4: 15).
This does not diminish the excitement of vision, but balances it with proper humility.
This is the vision, a primary mark of leadership. We must do more than look. We must
be able to see the transforming power of God.
To have a vision without a task leaves you a visionary. To have a task without a vision
is drudgery. But a vision with a task is leadership. I rarely pray, “Lord, make me a
leader.” But nearly every day, I ask God to increase my vision. Vision is the first step
for effective leadership.

Now, let’s meet the man this book is about. Nehemiah was a leader. He was a man of
vision. We can learn many valuable lessons from his life. Our story opens with him
receiving and reacting to bad news:

The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the

month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital, that
Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked
them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the
captivity, and about Jerusalem. And they said to me, “The remnant there
in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and
reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are
burned with fire.” Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat
down and wept and mourned for days, and I was fasting and praying
before the God of heaven.

Nehemiah1: 1-4

Nobody likes bad news. That Nehemiah took his grief to God tells us much about his
character. He lived up to his name, which means a consolation or a “comfort from
Jehovah[1].” He knew where to go for encouragement. He needed an external source
of strength, for the “comforted one” was raised in exile, far from the Jerusalem he loved
but had likely never seen.

Scriptures are silent regarding his father, except to tell us his name. Hacaliah is the
contracted form of “wait for Yahweh.” It does not take much imagination to believe he
must have been himself a powerful man of faith. The godly course of Nehemiah’s life
was surely launched at home, not in a pagan court. It is likely that “wait for Yahweh”
taught his son to wait on the Lord.
In too many homes today, children get what they want. . . when they want it. But
Nehemiah learned early to wait. And when he became a man, he didn’t collapse during
a crisis. He waited on God.

Tragically, Nehemiah’s godly roots were the exception, not the rule. Jewish religious
and civil life was in a pitiful condition. The prophets, priests, and kings had miserably
failed. The people had turned from Yahweh, the true God, to serve other gods.
Because of this, for 140 years, God’s people were either:

■ Captive and scattered through the Medo-Persian Empire, yet longing for
Jerusalem.
■ Captive and settled, content in their environment.
■ Captive and struggling back in Palestine, a ridiculed minority.

Chislev is the month of December. The twentieth year of Artaxerxes’ reign was 444 or
445 BCE. Nehemiah was in Susa, the winter capital of the great Persian Empire.
Located 150 miles north of the Persian Gulf, Susa was in the southwestern part of
modern Iran. Biblically, this was an important city.

Nehemiah was the king’s cupbearer. Today, we think of a cupbearer as being a

household servant or slave. Not so. How important was Nehemiah’s position? George
Rawlinson, a professor of ancient history, describes the Persian court as splendid and
magnificent. The king was surrounded by hundreds of personal attendants, and within
the walls of the palace, as many as 15,000 persons were fed daily. The monarch,
however, rarely dined with his guests but normally are alone or with the queen, as we
would learn from Nehemiah chapter two. The wine was commonly served, drunk from
the royal cup. That was where the cupbearer came in.

Before filling the cup, they carefully washed it out, and before offering it to
their master, they ladled out a small quantity with their left hand and
swallowed it, to show that, so far as their knowledge went, it was not
poisoned. When not engaged in this, their main duty, they guarded the
entrance to the royal apartment and allowed persons to enter, or forbade
them, at their discretion. Even princes of the blood royal had to submit;
 and the power, thus practically exercised of allowing or preventing
audiences, made the office one of high account.

Nehemiah had authority. He was a kind of appointment secretary, a confidant, and

bodyguard of his majesty.

Hanani brought news of Jerusalem: “The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its
gates are burned with fire.” Since the walls had been down 140 years, the destruction
Hanani related has reference to some recent restoration that began during Ezra’s earlier
ministry in Jerusalem. The Jews had attempted to rebuild the walls earlier but after the
protest of Rehum and Shimshai from Jerusalem, Artaxerxes ordered the work to stop
(Ezra 4:7-23). There were two previous expeditions from Persia to Jerusalem.
Zerubbabel led a group back to Judah approximately eighty years before Nehemiah.
Ezra, too, preceded Nehemiah about a dozen years. Because Nehemiah’s heart, like
most Jews, was in Mount Zion, his first concern was: “What about Jerusalem? How is it
with our people?” The answer drove him to the knees in tears. But the question had to
be asked, for a leader must have a vision.

Leaders see the rubble. Hanani’s report that the wall of Jerusalem is broken down got
Nehemiah’s immediate attention. His love for God and the people led to his anguish.
Both awareness and anguish are inseparable when we have a true vision of need.

Before Nehemiah could affect a solution, he had to understand the problem. And as he
understood it, he made Jerusalem’s problem his own. A leader should know his people
so well that their needs can be constantly addressed by him. And his people should
know him so well that they know he feels their pain. Alan Redpath suggests:

Let us learn this lesson from Nehemiah: You never lighten the load unless
first, you have felt the pressure in your soul. You are never used by God
to bring blessing until God has opened your eyes and made you see
things as they are. There is no other preparation for Christian work than
that. Nehemiah was called to build the wall, but first, he had to weep over
the ruins.
God is telling us that our lives are like walls and He gazes at them constantly.
Jerusalem’s walls had buckled under the relentless pressure of God’s judgment against
Israel’s sin. Sometimes walls crumble, though, from simple neglect. Prayer takes a
backseat to work demands. The time once spent in Bible study is now used elsewhere.
A stone here, a stone there, and our lives soon become dry and dusty.

Look at your walls. Do you need to do some rebuilding? Start today, and remember,
clearing away the old rubble is called “repentance”—sorrow for sin. That’s a great
foundation on which to repair.

[1] Jehovah is another name for Yahweh.

What We Need to Ask Ourself

Leaders must be able to understand that questions are always a part of a leader’s life.
Hence, the first use here is, who is asking the questions? As a leader, we can allow
others to ask us the hard and important questions. Leaders should also take
responsibility and be proactive. He should also ask those questions regarding his self.
In this sense, a leader has to realize that by asking tough questions, one can maintain
his integrity, increase his energy, and improve his leadership capacity.

After asking questions regarding himself, John Maxwell wrote out these questions that
he asked himself as a leader. After reviewing and reflecting on them several times, he
was able to realize that these questions are personal, but he believed that these could
help him (Maxwell, 32).

1. Am I investing in myself? A question of personal growth.

The first question that we can ask ourselves is whether we are investing in ourselves or
not. The most important investment that we will ever make in life is in ourselves. This
investment will determine the return that one can get out of life. The mentor of life
coach Jim Rohn, John Earl Shoaff, said to him, “Jim if you want to be wealthy and
happy, learn this lesson well: learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
Accordingly, Jim learned that lesson well. He pointed out that “the book that you do not
read cannot help you; the seminar you won’t attend cannot change your life. The
business gets better when you get better. Never wish it were easier; wish you were
better” (Maxwell). The sufferings that we are experiencing in the things that we do
today should not be taken as a punishment. Rather, it should be taken as a form of
molding ourselves for a better us.

Your Self-Image: How You See Yourself

In trying to mold ourselves during the experience of difficulty, it is necessary to ask this
question: how do we feel about ourselves as a person? It is necessary also to ask the
question: do we still have a positive outlook in life even amid difficulties? Do we have a
negative view of life? On a scale of 1 to 10, what number would we use to describe
how we feel about ourselves?

Whatever number we pick to describe our self-image can also describe our willingness
to invest in ourselves. For example, if we will be rating our self-image at a 5, it only
means that we will be willing to invest in ourselves but only up to level 5, and not more.
This is the reason why people with low self-images do not make great investments in
themselves. It is not really what we are that keeps us from investing in ourselves. It is
what we think we are or what we think we are not that makes us. We will never be able
to bet on our self unless we believe in our self first.

Maxwell held that many people find themselves thinking like Snoopy, the beagle in the
Peanuts comic strip, who thinks, “Yesterday, I was a dog. Today, I am a dog.
Tomorrow, I will probably be still a dog. Sigh! There is so little hope for advancement!”
If we have the same outlook in life, it is an indication that we have very low self-esteem.
Having very low self-esteem will lead us to have difficulty in obtaining success in life.
We should, therefore, avoid being stuck in dead-end situations when it comes to our
potential. As a human person who is capable of thinking, we can make tremendous
advances. But first, we must believe in ourselves. Bo Sanchez (2012) wrote:

I noticed that these modern-day kings had two arms, two legs, and one head. I was
disappointed that none of them had an extra arm, an extra head, or the powers of
Professor X.
Over the years, I’ve also worked with CEOs of companies and even founders of churches
with millions of members. It’s amazing how human everyone is.
But I believe what sets them apart is their ability to lead themselves.
Sure, they know how to lead others. But before they can lead others, they need to lead
themselves.

If we want to become a leader, and for that matter, a good leader, we have to learn to
lead ourselves first. We will not be able to lead our nation, our company, our
department, our business, our group, or even our kids if we will not be able to lead
ourselves.

Your Dream: How You See Your Future

The reason why Maxwell wrote his book Put Your Dream to the Test was because of his
desire to help people make great strides towards their dreams. According to him, what
he did not realize until the book had been written and started speaking about it to a lot
of people was that many people do not have dreams. This is the situation now,
especially in our country. After the great suffering due to natural calamities like the
volcanic eruption and the series of typhoons, as well as the experience of the Covid-19
pandemic, a lot of people would not want to dream anymore. Many people would find
the situation already hopeless. The future seems to be uncertain to a lot of people.
Our life had been filled with hopes, dreams, and aspirations. The reason why we, as
students, are still studying despite our economic situation is that we are still dreaming of
a better life. Our situation as a student at this time greatly matters. The size of our
dream determines the size of our investment. If our dream is large, we will invest in
ourselves to achieve it. If we have no dream, we may not invest in ourselves at all. Our
being a student is an investment for our self.

Whenever we would see beautiful cars displayed at big malls, some of us would not
even dare to come near because of the thought that we will just be wasting our time
looking at them since we will not be able to afford to buy them anyway. This is the
attitude of the people who would not dare to dream. If we are dreaming of driving a
beautiful car just like the one displayed, we have to take hold of it if we want to have it
and then we have to ask ourselves: “How will I be able to buy this?” It may be
impossible at this moment to obtain our dream car. But we have to start dreaming and
start acting on our dream.

Maxwell narrated that his start in leadership was very unimpressive. During that time,
he was leading an old country church attended by a few farmers. But his passion to
help people was huge. It filled him with energy. His dream was to build a great church.
During those days, they were making very little money. He was being paid only $80 a
week and his wife, Margaret, was working half days as a kindergarten teacher. But
because he had big dreams, he was always looking for ways to improve himself and his
leadership. He would usually go to a bookstore to buy inspirational books. Whenever
he would be in a bookstore, he would feel like Christmas. He would come home loaded
with books that will help him grow. At the same time, he would always on the lookout
for conferences that can be helpful for his self-improvement. Margaret would cringe
because his purchases of books were a strain on their budget but she always because
she believed in John as much as John believed in himself. The dreams they shared for
their future were bigger than their surroundings or circumstances, and these fueled their
desire to grow.
Your Friends: How Others See You

Motivational speaker Joe Larson once said, “My friends did not believe I could become
a successful speaker, so I did something about it. I went out and found some new
friends” (33). This may sound harsh. However, this is what is needed for anyone who
is surrounded by people who do not believe in them. It is always very much necessary
to surround ourselves with people who also believe in us.

One of the most important growth decisions that we can make is to expand our horizons
and find other people whose passion is also to grow and to help others. This decision
requires courage. Getting away from friends who do not have a belief in us would be a
very big decision to make. It is always painful to leave friends behind. However, if we
will be staying where we are, we would never grow to the next level.

People need others to help them stay inspired and growing. Missionary doctor, Albert
Schweitzer, asserted that “In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is
then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be
thankful for those who rekindle the inner spirit” (34). If we have friends, who light our
inner fire, we are very fortunate because they will make us want to keep investing in
ourselves and desire to continue growing. If we will not be able to find some people
who will help us enkindle our fire, we have to continue looking for them because nothing
is more important for our potential as a leader than our personal daily growth.

2. Am I genuinely interested in others? A question of motivation.

This is another important question that one should be asking himself. It has been said
that people have two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.
For us to become a good leader, when dealing with people, the good reason must e the
same as the real reason. Our motives matter a lot.

If one is desiring to become a leader, he needs to ask himself why we are desiring to
become such. Some want to become a leader because they are truly interested in
helping others. However, some want to become a leader because they only want to
help themselves. Those who want to become a leader because they only want to help
themselves are merely seeking for:

● Power. People who are seeking for power want to become a leader because they
love control and will continue to add value to themselves by reducing the value of
others;
● People who are aiming for a position are only aiming for titles, which are their
ego food. They continually make sure that others feel their authority. They also
want others to respect their rights as a leader.
● Some people wanted to become a leader because of the money that is entailed
in the position. These leaders will use people and sell themselves to obtain
financial gains.
● People also desire to become a leader because they know that other people find
the leaders to be good looking. For some, looking good is more important to
them than their being and doing good (34-35).

It is important to understand that leaders can easily lose focus. They can also be easily
tempted by their selfish desires. This is the reason why everyone should always check
their motives daily. People should never desire to put their leadership ahead of the
people they lead. Naturally-gifted leaders have the capabilities that they can easily use
for personal advantage. They see things before others do and they often see more than
others see. As a result, they enjoy the advantage of having good timing and seeing the
big picture. That puts them in a position to make the most of opportunities.
If we can see something before we do, we can get started before others, and that often
guarantees a win. If we see more than we see, our decisions will likely be better than
the others. In this regard, we will surely win again. Hence, the question is: “Does the
leader have an advantage over others?” Of course, the answer is a “Yes!” However,
our next question will be: “Will the leader use that advantage for personal gain or the
benefit of everyone on the team?” Leadership should keep my natural selfishness in
check and it also purifies my motives.

Leaders are always in danger of abusing their power. This is the reason why Maxwell
addressed leaders at the United Nations and he spoke on the subject: “Three Questions
People Ask of Their Leader.” Those questions are the following:

● Can you help me? This is a question of competence.

● Do you care for me? This one is a compassion question.
● Can I trust you? This question is regarding the character of the leader.

It is important to take note that two of those questions deal with a leader’s motives. If
the followers are concerned about the motivation of their leaders, the leaders should
also be concerned about the motivation of themselves and also of their members.

It is important to consider as well that questioning one’s motives is not the same as
questioning one’s character. If a leader has a poor character, his motives will probably
be bad. But if the leader has a solid character, he can still fall prey to bad motives.
Motives are usually attached to specific situations or actions. Character is based on
values. If we have wrong motives in a particular situation, but our values are good and
our character is strong, we will probably be able to detect where we are going wrong
and have a chance to correct it.
This is the reason why it is important to teach values to leaders. When leaders learn
and live good values, they make themselves more valuable and lift the value of other
people. This is the foundation of positive leadership.

3. Am I grounded as a leader? A question of stability.

Just as leaders are vulnerable to being tempted to act for personal gains, they are also
susceptible to consider themselves to be a very important person that should be given
due respect. As such, they will tend to become airy. That is why leaders need to
remain grounded. In other words, good leaders need to exhibit three important
qualities:

● Humility: Understanding our place in light of the bigger picture.

At the height of the Roman Empire, there was a general who was honored with a
triumph, a procession of honor through the city of Rome in which the general was
preceded by marching legions, trumpeting heralds, and the enemies who had been
conquered and captured in the victory. As the general rode in a chariot and was
cheered by virtually everyone in the city, a slave held a laurel wreath above his head to
signify his victory. But as the procession continued, the slave had one additional
responsibility. He was to whisper the following words into the general’s ear: “Hominem
te memento,” meaning, “Remember, you are only a man.”

“Humility is being honest about your weaknesses.”

-Rick Warren
Leaders can start to think that everything is all about them—especially when their team
or organization is winning. The greater the accomplishment, the greater the need to
check their egos. That is why it is so important that they remain grounded. It is not
every day that the organization will be winning. In this regard, the most important
quality of a well-grounded person is humility.

What is humility? Rick Warren said that “humility is not denying your strengths.
Humility is being honest about your weaknesses. All of us are a bundle of both great
strengths and great weaknesses and humility is being able, to be honest about both”
(36-37). Humility, according to Maxwell, is a choice every day to give credit to God for
our blessings and to other people for our successes. Both our strengths and
weaknesses are blessings. Our strengths are blessings because we are being
equipped to obtain success. But our weaknesses are also blessings because it helps
us realize that our strength is still in God.

Humble leaders are comfortable with who they are. They believe that there is no need
for them to draw attention. Good leaders are happy in the accomplishments of others.
They empower their people so that they can excel and obtain success on their own.
They allow others to shine and are not jealous if the others are being applauded. A
leader with such kind of attitude is having the right perspective. Good leaders are
capable of motivating others and remain humble at the same time. They are capable of
realizing that they are not better than the people whom they are leading.

The key to success is a humble leader who is capable of transforming the brand,
increase the reputation of the organization, and double the sales and values of the
product. To make this happen, the leader should be able to promote, collaborate, foster
team spirit, and build trust among one another. A real leader is willing to step down and
take new challenges so that he can uplift all the people in the organization.

● Authenticity: being comfortable in your skin

 Leaders must be able to fill the gap between successful people and those who are less
successful [www.boldplanning.com].

Successful leaders are often put on pedestals by people. To stay real and grounded,
leaders need to get off that pedestal and stay with the people. This can be done if the
leader will remain honest and authentic. The goal of a leader must always be to uplift
his people and not have them lift himself. If the leader allows others to put himself on a
pedestal, or if one minimizes his faults and accentuate his successes, he begins to
create what Maxwell called the Success Gap. A success gap is a perceived distance
between successful people and those who are less successful. Inauthentic people
enjoy that gap, protect their image, try to stay above the crowd, and make the gap look
even larger. An inauthentic leader would enjoy being in the company of the top
management than being seen with the people in the rank and file.

Authentic leaders work hard to close that gap. How can this be done? This can be
done when a leader is open about his failures and shortcomings. He uses
self-deprecating humor and laughs at himself. When he is asked to speak, he prefers
simple introductions, and he walks among the people and connects with them before
and after his time on stage. He does everything he can to be himself without
pretensions and inhibitions.

● Calling: having a purpose that is bigger than you

The third thing that can keep a leader grounded is his calling. How is a dream different
from a calling? Maxwell held that a dream is something that one wants to do, but a
calling is something you have to do. In other words, calling is a responsibility. Consider
the life of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., and
Steve Jobs. These people were those who felt compelled to do their life’s work. They
were the ones who were called to do a certain responsibility and responded to that call.
They became the authentic leaders who used themselves so that others may obtain
happiness and success. They were able to lead their company and/or their
organizations and brought them to their great successes.

4. Am I adding value to my team? A question of teamwork

An authentic leader should always ask every day: “How can I make my team better?”
Leaders must be able to figure out what he can do to make their team better, to add
value to the players, and promote teamwork. To add value, Maxwell suggested the
following:

Promote full commitment

A team, whose members are not committed, is doomed to perform unevenly.

Understandably, team members are not equal in terms of experience, talent, or
education. But they can be equal in their commitment. It is just normal that members of
an organization may not be equal in terms of intelligence and capabilities. But if
everyone will be committed to their responsibility, everyone can contribute to the team’s
success. However, a commitment must begin first with the leader and then extended to
the entire team.

When Maxwell’s friend, Coach Wooden, noticed that a player was not giving 100
percent in practice, he would take that person aside and say, “I know you think you can
make up tomorrow for what you do not do today, but that is impossible. If you are giving
50 percent today, you cannot give 150 percent tomorrow! You can never give more
than 100 percent.”
The true measure of the success of a leader is not getting people to work. It is not
getting people to work hard. Rather, it is getting people to work hard together. That
takes commitment. When people can understand the value of working together and
contributing to the team according to their best capacity, success will become apparent.

Create an Environment of Encouragement and Support

One of the good things about teamwork is that one always has others on his side. It is
pulling together, not pulling apart. It is similar to having many voices but with only one
heart. However, this will not be made possible unless there is an environment of
encouragement and support. Leaders need to take that responsibility for creating an
environment of hard work and commitment.

Coach Wooden used to ask his players to acknowledge the skills and contributions of
others. Many basketball players, for instance, had great talents and extraordinary ability
to playing basketball. However, a great number of them were not able to bring their
team to a championship. This was because they were not able to realize the value of
teamwork. They instead focused on their awards and accomplishments. Individual
scores, no matter how high a good player obtained, would be of no sense if the team
would not be able to obtain a win. Hence, individual scores do not matter. What
matters is how one would contribute to the win of a team no matter how small that
contribution would be.

Identify Adversity as an Opportunity to Develop Character

It should be understood that teamwork is never tested during good times. A team can
only be considered good if it experiences adversity and be able to overcome it.
Adversities are necessary for the team to make the necessary assessment of each
member’s ability. Because of adversities, the team would be able to take note of its
strong and weak points. Most of the time, we do not want to know our weaknesses.
But we have to admit them so that we may be able to make the necessary plans on how
to overcome them. According to the famous author and apologist C. S. Lewis, “God
allows us to experience the low points of life to teach us lessons we could not learn in
any other way.” Low points in our life are necessary to realize the value of hard work.

Maxwell narrated that Coach Wooden was telling him that in the early years of his
coaching, his team did not have a basketball arena of its own, so all of its games were
played at the arenas of opponents. That sure seems as if it would be a hardship.
However, according to Coach Wooden, this disadvantage to his team became an
advantage during the NCAA tournament, because his team was used to playing on the
road. In this regard, it would be wise to look for the opportunity in adversity and learn
from it. The experience of a pandemic has also had its advantages. The whole family
was able to learn to stay together and had a very long time of bonding moments. It
became a time of rest and a time of reflection and realization on how we should be
valuing our life.

Consider Each Person’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Maxwell (41) narrated that one night, he was having dinner with former college football
coach Lou Holtz, friend and businessman Collin Sewell, and other friends in Odessa,
Texas. As they were talking about leadership and teamwork, Lou said something that
grabbed Maxwell’s attention: “The freedom to do your own thing ends when you have
obligations and responsibilities. If you want to fail yourself, you can—but you cannot do
your own thing if you have responsibilities to team members” (41-42).
Indeed, this can be true for team leaders. Team leaders must take responsibility for
helping the team to succeed. To be able to do this, the leader must be able to know the
strengths and weaknesses of the members. The leader must be able to make use of
the strength of the team to help the team win. This can be done by asking the question:
“What is best for everyone?”

Accordingly, many people do not ask such a question because they are often naturally
focused on themselves. Maxwell took this as an example: when a group picture is
taken with us in it, who is the first person we look for when we see the picture? Of
course, it will be us. How do we determine whether it is a good picture? It usually
depends on how good we look in it. Only after we have checked our image do we begin
looking at everyone else’s.

This is not how teamwork should be done. Teamwork demands that we focus a little
less on ourselves and a little more on how the team looks. To succeed, we must value
completing one another more highly than competing with one another. If we want the
team to win, we cannot be like the man in the comic strip who says to his friend, “There
may not be an ‘I’ in a team, but there is an ‘M’ and an ‘E’, and that spells me!”

Good leaders are like good coaches. They know how to bring out the best in the people
on their team. This is what Coach John Wooden did. This is also what legendary NFL
coach Vince Lombardi did. When Coach Lombardi took over the Green Bay Packers,
the team had suffered through eleven straight losing seasons. Lombardi turned the
team around in one season. How? By discovering the strengths and weaknesses of
his players and helping them to perform at their best. In particular, three of the players
who were benched during the time of Lombardi’s predecessor became excellent players
and all these three were also able to make it to the Hall of Fame.
A leader who is not adding value to his team should question whether or not he should
even be a leader. Adding value to team members and helping them to win is what
leadership is all about.

5. Am I staying in my strength zone? A question of effectiveness.

Leaders may not be able to determine immediately whether they have the strength
zone. This is the most difficult characteristic to determine. For one thing, we may
never be able to determine whether we have a strength zone. We may have mistaken
the fact that if we will have too many activities, we will already be able to obtain
progress.

According to Samuel Johnson, “Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to
display qualities he does not possess” (43). This could be because of our lack of
self-introspection. This could be because we are yet too young and passionate about
tasks that do not play to our strength. If we do not do a lot of things, we will not be able
to find our strengths. But it will be sad if, after several years in our careers, we still have
not discovered our strengths. God has given each one of us peculiar gifts that will make
us unique from the others. But such a gift will be useless if we do not know what this
gift is and how to use it well.

We have mentioned earlier that we should be surrounding ourselves with people who
are capable of recognizing, encouraging, and cultivating our strengths. We have to be
with people who can give us constructive feedback so that we may be able to
understand who we are. By knowing who we are, we will also be able to realize that
we have unlimited potential if only we will be able to find and stay in our strength zone.

Staying in our strengths gives us an advantage. In a world where people spend much
of their time shoring up their weaknesses, our focus on maximizing our strengths will set
us apart from others. However, our temptation as a leader may be to leverage that
advantage selfishly for personal gain. When we achieve good results, we definitely will
become known and we will be celebrated. After that, we will begin to believe that we
are already becoming the center of the world. we must guard against this.

Staying our strength also gives us opportunities. In the foreword of Kevin Hall’s book
Aspire, Stephen R. Covey writes,

The root of opportunity is port, meaning, the entryway by water into a city or place of
business. In earlier days, when the tide and winds were right and the port opened, it
allowed entry to do commerce, to visit, or to invade and conquer. But only those who
recognized the opening could take advantage of the open port, or opportunity (44).

The more we focus on our strengths, the better we will be positioned to see and seize
opportunities as they arise.

If we have not already done so, when we discover our talents, gifts, and
strengths, we will come to a point of decision. Will we use them to coast along? Or will
we dig into the hard work of developing them?

Maxwell narrated that someone who did this was Major League pitcher
Nolan Ryan. There was no question that Ryan had talent. He pitched his first no-hitter
before he was in high school. And as a high school pitcher, he once struck out
twenty-one batters in a single game. It was said that he threw the ball so hard that he
broke bones in the hands of his catchers. But when Ryan made it to the Major
Leagues, he realized that he could not simply rely on his talent. He had to improve it.
Ryan explains,

All I knew was to throw as hard as I could for as long as I could. Early in my career in the
big leagues, when I would get in trouble, I would resort back to that mindset. Finally, after
being unsuccessful with that approach—I learned that when I was just throwing hard, I
was throwing wild and walking guys and losing games—it finally dawned on me. If I
 didn’t make an adjustment or change, then I was going to be one of those players who
was very gifted, but didn’t make a lot out of it. . . A lot of people get here with the
God-given ability, the gift that they received. But to stay here and have a lengthy career
takes a commitment to make sacrifices that most won’t continually make. Talent may get
you here, but it takes work, real work, to stay here, and it takes a development of the
mental side of your game to separate yourself on this level (45).

Ryan did separate himself, so much so that he ended up in the Hall of

Fame. He played at the highest level until age 46. By the time he retired, he had won
324 games, recorded 5,714 strikeouts (the most in history), struck out 383 batters in
one season (another record), and pitched seven no-hitters (also the most in history.)
That’s what you call staying in your strength zone!

6. Am I taking care of today? A question of success

Good leaders must always have the characteristic of looking to the future. They
are known for a vision and for leading others to a new and higher destination. However,
it is not only in the future where we accomplish things. Accomplishments can be
achieved today. In this regard, we have to take good care of the present. It is for this
reason that John Wooden said: “Make every day your masterpiece.”

But how do we make the present our masterpiece? To make the present a
masterpiece, we have to count each day as a productive day. In this sense, we have to
consider the words of former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir: “I must govern the
clock, not be governed by it.”

We have to focus on the things that we have to be doing each day, no matter how
difficult they may seem. We have to learn to use time properly and correctly. We may
not be able to do everything today. However, we can do the five most important things
each day. Maxwell gave us the list:
1. Faith. The former US president Jimmy Carter said: “My faith demands that I do
whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with
whatever I have to try to make a difference.” Faith is necessary to make each
day fruitful and different. St. Joseph Marello, the founder of the Congregation of
the Oblates of Saint Joseph, said: “We have to do ordinary things in an
extraordinary way.” If we have faith, the ordinariness of things can become the
most extraordinary thing that we can do. This is the meaning of faith: bringing
God into the picture every day so that the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Looking at everything with God in the picture gives a person a sense of security
and resilience.
2. Family. Success can only be achieved if our family or those closest to us are
backing us up. People who do not know us will not be respecting us. Hence, we
will not be able to gain support from them. Nevertheless, those who know us
dearly will be giving us respect, which can be our armor in facing challenges in
life. This is what parents should be doing to their children so that the children
can gain strength in facing challenges. They should make the children firmly
rooted in good values. They should also give their children wings so that they
can soar high and achieve their goals and ambitions. Realize now that the
University of Batangas is our family and the teachers are the parents who are
giving to us those same roots that will help us have good foundations, and the
wings to fly and create a good self-image so that we can have the confidence to
continue flying.
3. Relationships. It is important to note that success can be achieved by creating
good relationships. After graduating from college, it is necessary to still maintain
good relationships with our former classmates. Although we may consider
ourselves to be the best in class, our grades and achievements in our school do
not necessarily have connections with the success that a person can achieve.
Success does not come from awards but from our ability to relate ourselves to
others. Graduates who barely passed tests and examinations in schools and
who are oftentimes tagged as the loudest, most communicative, and most
energetic can still end up with the most prestigious jobs and receive the highest
salaries. In other words, a person who can maintain good relationships and can
 communicate very well with people is oftentimes the most sought-after skill by
employers. To maintain good relationships, one should simply care.
4. Mission. Our mission in life is always personal. We always have different
missions in life. Our mission depends on the vocation or the calling coming from
the Divine Providence. Some of us are called to become teachers, engineers,
accountants, etc. And all of us are responsible for fulfilling our mission in life.
However, everyone must value others and their mission so that, in return, they
can also multiply value in others. Giving personal attention to personal missions
as well as to the mission of others can help build companies or create
organizations that can be responsible for changing the world for the better.
5. Health. Every one of us has a duty of taking good care of our health. Eating the
right food and doing exercises daily are usually the things that we neglect the
most. To maintain good health, Mark Twain said: “Eat what you do not want,
drink what you do not like, and do what you’d rather not.” Of course, these words
of Twain require honesty. We may say that we do not want to drink liquors and
so we drink them. But if we will only be honest about Twain’s principle, we can
live a healthy life. Of course, all of us may die anyway. However, we do not want
to die too soon because there are still a lot of things to fulfill and there is also a
dream to achieve. To live a healthy life would mean that we will become more
capable of helping more people achieve their dreams as we achieve ours.

7. Am I Investing My Time with the Right People? A Question of Return of Investment

(ROI)

Leaders will never be forever leaders. However, leaders can always be

remembered if he will be able to leave a legacy. The greatest legacy any leader can
leave is the other leaders whom he will be forming before his leadership ends. In this
regard, one responsibility of a true leader is to find the right people to whom he will be
investing his knowledge, time, and effort so that this person may grow and become a
new good leader.
 But how do we find good leaders? Good leaders can be found by knowing how
they look like. Good leaders can be described in words. We can also determine who a
good leader is by our own experiences of the leaders that we have had. From our own
experience of a leader, we can set a parameter for a good leader. However, if we do
not have yet a list of the qualities of good leader, we can take into consideration the
following factors that we want in the leaders that we work with:

1. The Influence Factor—Do they influence others?

2. The Capacity Factor—Do they have the potential to grow and develop?
3. The Attitude Factor—Do they desire to grow and develop themselves?
4. The Chemistry Factor—Do we like each other?
5. The Passion Factor—Are they self-motivated?
6. The Character Factor—Are they grounded?
7. The Values Factor—Are our values compatible?
8. The Teamwork Factor—Do they work well with others?
9. The Support Factor—Do they add value to me?
10. The Creative Factor—Can they find possibilities in impossibilities?
11. The Option Factor—Can their contribution give me options?
12. The 10 Percent Factor—Are they in the top 10 percent of those on our team?

John Maxwell was saying that when he first began developing leaders, he was so
excited because he would be making a difference with people. During that time, he was
not discriminating in choosing who he would be training. And so, he recruited
everybody. Later on, he discovered that not everyone had the desire to grow and it
seemed that many people had already enjoyed staying in their comfort zone. A lot of
people would not want to exert efforts now to make a difference. This is the reason why
society is not anymore growing.

In this sense, leaders should not waste any efforts and spend time with people
who do not have the desire to grow, be a leader, and make a difference. Along this
line, Noel M. Tichy (2007) said: “The ultimate test for a leader is not whether he or she
makes smart decisions and takes decisive action, but whether he or she teachers
others to be leaders and builds an organization that can sustain its success even when
he or she is not around.” In this sense, leaders must be able to find the right person
whom he should train to continue the success of the organization.

John Maxwell wanted to point out that good leaders will always have the intention
to develop leaders and, consequently, the right person to be developed must have the
willingness and the ability to grow and develop.

As a leader, one must be able to ask the 7 questions. In other words, he has to
focus on his personal growth and not be merely satisfied with the position he or she has
achieved; he has to be properly motivated in leading the organization; he must maintain
stability; he must value teamwork by valuing even the littlest contribution of every
member; he must be effective in achieving growth; he must be successful; and, he must
be able to form others and invest on others to make them a successor to an effective
leader. Leaders, in this regard, must be able to assess themselves as to whether they
possess these aforementioned characteristics. In other words, leaders must be
philosophers.

According to the Greek philosopher Socrates: “An unexamined life is not worth
living.” If one would want to become a great leader, he must always examine himself
every day and assess his everyday achievements. Before he goes to sleep, he must
ask this question: “What have I done today?” And he should be able to find a
satisfactory answer to the question. If he fails to do something remarkable today, he
must also say: “Tomorrow is a new day.”

If Socrates held that an unexamined life is not worth living, John Maxwell added
that an unexamined leader is not worth following. And so, leaders should take time to
ask what they are doing and why they are doing it to stay on track, lead the organization
at their best, and reach their highest potential.

Trust
The Story of King Hezekiah
(taken from the book “Heroes”)
(Sala 1998, 298-300)

If ever a man had reason to feel that God had let him down, that man was
Hezekiah. “Hezekiah who?” you may be saying. Hezekiah, the King of Judah,
ascended the throne of David about 726 BCE. If you are a bit rusty on Old Testament
history, I’ll brief you.
Having replaced his father Ahaz, who had been a careless ruler, Hezekiah got his act
together! He began a great reformation. He broke down the idols Ahaz had set up. He
reopened the temple and restored the service of God. He even dipped into his funds to
provide for restoration and repairs.

In the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign, the Northern Kingdom (Israel) fell to Sennacherib,
king of Assyria. True, Israel was often an enemy of Judah, but they were all related by
blood through King David, who had established the kingdom. So when Assyria wiped
out Israel, Hezekiah knew that his borders were more vulnerable.

Then Sennacherib moved against Judah. Here’s the text: “After all that Hezekiah had
so faithfully done, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and invaded Judah.” Did
Hezekiah feel God had let him down? Did he feel that God owed him better treatment
than he got? If so, he didn't say so. Why? Hezekiah had faced the enemy more than
once and had learned that what counts isn’t the strength of your enemy but the strength
of your defense, and he had learned that God can be that defense.

How Hezekiah faced a formidable enemy and won gives us insight for facing the
enemies of life today, who in their way are just as ferocious as any Assyrian warrior who
ever lifted a sword in battle. Before I tell you how he faced the enemy, I want to remind
you that the Assyrian soldier was about as tough and mean a character as ever
assembled on any battlefield. Go to some of the great museums of the world and you
will see reliefs of Sennacherib’s army with their coats of mail, their swords, and
weapons. It is said that Lenin, Hitler, and Stalin were all disciples of Assyrian military
policy. It was a formidable adversary that confronted Hezekiah, one who had proved to
be among the world’s most terrible.

You will find the whole text in the Old Testament, in 2 Chronicles 32. In studying
Hezekiah’s response, you will notice two very important guidelines that will help you no
matter who or what has come to invade your private world. First, Hezekiah did what he
could do himself. He built walls supporting the walls that were already there. He made
weapons; he encouraged the men in the army by reminding them that with Sennacherib
was only the arm of flesh, but with them was the “Lord our God to help them and to fight
their battles.”

All of that was true, but Hezekiah did not stop there. The second approach was this:
“King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah . . cried out in prayer to heaven about this” (2
Chronicles 32:20). The government and the religious community united their hearts in
fervent prayer. They did not talk about prayer. They prayed! And what happened?

God gave tremendous deliverance. In confronting the problems facing you, learn from
Hezekiah. Do what you can yourself. Encourage others to join you, to stand together,
and then seek God with all your heart. The same God who gave deliverance to
Hezekiah is still giving deliverance “. . . A stronghold in the day of trouble,” as Nahum
wrote, “and He knoweth them that trust in Him” (Nahum 1:7).

Resource Reading
2 Chronicles 32

Insight
The greater the challenge, the greater the opportunity for God to do something so
awesome and wonderful that you know it could never have just happened.

Application
 Do you look at difficulties as problems or possibilities? If the battle belongs to the
Lord, why do we worry so much about it?

From Master to Servant

(Taken from Jim Hartness & Neil Eskelin’s
“The Power of Change” [pp. 133-139])

The world is overpopulated with self-serving people. Their vocabulary is filled with
“I” and “me.” These people will never have a servant attitude without a transition in their
thinking. If you would have a change of attitude, you must develop a new view of
yourself and a willingness to treat others with love and forgiveness. You will find that
this transformation is not only good for those in contact with you, but it is good for you
too.

A startling study makes the point clear. Social psychologist Larry Sherwitz at the
Medical Research Institute of San Francisco discovered that there is a link between
self-centered behavior and heart disease. Scherwitz reports, “The people who referred
to themselves using pronouns I, me, and my most often in an interview [who were
talking about themselves the most] were more likely to develop coronary heart disease,
even when other health-threatening behaviors were controlled.”

People need to realize that ultimate achievement is not found in being called
“master.” The highest goals in life, health, and personal success are reached by those
who choose to serve.

The Team That Wins

Dean Ornish, a medical doctor at the University of California believes that

servanthood plays a great role in healing. Another of Stress, Diet, and Your Heart, Dr.
Ornish says that many heart patients see themselves as isolated, which can lead to
stress and more illness. He encourages them to get involved in doing things for others.
For example, he once asked two patients who disliked each other to do each other’s
laundry. Such selfless acts, Ornish believes, promote our ability to become well.

Learning the art of serving is easier when you see yourself as part of a team that
wins because it does not care who gets the credit. This is true in sports and also in
music. Someone asked the conductor of a great symphony orchestra which instrument
he considered the most difficult to play. The conductor thought for a moment and said,
“Second fiddle. I can get plenty of first violinists. But to find one who can play second
fiddle with enthusiasm—that’s a problem. And if we have no second fiddles, we have
no harmony.”

Ask any business forecaster and you will learn that the growth industries of the
future are not in manufacturing, but in service. Entrepreneur William Lear agrees, “I
would say a young man has a better chance if he has an idea for a service. He will not
require any machinery to execute his idea,” says Lear.

Regardless of how important your enterprise becomes, if you forget to serve, you
will be like a tennis player without a racquet.

Doctors Charles and William Mayo are remembered for founding the famous Mayo
Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Charlie, as he was called, once was host to a noble
English visitor in his home. Before retiring for the night, the visitor put his shoes outside
the door, expecting a servant to shine them.

The next morning the shoes were waxed, polished, and gleaming brightly. Dr.
Charlie had shined them himself.

Being a servant requires a heart of love. Perhaps it was best described by St.
Augustine. When he was asked, “What does love look like?” He answered, “It has the
hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and the needy. It has eyes to
see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That’s
what love looks like.”
Forgiving and Forgetting

Many people can never make the transition from master to the servant because
they refuse to forgive. They harbor personal grudges and fail to forget past mistakes. A
person who says, “I can forgive, but I cannot forget,” is saying, “I refuse to forgive.”

Of that approach, author and speaker Josh McDowell says, “When I refuse to
forgive, I am burning a bridge that someday I will need to pass over.”

Some people never seem to learn. While visiting with a friend over coffee one
morning, a young woman complained, “Every time my husband and I get into an
argument, he gets historical.”

The friend interrupted, “Don’t you mean hysterical?”

“No, I mean historical,” the lady replied. “He always brings up the past.”

It’s easy to laugh, but the story is tragically true. Our relationships are often
hindered by past hurts that have never been right.

What is the solution? To apologize. Norman Vincent Peale said,

A true apology is more than just acknowledgment of a mistake. It is a

recognition that something you have said or done has damaged a relationship
and that you care enough about the relationship to want it repaired and
restored.

A successful executive in Illinois has a four-word solution to the conflict. When

customers or business associates present a grievance, he meets them, often in their
own offices or residences, and asks, “Will you forgive me?”
 Those words, coming directly from the president of the company, have a powerful
effect. In nearly all of the cases, the injured party accepts the apology and the issue is
dropped.

Givers and Takers

Personal change begins when we stop blaming others. People who develop a
habit of blame-placing are saying, “My life is the product of the actions of other people.”

If you want to develop the heart of a servant, quickly push aside the negative
events that pass your way. As an Arab proverb says, “Write the wrongs that are done to
you in the sand but write the good things that happen to you in marble.” We should
release all feelings of resentment or inclinations to retaliation, which pulls us down and
hold on to gratitude and joy, which elevate us.

A servant is a giver rather than a taker. Perhaps we should be reminded of the

ancient king who requested that his corpse be displayed with his hands stretched open,
holding nothing in his palms. This attitude of giving should also be ours. Since we
cannot take it with us, why not share it now?

Scripture tells us, “As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return, to
go as he came; and he shall take nothing from his labor, which he may carry away in his
hand” (Ecclesiastes 5:15).

In his book: The art of loving, renowned psychologist Erich Fromm summarizes
what life for him is all about.

From the productive character, giving has an entirely different meaning.

Giving is the highest expression of potency. In the very act of giving, I
experience my strength, my wealth, my power. This experience of
heightened vitality and potency fills me with joy. I experience myself as
overflowing, spending, alive, hence as joyous. Giving is more joyous than
 receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies
the expression of my aliveness.

We must be careful to note that there is a difference between true servanthood

and codependency. If you are doing for others to get your own needs met, then your
motive comes from a personal need to be needed. Without a strong sense of personal
identity, you are susceptible to becoming emotionally dependent on the approval of
others. Not only does this postpone your turn-around, but it also enables those whom
you think you are helping to become dependent on you and thus become irresponsible.
That’s codependency.

We are to bear one another’s burdens, but there is also the time to “let each one
examine his work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another”
(Galatians 6:4).

A true servant often gives without the recipient knowing the donor. One day, a
businessman in Missouri, who regularly asked the help of a certain porter at the airport,
reached his hand into his pocket to give a tip. He was dismayed to find he had no cash.

“Don’t worry,” said the porter as he lifted the man’s suitcases. “If I cannot help a
friend without expecting something in return, I should not even be working here.”

Several months later, on Christmas Eve, the businessman found the address of
the porter and drove to his home. He knocked on the door and when a child answered,
the man said, “Merry Christmas. Give this to your father.” Then he walked away.
Folded inside an unsigned Christmas card were five crisp one-hundred-bills.

A verse in the Talmud says, “He who gives should never remember, but the one
who receives should never forget.” People who give from their hearts will always be
rewarded. We can heed the words of an old saying: “Takers eat well, but gives sleep
well.”

At times, you may feel that you have nothing of significance to give, but that is not
true. When you give of yourself, you have given the greatest gift of all. It pays greater
dividends than you expect. Dale Carnegie said, “You can make more friends in two
months by becoming more interested in other people than you can in two years by
trying to get people interested in you.”

If there is one sentence you should commit to memory, it is this: How can I help
you? Make it your goal to ask that question as many times each day as possible. It is
the surest route to becoming a servant.

To a corporate president, say “How can I help you?” To a neighbor on your street,
say “How can I help you?” To a little child, say “How can I help you?”Even before
hearing the answer, you receive the great reward of knowing that you are a giver. It is a
therapy that works both ways.

Every morning before going to his office, an automobile dealer in Ohio places
something in his pocket that he plans to give away. It may be a ballpen, a little trinket,
or even a 10-dollar bill. As the day moves forward, he looks for someone he feels
deserves the gift. “By constantly looking for the opportunity to give, I have a wonderful
day,” he said.

Those who have successfully transformed from being a master to being a servant,
know the satisfaction it brings. It should become your goal too.

Here is a checklist to measure your progress today:

○ Will my decisions benefit others more than myself?

○ Will I demonstrate that I am part of a team?
○ Will I avoid blaming others for my mistakes?
○ Will I be quick to forgive?
○ Will I give more than I receive?
○ Will my actions reflect a servant’s heart?