Life is not stagnant and either is leadership. It is always changing and developing around you. If you’re reading this article it’s probably because you desire to be a leader, or you already are. In either case, if you want to succeed as a leader you have to cultivate your gift.
A farmer is always working the land; he spends a tremendous amount of time and dedication from preparing his land to harvesting his fruits. A bountiful harvest does not happen without hard work and care. Leadership is no different. If you desire to have a successful department or organization under your helm, then you have to invest in yourself.
Developing yourself comes in many forms. It may include furthering your education, attending conferences, fellowshipping with other leaders, becoming a part of an association relevant to your industry, and reading books about great leaders or on the topic of leadership. Whichever way works best for you it is critical that you commit to it and expand your knowledge base, skills set, and perspective.
It always astonishes me how many individuals who claim to want to be better leaders do nothing about it. But when it comes to committing time to activities that create zero value in their lives it accounts for majority of their time. I challenge you, if you want to improve your skills and gifting for leadership—invest in yourself. I guarantee it—you will see a return on your investment. It may come in the way of a promotion. It may involve you having the ability to change the environment for your team. Increasing your ability to develop and motivate your team may lead to increased creativity and productivity resulting in higher profits. The list of benefits from investing in your ability is endless.
I personally love to read books and gain insight from great leaders or credible experts on leadership. I love to learn and identify new ideas and bounce my own thoughts off of their perspective. It excites me to expand my knowledge base which in turn allows me to practice new concepts with my team in my work setting. This process changes my work setting from a monotonous job to an exciting playground where I get to apply and test new theories. But what I enjoy the most is the feedback I receive from my staff. It overwhelms me to hear them say or write in an email how much they appreciate the environment I create. To hear comments that I am an amazing leader while in the midst of a grueling meeting where we are working to overcome severe obstacles—is indescribable. It chokes me up just thinking about it as I write this. I’m not sharing this with you to brag on myself. I’m sharing this with you to show you that investing in your leadership ability has amazing returns—some that are priceless.
Here is a list of books I have read in the past 3 months:
• Today Matters by John Maxwell
• The Goal by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt
• Leadership Wisdom of Solomon by Pat Williams
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (again) by Stephen Covey
• Winning by Jack Welch
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• A Man’s Guide to Work by Patrick Morley
• The God I Never Knew by Robert Morris
• Everyone Communicates Few Connect by John Maxwell
And the next book on my agenda is Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. What do you say we read it together?
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