Leadership Beginnings: Assemble Your Team Part 2

 It's been a while since my previous post. I hope you are having a wonderful time.

In my previous post, we saw how there is the need for every leader to get a team and some important reasons why you should assemble your team if you take the path of a leader. Also, I promised to share with you in this post how you can put together the right people for a successful journey in leadership.

It is obvious that there is no leadership without followership and before you can become a good leader, you need to learn how to follow. That aside, let me serve you with some tips on how to assemble an effective team.



Before you try to recruit, there are two things you must consider:

The Collective Goal: 
As a leader, anytime you set out to recruit let your goal be the first yardstick. Your goal is to develop other leaders who can do what you do. Everyone on your team may have their personal goals and so before you recruit, make sure the person's goal is not so different from your own. In my previous post, I talked about Synergy and how it is important in the path of a leader. Imagine you are trying to pluck apples from an apple tree and there's an individual with the same goal of getting some of those apples but you are both not tall enough to reach them. In this scenario, it would be in the best interest of you both if one carried the other on their shoulder and then be able to reach the apples. However, if the person is rather trying to get mangoes from the mango tree and you try to team up with him, you are likely to waste a lot of time and effort pursuing the two different goals and that is not the best. Always see to it that the goals of your recruit(s) are in line with yours and that of the team as a whole.


Special Ability:
A team is like an organism. Every member has what it does. By Special Ability I don't mean superpowers but rather what will the member contribute and how will that help the team reach its goal? When recruiting or assembling your team check out for potentials (what the person is good at that can help the team) and pick the ones necessary for your team, be it peak communicative competence or sheer determination to never give up.


It is imperative that each and everyone factors these issue into their plans when building a team. Then again, you may not be a leader or you aspire to be one but once in a while, you may be required to join a team in order to achieve a goal or more. That is when you would be needing this knowledge to ascertain the value of the team; what is each member bringing on board and does the team stands up to the task ahead? Always ask these questions as an assessment for your team and you would always be on top of your game. Until next time, have a wonderful adventure.


Thanks a lot for reading. I am very glad. If you enjoyed this post please go ahead and share it with a friend. You can also follow this blog to keep up with later updates and let me know your concerns in the comments section.

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Leadership Beginnings: Assemble Your Team Part 1

Every leader is who he is because of his team and there can never be a leader if there are no followers. This is one of the most important foundations to a better leading. Teamwork is very crucial to success as duly noted in the popular saying, "Together we stand, divided we fall."
As an individual you can only achieve so much but together in a team effort you can do a whole lot. A team is a group of people with a common goal that work together to achieve such a goal. Each person contributing a relevant amount of effort towards the achievement of their goal(s).

Note: For clarity and time factor I'll use "he" to represent any gender inclination and this does not imply that one gender is superior to another.

Why Create a Team?

•  Moral Support

To identify a cause is easy but to stay through to the end is not easy. Many people give up on their goals when things go a little haywire and there seem to be no way around it but to quit. Well, that's one option but all this could have been prevented if they had created or joined a team. Every leader needs a team; people he'll work hand-in-hand with to achieve their goal or purpose. A team is necessary because they keep you going even if you are on the verge of quitting. Your sense of responsibility towards them is very powerful. As a leader your team can be your family, they can be your closest friends and most importantly you can rely on them in times of difficulties. Also, it can be really lonely working alone. You might even get bored and abandon your work but when you work with others, you get to interact with others and have meaningful conversations while working. Therefore, as a team, you are more likely to achieve your goal than as an individual.

•  Synergy

Imagine two men trying to reach for fives apples on an apple tree. They are both not tall enough to reach all the apples but if one carries the other, then they can reach and pluck all the apples. That is what synergy is all about. The whole is greater than the individual parts. Every leader must know the importance of this and should take advantage of it by creating a team. Steve Jobs understood this and that is why he joined force with  Steve Wozniak to bring up what we now know as Apple Inc. He had the innovative ideas and Steve Wozniak was the engineer. On their own, they could have done something but it wouldn't have been as great as they have achieved together. As a leader, know what synergy is and always find an opportunity to engage in it. Be warned: not everyone would accept this idea of synergy.

• Thoroughness

This stems from the synergy point. Every individual is made up of talents, strengths and weaknesses. We all have what we are good at and what we perform poor at. That is why creating a team is crucial for every leader's success. As said earlier, in a team, the whole is greater than the individual parts. That is, where someone is weak, another person may be strong and so will make up for the weak spot. For instance, if a leader is innovative but lack attention to detail, he may be more successful if he assembled a team which include someone who pays attention to detail. Leadership is not a cautious journey though, but sometimes some risks are better avoided. A little attention to detail will not hurt.
Sometimes, it's not about weaknesses and strengths but about having an additional set of eyes on your tasks. We all view things differently. What you may see as black and white may a little bit of grey in between on a closer look. When there are different people looking at the same picture, with effective communication and interaction a more clearer interpretation may be revealed. This is mostly seen in proofreading. Just when you think your article may be devoid of errors, over 10 errors are presented to you for correction. Every leader needs to assemble a team if not for anything, for an extra set of eyes.



After some reasons why you should assemble your team as a leader, it is only fair to show you how to build an effective team of your own. In building your team there are several factors to look out for and these would be covered in my next article. Thanks for reading.

For now, Peace.

If this article was helpful please do well to share it and let me know your concerns in the comments section.
You can also contact me through my email waduah1z@gmail.com.

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SpreadAid International Peace Message [Ghana 2016 Election]

A Leader always understands the cost of war and makes all efforts to avoid it.


Spread Aid International is an NGO that has purposed in her heart to put smiles back on faces. When I first heard that I was like,"How?" Do they go round with with markers and draw the smiles on the faces of people? Or maybe they have a dispenser of smiles."

Later on, I got to know how they manage to do that in their three simple mission statements:

• Unearthing Leaders

• Homing the Orphans and Street Children and

• Helping improve the Teaching and Learning Methodology in Basic Schools.

Below is a touching Peace Message from Spread Aid International.

I believe in peace, not war. Peace is
cheap, war is expensive and the cost of it nobody should wish to pay.

This message is very necessary in this time of the year as Ghana is preparing for an election.

If a politician wants you to make war, tell him to do it himself starting with his family.

Little acts of sincerity also go a long way to foster peace.

Above all let's give love a chance to reign in our societies and remember that whether we support the Pineapple Party or the Cashew Party we are still the same people in one nation.

We only have one Ghana, let us develop it not tear it down.




Credits 

Video --  +SpreadAid International

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Leadership Beginnings: Two Things a Leader is Not

For a pretty long time, the term 'leader' has been seen as synonymous with 'boss' and 'manager' but in practice, they are different things altogether. In my previous post, I talked about the things one should know before embarking on the path of leadership. This post is a build-up on that issue and I recommend you read that article as well. Before I go into today's business, let me remind you that leadership today is not the same as it used to be some decades ago. It has evolved for the better and continues to change. The things that worked those days don't work today.

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A Leader Is Not...

1. A Boss

When you hear the title "boss", what comes to mind? I bet your guess would be an individual who gives orders to others probably while lying on a summer bed beside a pool and sipping on a cocktail as well. Well, a boss is not far from that. In fact, that's a clear picture of who a boss is. Whiles it is quite impossible to be a boss without any leadership skills, bosses usually lack some vital parts of leadership.

The Boss always knows the importance of "together we stand, divided we fall" but is too arrogant or short-sited to cooperate with his followers. The Boss is not ready to get his hands dirty. He always send others to do his dirty jobs. Besides, bosses inspires fear in their followers, and mostly use words like, "go" and "I". The boss cares only about the productivity level, and depends on authority. Most importantly, bosses like to take credit. For instance, the whole of this article is my work. I don't really care about that guy who did the proofreading for me. I am the boss. Just kidding!

2. A Manager

At the mention of "manager" your best guess would be of this guy in a suit who assigns tasks to people and uses incentives to boost productivity. Also your are right. The manager does all that. A manager is quite often mistaken for a leader but as it is with the bosses, managers also miss some parts of leadership.

The manager is not a risk-taker. He plays it safe all the time and tries to use incentives to elevate productivity. For instance, like and share this article and I'll write about you in my next post. The manager plans, organizes stuff and makes rules. Like the boss, a manager also usually uses the word, "go". This implies that the manager is controlling and results oriented; always trying to do the right things. Managers also tend to blame their team members in case of failure. A manager is always preoccupied by his results that he doesn't have the time to care about his team members or their growth. Besides managers are threatened by the achievements of their people and may not bother helping his team become better. Jim Rohn puts it this way, "Managers help people see themselves as they are; Leaders help people see themselves better than they are."

A Leader Is... 

...Someone who rallies people with a common goal or objective, shows them how to achieve it and goes on to achieve it with them.
The distinguishing features of a leader from a boss and a managers are few and most often negligible however they are separate people altogether.
The leader is not one for the cautious. He takes risks and seek to do the right things rather than doing things right. A leader inspires enthusiasm in his followers rather than fear. The one and only most important measure of a leader is not what results he gets but how many followers he turns into leaders and that is why leaders are thrilled by the achievements of their followers instead of being threatened. Every leaders understands the spirit of teamwork and usually use the phrase, "Let's go" and the word, "we". Leaders are achievement oriented and focuses less on results. They also are proactive and cares about the well-being and growth of their people. Leaders walk the path and urge their followers on. A leader will not tell you to go where he hasn't gone. They nurture and enhance their followers to be better people. In times of failure, leaders take the blame rather than shift it onto their people.
The above qualities are some of the things that set a leader apart from a boss and a manager. There are many other qualities and things leaders do as well as understand. Those will unfold in later posts but for now these are the things that stand out the most in every leader.



The path of a leader is not always easy. Every leader understands the value of perseverance and determination because they're the things that will keep you going when the going gets tough.
So, all said and done I believe after reading this article you are better equipped to tell a leader apart from a boss and a manager or better still be a leader without blemish.

Thanks for reading!

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If this article was helpful, please do well to show appreciation by liking the post and let me know your concerns( being it a question or a suggestion) in the comments section or by email;.

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Leadership Beginnings: The Mindset of A Leader

 

"Clarity of purpose, commitment and tenacious follow-through are key to accomplishing what some call impossible. Everything is possible with a leadership mindset." -- Lori Marcoux

 The Choice
When I was in High School, my Mathematics teacher would ask us each time after a lesson whether we were happy. We obviously said, "No!" in sync. Then he would go on to say that happiness is a choice; you can choose to be happy or not to be happy. Those days, in my infinite wisdom of a teenager, I thought that's just something he says to clear the air. After High School, I heard the same statement but this time with a different emotion. Love is a choice. All I have known my life is that love is like this tingling feeling you get when you consider someone dear to you. This boggled my mind for some time. How can happiness and love be a choice? Now this would sound weird when you first hear of it but after a serious thought I realized that everything is as a results of our choices. Think about it, you're reading this post because you chose to and the fact that you're reading on is as a result of another choice; my guess is,"You want to get to the bottom of this article to see how it can help you." It sure will.
This brought up the idea that if everything is a choice, what do I choose to do with my life? Now leadership or being a leader is a choice as well. The Class President was the leader because he chose to lead, so is the Head of State. In order to be a leader you have to make a choice to be one.

The Purpose
Have you ever wondered about on your own without an aim or a particular place in mind you want to go?
If yes then you know that is pointless and time wasting. As a leader you do not want to be groping around in the dark else you'll not get any follower. A leader must have a clearly defined purpose, a goal, an objective or a destination to which s/he wants to achieve with his team. While you may be bent on getting people on your team, get an objective, a purpose, and that alone would pull like minded individuals to your side.

The Commitment
One of the basic things you need to take note as a leader is commitment. It is not enough to make a choice to be a leader and to have purpose. You have to be committed to what you're doing. As a leader, one thing you should know is that, your team doesn't move as fast as they can; they move as fast as you go. So instead of behaving as if you want to do it, you've got to step up and ran with your team. Every great leader knows this and that is why you have to take  your purpose serious if you want to be a great leader. The more committed you are, the more you get results and the more you use time effectively.

The Tenacious Follow-Through
When you see a leader achieving and making a name for himself and his team, never assume that s/he pulled it of easily. Nothing is easy in this life. You want to get something, you have to work for it. Follow-through all the plans and activities necessary to reach your goal. No curves, no bends. On your path as a leader try to maximize results by doing less but that doesn't mean you don't have to work hard. You have to work harder but all I am trying to say is you have to avoid redundancy. I remember before I started this blog I was trying to get all the attention I can by signing up for several social media platforms. I thought that with all those audience out there I could achieve more but that wasn't the case. I ended up spreading the influence and achieving little impact. Think of it as bowling. You definitely can't hit every pin at once but there's always going to be that one pin that when you strike down would take down all the other pins for you and that's what I mean by maximizing results by doing less.

The Leadership Mindset

Above all, have the leadership mentality. Think like a leader. Know that everything is possible to those who believe. You have to believe in yourself, you have to believe in your team, you have to believe in your goal and last, you have to believe in your choices.

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5 Tips for a Better Life

Experience is the best teacher, yes, but buying into someone's experience is far better. This is why I have compiled this list of tips for you.
  
1. Reward yourself by buying experience instead of things.
 Experience is mostly stored in books and other educational materials. Elderly people also harbour vast amount of them. So after a long day work quit unnecessary TV and games and get a motivational book to read or take a time with experienced people. Let them share their experience with you to  take care of the trouble of experiencing it yourself.
 
2. When going on a date, go to a horror film.
Research reveals that increased heart rate and adrenaline is highly tied to sexual attraction.

3. If you want help, help yourself - people like to see that.

4. Instead of going to dinner and a movie, go to the movie first and then the dinner. This way you have something to talk about at dinner.

5. Whenever you are curious about something, write it down. This way, whenever you are bored you'll have an entire list of things to learn about.

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