By Omowunmi Oladokun
(THE 4 “ EYES” OF A GOOD LEADER).
They both fell into the ditch!, who fell into the ditch, you will ask me. Let me quickly tell you a story.
One day, I was walking down the street when I saw a blind man trying to lead another blind man on the walkway. Before I knew it, both of them were inside the ditch.
The question at this point is: who should lead a blind man? Someone with a clear eye sight, I think.
QUALITIES OF AN EXCELLENT LEADER.
I will discuss “the eyes” under four heading and term it qualities of an excellent leader:
1.Wisdom & Knowledge :A good leader must be wise. Wise enough to lead another from falling nor failing in life.
Wisdom is the act of putting knowledge into practice. It is saying capital no to ignorance and practicing what you have learnt. Charles Spurgeon said “wisdom is the right use of knowledge.”
Knowledge entails the fact that you are not ignorant about life and leadership and you know what you should know. Leaders are Readers and they put them in to practice ( wisdom), no doubt.
A leader must be wise and love to practice knowledge. It is not just about acquiring knowledge, it is majorly about it’s application to our daily life’s and it makes all the difference in the long run.
Wisdom is the number one eyes that you simply need as a leader.
2.Excellence: A good leader must be personally excellent at what they do, that is when you can teach others and they will be willing to learn from you. Pat Riley states and I quote : that excellence is the gradual result of always trying to do better.
Without being excellent, it may be difficult to show the way to others. You are good at what you do, then you are capable of showing others the way.
3. Integrity: A good leader must have integrity. Someone defined integrity simply as “acting with honesty, moral consistency, and align actions with stated values”. i.e you lead by example. when you tell people to be punctual, you get there first. That is what good leadership is all about.
Your word is what you practice, you didn’t tell us something and you are doing something else I.e teaching what you are not practicing. I will personally want to see it in your life first before I take my time to listen to you and go ahead to practice it.
4.Compassion: A good leader must sincerely love and show compassion to those he/she leads.
Without love in your actions and words, you might just end up misleading me. Love should be the major reason that you are here leading in Family ,Churches, Mosques, Politics e.t.c
Sincere love for us should be the driving force on why you are leading us and not self aggrandisement or financial gain.
In conclusion, A blind man should never lead another blind man. Only someone with clear eyes should lead another. When a blind man lead another blind man, both of them might end up failing in life. A good leader needs : Wisdom and Knowledge, Excellence, Integrity and Compassion as guiding eyes to lead.
John C Maxwell said and I quote: “ A leader should be someone who knows the way, goes the way and is willing to show the way”.
