Leadership Is For The Dead – 2

Leaders are never afraid of standing alone. They operate in the full knowledge that aloneness is not synonymous with loneliness. Because great leadership is not a popularity contest, leaders can afford to die to popular public opinion, negative or positive. If you intend to be effective as a leader, you must learn to take recognition and recrimination in your stride, using both of them as platforms on which to rise. If it takes people’s approval to propel you, their disapproval is guaranteed to ground you! To guide your response to people’s opinion whether positive or negative, the things you need to resolve in your mind as a leader are:

“What is the source of inspiration for what I am doing? Will it ultimately bring glory to God as it benefits a significant population of humanity? Does it promote godliness? Is it of eternal value? Can I in all good conscience go to sleep at night peacefully; knowing that I have done the best that I could under the circumstances in which I found myself?”

If you can answer these questions in the affirmative, you will sooner than later discover that life positively rewards those who stay true to their deepest noble convictions.

Opinions are like noses. Everyone has one. No matter what you do, good or bad, people will talk. The interesting thing however is that there are as many opinions as there are people. Criticism and envy are the tributes that mediocres pay to those who are succeeding in ways they cannot fathom. What the ordinary mind cannot explain about a successful person, he attributes to luck or some esoteric machinations. And when they really want to be cynical, they put it down to coincidence!

This trend has been around for much longer than you. So learn to live with it. Even after you die, people will still talk about the quality of your burial, either the casket was too expensive and the funeral party too extravagant or the casket and the quality of reception did not befit someone of your pedigree. Either way, has any of such comments ever brought the dead back to life?

After Jesus had fed a multitude with five loaves and two fish, the multitudes came looking for him to install him as their king. Shortly thereafter, they turned against Him and wanted to cast Him down a high mountain! On His ride into the temple, in one breath they hailed him with shouts of “Hossannah! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”. In another breath not too long after that, they chorused, “Crucify him!” But He was neither enthused nor fazed by any of these extreme reactions to His life assignment!

In my book “FIRST THINGS FIRST – How to Live a Life of Priorities”, there is an entire chapter on this subject with the title “Become Deaf to Public Opinion”. I quote a story from the chapter.

“Once upon a time, a bunch of tiny frogs decided to embark on a competition to determine the first person to reach the top of a very high tower. On the appointed day, a large crowd of spectators gathered around the tower not only to see the race but also to cheer on the contestants. However, no one in the crowd believed that any of the tiny frogs could possibly make it to the top of the tower. As the race commenced, the spectators began to make statements like;

“Why would these tiny guys make a fool of themselves? This is practically impossible”

“The tower is too high. There is no way they could ever get to the top.”

“Attempting to climb the tower is, on its own, a herculean task, not to talk of getting to the top of it”

“They will all soon drop out. But at least we get to have some entertainment.”

One by one, the tiny frogs started collapsing and dropping off the race with the exception of a few who were determined to follow through their pursuit. As they trudged on, the crowd yelled even louder;

“Why harm yourselves? You might even get killed!”

“You can’t go on doing this. Isn’t your life more valuable than whatever prize you want to win?”

“He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day!”

As the voices got louder, the remaining frogs began giving up one by one until all of them dropped out, with exception of ONLY ONE who steadily continued climbing as if oblivious of the happenings around him. Although left alone in the race, he refused to give up. And in one long final leap, he made it to the top of the tower. After the applause had subsided and he had claimed his prize, the spectators and the other contestants were curious to know how he did it. As the questions were flying, they noticed that he only nodded and gave no reply. Then the reality suddenly hit everyone. He was DEAF!

Lessons? Until you are deaf to popular opinion about what is possible, you can never excel beyond the limits that others set for you. Paradigms are nothing but definitions of reality foisted on us by other people’s experiences and limitations. Once we accept them as ours, they also define the boundaries of our achievement.”

Paradoxically enough, it is when leaders die that they actually begin to live! The leader’s death is his pathway to an exhilarating life. No man is truly alive until he can find something to die for. Excellence in leadership is not however limited to dying for a cause. It is attained by having things to die to! The quality of your pursuit is known by the sacrifice you are willing to make to get it!

When a leader appropriately dies to the things earlier mentioned, then he can be alive to God as well as to his conscience. It also means that he can be truly alive to his purpose on earth. With a liberated conscience as guide, his death to public opinion means that he can espouse the values of compassion, integrity and transparency because he has nothing to prove to anyone. He is delivered from people so that he can be better placed to serve people!

An accidental leader is an oxymoron. Circumstantial incidents may provide you with leadership opportunities but stepping up to the plate and proving your mettle is a responsibility you have to take.

If you really plan to be around for a long time, you will have to die selectively to some – even very good – things so you can live for what you were really created for!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!