Just sharing with you folks!
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The
Qualities of Skillful Leadership by Jim Rohn
If you want to be a leader who attracts
quality people, the key is to become a person of quality yourself.
Leadership is the ability to attract someone to the gifts, skills, and
opportunities you offer as an owner, as a manager, as a parent. I call
leadership the great challenge of life.
What’s important in leadership is
refining your skills. All great leaders keep working on themselves until
they become effective. Here are some specifics:
Learn to be strong but
not rude. It is an extra step
you must take to become a powerful, capable leader with a wide range of
reach. Some people mistake rudeness for strength. It’s not even a good
substitute.
Learn to be kind but
not weak. We must not mistake
kindness for weakness. Kindness isn’t weak. Kindness is a certain type of
strength. We must be kind enough to tell somebody the truth. We must be
kind enough and considerate enough to lay it on the line. We must be kind
enough to tell it like it is and not deal in delusion.
Learn to be bold but
not a bully. It takes boldness to
win the day. To build your influence, you’ve got to walk in front of your
group. You’ve got to be willing to take the first arrow, tackle the first
problem, discover the first sign of trouble.
You’ve got to learn to
be humble, but not timid. You can’t get to the high life by being timid. Some
people mistake timidity for humility. Humility is almost a God-like word.
A sense of awe. A sense of wonder. An awareness of the human soul and
spirit. An understanding that there is something unique about the human
drama versus the rest of life. Humility is a grasp of the distance
between us and the stars, yet having the feeling that we’re part of the
stars. So humility is a virtue; but timidity is a disease. Timidity is an
affliction. It can be cured, but it is a problem.
Be proud but not
arrogant. It takes pride to win
the day. It takes pride to build your ambition. It takes pride in
community. It takes pride in cause, in accomplishment. But the key to
becoming a good leader is being proud without being arrogant. In fact I
believe the worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance. It’s
when you don’t know that you don’t know. Now that kind of arrogance is
intolerable. If someone is smart and arrogant, we can tolerate that. But
if someone is ignorant and arrogant, that’s just too much to take.
Develop humor without
folly. That’s important for
a leader. In leadership, we learn that it’s okay to be witty, but not
silly. It’s okay to be fun, but not foolish.
Lastly, deal in
realities. Deal in truth. Save
yourself the agony. Just accept life like it is. Life is unique. Some
people call it tragic, but I’d like to think it’s unique. The whole drama
of life is unique. It’s fascinating. And I’ve found that the skills that
work well for one leader may not work at all for another. But the
fundamental skills of leadership can be adapted to work well for just
about everyone: at work, in the community, and at home.
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