How Does a Leader Act?

DESPITE popular belief, leaders aren’t born. They learn how to lead. The real test of leadership is: If you have no title or ability to reward / penalize others, could you still get them to follow you?

Are there principles of leadership? I believe there are….

#1 The Power of Self-Mastery – very few of us live our lives to its fullest potential

As a Christian, one of my favourite verse is taken from the bible – John 10:10. The Abundant Life that Jesus promised to his followers.

Obligation, or Opportunity?
How do you live life? Those who see life as an obligation want the task at hand to be done with as quickly as possible, with little regard to the outcome. The people who change the world around them – for themselves, their communities, their families – rarely act from a sense of obligation. In fact, the people who act as leaders almost always act from a sense of incredible opportunity. They don’t interact with the world around them because they have to – they do so because thy want to.

When we feel stressed and overwhelmed, we tend to look at our circumstances as obligations, and obligations, by their nature, are oppressive. They are things we have to do, whether we want to or not. That sense of obligation is rarely a motivating force.

On the other hand, those who lead effectively tend to view such circumstances as opportunities. They tend to be happier because they realize they can make something good out of a situation or circumstance that others would bemoan or at best tolerate.

Leaders believe that how we live out our lives is a choice. We do not allow circumstances to control us – rather we master our circumstances. To truly lead and make a difference in the world, you must always start with yourself.... constantly evaluate your life - under the scrutiny of intentional self-diagnostic, strengths and weaknesses will surface. Act on them!

Called to Become or Driven to Do?

MY work commitments have been pretty heavy lately and it's hard to keep pace with blogging - there are just too many issues and happenings in the news these days that puts my mind into overdrive wrestling with those implications and trying to stay sane and adopting a balanced perspective.

Gordon MacDonald (Ordering Your Private World), makes the distinction between people who are “driven” and people who are “called.”

“Driven” people spend most of their time defending what they own – their ideas, relationships, possessions, etc.

On the other hand, “called” people live by the philosophy that everything is on loan. They contend that we come into this world with nothing, and we leave with nothing. When all is said and done, all we can take with us is the love we feel toward others and the love they have sent our way. Adapted from Ken Blanchard (The Heart of a Leader).


How true. In my encounter with people, they fall generally into these two segments.

While there is nothing intrinsically wrong between the two, the results are significantly different. You must be sure what results you are looking for when appointing or working with people from either of the category.

You see, “called” people will be committed in bringing out the best in what is on their plate – they’re not concerned with their own benefits – they’re looking at bringing out the best at what they’ve been given – to discharge their responsibilities to the best that they can.

“Driven” people, as the term suggests, are people motivated by something – a force that it within them that they sometimes becomes overwhelmed and consumed – to the extent that they do not question what is it that they’re doing; and why they are doing it.

I’ve seen people changed their attitudes halfway because they are actually not called into a particular situation. When things do not happen as anticipated, or when they faced dissonance, difficulties and discouragement – they lost their bearing – their calling – and the real reason for their involvement in a particular project or work is brought to the surface - the “drive” to “do” or to “involve.”

Sadly, many leaders failed to differentiate between the two and sometimes, the impact can be very negative indeed.