Simon Sinek: Leaders Eat Last.
What is leadership?How do you roll as a leader? Where do you belong as a leader? Who is the true leader? These questions reverberate in my mind. We all have found ourselves in various leadership positions in the school systems,industrial, religious, governmental and cooperative organizations. So,what is leadership?
Leadership simply means leading from behind which is found in what I call the wolf pack principle of leadership. When you are behind you will be able to see everyone in your vision which is to move forward.The “behind” principle here does not necessarily mean staying behind but to have a network of linkages to oversee and carry your followers along in your leadership because real leaders are servants. The principle has been summarized in my poem: “The Cob of Greatness” which is on Google.
The person who carries this responsibility of leadership becomes the leader. How you roll with the responsibility now defines where you belong. Because of the leaders we have in the world right now, I have categorised them into three kinds: the good, better and best leaders.These categories are based on their credit.
Leaders are functions of credit. This credit is the common denominator among all leaders.
Categories of leaders :
The good leaders: These are good for nothing leaders in the sense that they take credits for what they did not achieve by themselves. They neglect the contributions of their subordinates to take all the glory because they find themselves in the upper echelon. I call them good leaders because they are good at occupying the leadership positions. They belong to the lower arm of the ordinary leaders.
The better leaders: The people in this category understand that no one lives on the island but can pay a visit. They know the power of synergy which I wrote as a poem by Athan Oparaji which is on Google Search. They are better leaders because they appreciate the power of team work. But the problem here is that they take the credit of every great achievement of both the leader and his followers. They personify the vision,leadership process and the great success but fail to do the same for the losses. You can see the reason they become the better leaders. They belong to the upper arm of the ordinary leaders.
The best leaders :The people here, are the true and extraordinary leaders. They understand their responsibility and the vision. Because of these, they do not “have to” take credit for what they have to do. It’s their job,rather they share the credit understanding the real principles of true leadership as mentioned above. They understand that life is in circles as written in my poem: The Circle of Life. So, they don’t “have to” take all the credit and “remain” dormant running in one circle of life. They know they’ve got bigger assignments along the visionary leadership.
These leaders know that the only thing that remains in this life is to keep doing what we” have to” do to make life a better place.
This “have to” in the penultimate paragraph is the particular one that should be a part of us as true leaders.