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Virtue Series 7: Sincerity in Leadership

"Mtcheeeewwwww... Wasn't it what he said when he was campaigning for his first tenure?, Is he not a politician again? Leave those promises joorhhhhh, it doesn't fit at all..." Those are the words in the minds of most of the citizens in countries with insincere leaders. The political space has been tagged a space filled with insincerity at its peak.  It takes a sincere leader to make a difference. Sincerity will make you loose cash, but will preserve your integrity. it will make you spend more than expected. Integrity is not about what you do. It is who you are. Sincere is about a genuine agenda, where one’s actions matches ones words and even motives or intentions. Sincere is honesty from the heart. One can be honest from the mind, intellectually, but when combined with emotion – the heart – honesty transforms into sincerity. Sincere is when you move beyond the principle of “fake it till you make it”. We need more sincerity from leaders, even though they are press

Virtue Series 6: Industrious Leader

Ben Franklin had this to say about being industrious, "Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions." In life,  there are a whopping lot of things waiting to be attended to within the limited 24hours. But guess what?  70% of them are not worth prioritizing!  Most times we lose time being busy with things that do not worth our time. Being industrious cannot be achieved if the labour of your every second is channelled to unnecessary activities. As a leader,  you need to spend every second wisely.  Build people,  systems,  values,  achieve goals. Let your every action culminate into productivity and lead to the achievement of your goals. Be busy with a purpose. Feed your mind with information and engage in actions that produce results.  An industrious leader fosters creativity in himself and his followers. He doesn't give room for idleness. He gives time for leisure,  but doesn't allow pleasure Mar his destiny. The

Virtue Series 4: THE PLACE OF FIRM RESOLVE IN LEADERSHIP.

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Ever taking time to study the environment where a lily grows? Or the life of a pig? You will notice something similar with these two illustrations. Irrespective of how dirty and miry the clay or the surrounding maybe, even when the debris are stinking and concentrated, the Lily springs forth out of firm resolve not only to survive, but to be NEAT. The Pig doesn’t care how regular you wish to bath it. In fact, it doesn’t care about how many miles away you had to travel to get the water. It could be humble enough and considerate in letting you clean her up, but she has a resolve that supersedes patience to always be a PIG – Dirty! As a leader, you are saddled with the responsibility to guide a group of people in achieving a given task. In the course of this journey, there will always be distractions and side attractions that will question your passion, and want to deviate you from the track. How will you handle them? There will be times when you will face oppositions that ai

Virtue Series 3: ORDER IN LEADERSHIP

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Have you ever wondered why no one teaches you Algebra without first teaching Arithmetic? Why when you want to produce liquid soap, you're told to stir in one direction only after putting some chemicals in a specific order? Why you need to pass High school exam before going into College? Why the sun comes out in the day and not at night? Why you need to have foundational knowledge of human biology before you can comprehend neurology? I am sure that experience has taught you, how much loss you incur jumping the order of natural course. The truth remains, Knowledge is build from piece of interconnected information that make sense when received in the right order. There are a lot of information you may come across today that will never be useful for you, until you have gotten some other level or experience or knowledge. This is so because we live in a world where order makes things fit. We have a brain built on the principle of orderliness. We have a mind that best work when se

Virtue Series 5: FRUGALITY IN LEADERSHIP

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After 6months Mr. Peterson always changes the company cars. He thinks making a profit of over $6million after tax deductions in 6months, and having a stable business finance, is big enough to buy every other thing he needs and live a bit more flamboyant. Funny enough, he sells this car to some companies that uses it for a minimum of 1year and six months without having any need for a change. They save some cash by buying it cheaper, and using it longer. Who is wiser? It’s fun when business grows great enough that you experience a constant boom that enhances your financial stability. But, where lies the wisdom in spending the profits on trivial things forgetting there is such a thing as economic depression? Lack of frugality in business financial management has made many start-ups to plummet and eventually get into extinction. There is always a new tech-gadget and a new equipment in the market. But do you really NEED it? There are new and more sophisticated techniques of get

Virtue Series 2: SILENCE IN LEADERSHIP

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Silence!!!!! Mr Emeka and his colleague had a little occupttional friction at work due to mis-information. The quarell was an internal one that was duely settled, but thereafter, caused the demotion of Mr Uche. The news of this got to the management by Miss Lydia, whose office was the next door. She had eavesdropped on the conversation and given a false, unrequested information to the H.R manager whose strict nature was on another level. A querry was served, before you could say 'Jack-Robinson', a demotion was the penalty for Mr. Uche whose side of the controversy was slightly complex. Had the quarel been settled? Was it necessary reporting the case? Did Lydia have moral grounds to speak about such? Would demotion have been served if Miss Lydia kept SILENCT about an event she was not sure of? The answer to all those quetions are NO! The place of Silence in human relationship and leadership is as intrinsic as the need to communicate. The irony of the truth is that Sil

Virtue Series: TEMPERANCE IN LEADERSHIP

In Ben Franklin's short explanation of Temperance,  he wrote,  " Eat not to dullness;  drink not to elevation ".  What ever may have inspired him to write this opening thoughts, must have been drawn from experience. Using food and drink to analyse temperance is quite apt because those two items have made so many people lose their chills countless times. Temperance in leadership reflects the consciousness of a leader to the point of restrain. It means his knowing when '' enough is really enough " and not pushing further.  It entails the ability to manage his or her environmental occurrences that they do not dictate the outcomes and ruin her expectation. Temperance is a virtue that helps a leader marry wisdom, knowledge,  integrity and courage together to attain worthwhile success. Let's break it down in practical terms. Temperance is that virtue a leader possess that helps him/her control her appetite and emotions. It helps the leader not to ge

13 Virtues of Every Great Leader

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According to Benjamin Franklin, there are 13 special virtues that are of immense value in the life of great leaders. These virtues make you phenomenal, Make your influence lasting, and makes your leadership efforts fruitful.  Wisdom demands that you spend quality time grooming your personality to contain and subconsciously portray these values. The earlier you invest in your leadership life, the bigger and stronger your impact will be felt in every effort you dissipate in a leadership capacity. Whether you are a high school prefect, a Student Union leader, a Youth Organization leader, the Founder or a Management staff in a multinational company, you need these virtues to become a successful and life-transforming leader.  These are the 13-virtues ; Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have

The Power of Words (1)

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Derrick was a linguistic student who graduated with a first class grade from a prestigious institution. He decided to pick up a job with a media company as an Editor. Two weeks after he got the job, the company started experiencing a decline in their sales. The management tried to improve graphics contents, enrolled their marketers for some 3days professional marketing, yet there was no improvement in customers interest. On the grounds of passing-comment, one of the management staff decided to read one of the recent publications, and also ask some customers about their constructive criticism on their products. The response and findings of this BOSS rescued this big firm from bankruptcy. -The choice of words suddenly became obsolete, less persuasive and unappealing to readers. Derricks' poor choice of word skill was the canker! Have you ever regretted saying something to someone the way you said it?  Have you ever felt wrongly spoken to due to the words the speaker use