Are there any brave men left? Leadership quote by Billy Gaham

   " When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened."

Leadership Foundational Quality # 2; Hon-able.

So what is Hon-able and why is it important as a foundational quality of a Leader?

From  Launching a Leadership Revolution by Orrin Woodward & Chris Brady the founders of LIFE Leadership Factory.  

      The definition of hone is "to sharpen or smooth with a whetstone or to make more acute, intense, or effective."  To have an attitude that allows intensifying and sharpening.
      As the saying goes, " You don't know what you don't know." Additionally, what we do know we gradually forget, So if we don't know what we don't know and we're forgetting what we do know, it would probably be a good idea to continue learning.
    The great Socrates stated that if he was the wisest man in Athens it could only be because he alone assumed he didn't have all the answers.

• For a Leader there is no completion to education. 
• We need to live like we will die tomorrow and learn like we will live forever. 
• When a leader remains teachable, his or her potential is limitless. 

There are several roadblocks to learning that a leader must constantly avoid.

1. Arrogance.

    Being teachable is as much an attitude as anything else. The "know-it-all " attitude is the  death warrant of achievement. In the words of F.A. Hayek, " Nothing is more securely lodged than the ignorance of the experts."

     The opposite of arrogance is humility. To whom is a  leader to be humble?  The answer: Anyone who has something to teach.  It means being humble towards mentors, peers, and subordinates. 

2. Disinterest:  

     A leader must be sincerely interested in learning more on a regular basis. Disinterest or apathy will lead to outdated knowledge and poor decision making. Neither  of these can exist for long without fatal results in the life of a leaders endeavors. 

3. Entrenched Habits.

      We are all a product of our habits. So many habits are useful. However, what every leader must take care to avoid is leading by habit, never learning anything new, and just doing what he has always done in the manner he has always done it. Such a leader is no longer  a leader, but a manager. Entrenched habits that prohibit the process of learning are poison. "That's just the way we've always done it," should never be said by any leader at any time, at any place. 

4.  Not-Invented-Here-Syndrome. NIH

     NIH syndrome could actually be considered a form of arrogance.  When a leader resists learning something new because it wasn't her idea, that leader's educational process is sacrificed on the altar of her pride. Good ideas can and usually do come from everywhere. Great leaders accept and embrace that fact and strive to learn all they can no matter whose idea began the process. 

5. Wrong priorities.

    Sometimes a leader may have  a healthy attitude about learning but misses the mark by misunderstanding  priorities. Leaders must live in the realm of the important, not in the realm of the urgent.   Busy-ness due to wrong priorities is a very common roadblock to the teachability of a leader. 

   

 Many times is see people suffering in families, homes, churches and business because of some leader some where not being Hon-able. I hope this helps. If you are a Hon-able Leader looking to grown you may find more help Here.

Foundational Qualities To Leadership. From Launching a Leadership Revolution. 1. Hungry.

 Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing."   William A. Ward.

1. Hungry
2. Hone-able
3. Honorable. 

Hungry;  Staying hungry is a discipline. 

• Hunger itself is one of the biggest facets of leadership. Hunger provides the energy to begin, the stamina to persist, and the will to finish an endeavor. It is this hunger or ambition that births leadership. 
• Leadership is not determined by one's birth nor by one's position, as many believe today; but rather it is determined by influence and performance. Hunger is its cause. 
• The gap between a leaders vision and today's reality creates the hunger to change. 
• All of leadership starts with hunger: At any point in time when the leader is not hungry, the leader is not functioning as a leader. This my sound radical, but it is true. Remember, a leader takes people somewhere. The moment the leader is not moving, the leader is not leading.

So how does a Leader stay Hungry?
There are Three Levels of Motivation where Hunger is fed and nurtured.  The first is not quite as powerful as the second, and the second is not quite as powerful as the third.

1. Material Success
2. Recognition and Respect
3. Purpose, Destiny, and Legacy

Check out Orrin Woodward the CoAuthor of the book  Launching a Leadership Revolution

Is proclaiming truth part of leadership?

I'm in awe of the gravity and seriousness of knowing and proclaiming Gods word, whether people want to hear it or not. 

To be able to proclaim it we first need to know it.  I'm Being convicted of the importance of knowing and understanding  Gods word, and how I need  to apply myself to the study of His word. 

Just thought I'd share. 

Does this apply to is today?

Ezekiel 3:16-21

A Watchman for Israel

 And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.”

Does this apply to us today?

Please comment below. 

What are the Five Levels of Leadership?

What are the five levels of Leadership?

Taken from Launching a Leadership Revolution book by Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady. 

1. Learning

2. Performing

3. Leading

4. Developing Leaders

5. Developing Developers of Leaders. 

Orrin & Chris Explaining.

You Can buy The book here.