Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Being a Dependable Leader

It was David Ogilvy, who told his successor when asked what one piece of advice he could provide, is reported to have said, "No matter how much time you spend thinking about, worrying about, focusing on, questioning the value of and evaluating people, it won't be enough. People are the only thing that matters and the only thing you should think about, because when that part is right, everything else works."

Small Business leaders must first know and manage themselves to be effective leaders. For some, that might begin with simply dealing with how they handle stress, their dark, internal motivations, and the demons that haunt them. Get that right and you won’t be seeking either artificial stimulation or dulling booze offers.

If you can’t manage yourself, how can you manage others? Followers depend on their leaders to know right from wrong – especially in social occasions when they “let their hair down.”

Are you dependable in and out of the workplace?

Proverbs 31:4-5 (MSG) "Leaders can't afford to make fools of themselves, gulping wine and swilling beer, Lest, hung over, they don't know right from wrong, and the people who depend on them are hurt. Use wine and beer only as sedatives, to kill the pain and dull the ache of the terminally ill, for whom life is a living death.

Copyright ©2008 P. Griffith Lindell