Neculai Fantanaru
Everything Depends On The Leader
Everything Depends On The Leader
In the famous book “From Idea to Money”, writer Napoleon Hill tells the story of a miner who gave up prospecting after months of hard work, when he had reached only one meter of the gold vein. Even though gold was discovered by someone else, man learned that life lesson. And he hasn’t given up since. He applied the lesson for the rest of his life, eventually achieving success.
I remain convinced that leadership is first and foremost an inner matter to be conquered, a matter of spiritual order accessible to man who succeeds, in the light of his own convictions and in the spirit of his own values, in overcoming himself. So, only through a difficult process of self-knowledge and personal development will you be able to transcend the limitations of your own being for the benefit of others, and thus gain access to a high level of spirituality.
More than that. The science of leadership must shine through the application of new ideas, remaining deeply rooted in a model of development focused on the ego of each, without “tangling” in the difficulty of distinguishing between truth and falsehood. The quality and health of your leadership depends primarily on the structure and quality of your being.
If the science of leadership does not produce obvious progress, based on a combination of purpose and feelings, on a number of other values with greater influence on people: such as harmony, purity, sincerity, empathy, common sense, love of life, team spirit, or those based on ethical principles and virtues such as truth, solidarity, cooperation, respect for human rights, then the leader will not be able to rise to the level of requirements and demands to which people and circumstances subject him.
The value system you have created gives your leadership a special aura. Convince people to accompany you in your quest of self-understand and have a good relationship with each of them. Remember that what you receive from people depends on how much you have invested in them. And remember that leadership does not apply when things remain the same, but only when you become effective in giving the best of yourself to others around you. Do people accompany you in your search for the self?
Through your personality, which is directly related to your ego, your way of being, acting, and thinking, you need to convince other people that you can initiate change and facilitate their own development. And for that you have to adjust your management science so as to facilitate the process of promoting your highest values. Achieving this is an art that, if you master it, if you get to control it and make it work to your advantage, then no doubt your path to excellence will be easier, and at the same time full of progress.
Do you have difficulty relating to the circumstances of a case? Does the value system you have created give your leadership a special aura? Do you feel that you are living in vain, or have you put your whole life in the service of people? Do you tend to be more independent?
Leadership comes into play when people follow you for what you are, for what you represent, for the way you resonate with them, through the simplest and most pragmatic approach, very focused and responsible. The fundamental, just and appropriate criterion by which people analyze your “art” is also an indication of your own inner world, of your strengths, or on the contrary, of your weaknesses.
In order for your relationship with people to develop harmoniously, to evolve in a beneficial way, in a positive direction, first make sure that you represent something for them.
“People follow you because you know how to relate to them” – this is the predominant criterion by which you qualify as a teammate, endowed with a functioning emotional intelligence, or on the contrary, you may be disqualified and forced to stay “behind” if do not devote yourself entirely to achieving and maintaining a high level of professional and emotional maturity.
As a leader, you are primarily addressing people’s feelings. If your leadership is baseless, meaning you don’t have the emotional power to provide that motivation, that need for people to support you, to show solidarity with you – it means that you yourself have failed to inspire those feelings and emotions that give joy, fulfillment, inner strength – something that does not allow them to develop on any level.
People don’t skip any step of examination. A leader who does not deepen every level of leadership, who fails to get people to align with his beliefs and actions – will be in a situation similar to that of a patient going to the doctor with abdominal pain, and the doctor takes them to get a CT scan, completely skipping the physical exam. When it comes to leadership, people are above all doctors, they don’t skip any step of examination: first they evaluate you, give you time to prove your qualities, and only then decide whether or not to accept you at their head.
Only the leader who went on to finding a common denominator with the people – through which to prove his greatness, his qualities, through which to perfect his “art”, only that leader who is familiar with the laws of leadership and knows how to apply them for the benefit of others. So only those who understand the concept of “sharing” will be able to easily prove their effectiveness in the area of influence they manage.
Do you meet the eligibility criteria imposed by the “funding entity”?
On the other hand, that leader who will not meet the eligibility criteria imposed by the “funding entity” (the people), that leader who does not have the strength and desire to penetrate deep into their soul, to reach the fibers that make up their entire emotional structure and generate that fine, intense impulse that will provoke them, that will energize them, that will make them want to be better – that will never be able to add immense significance to leadership.
The value system created by each of us is different. The highest step of the scale of some values may be well below the scale of the values of others or exceed the scale of their values. In general, progress requires the “addition” of new steps to any scale of values. Your role, as a leader, is also to contribute to raising the scale of everyone’s values according to the requirements of the present and the future. If you are able to persuade people to comply with this goal, then you can be happy even if you are not materially rewarded for this work of Sisyphus, but you will be able to achieve your common goal.
Leadership Can Be Delivered by increasing the ease with which you can carry the burden of life. In this regard, it is good to take into account the words of American athlete Allyson Felix:
“The most important lesson we need to learn is to rely on God in every circumstance. We often go through various trials, and following God’s plan seems pointless. But God is always watching over us and will never abandon us.”
Why read this book? Because it is critical to optimizing your performance. Because it reveals the main coordinates after that are build the character and skills of the leaders, highlighting what it is important for them to increase their influence.
The essential characteristic of this book in comparison with others on the market in the same domain is that it describes through examples the ideal competences of a leader. I never claimed that it's easy to become a good leader, but if people will...
For some leaders, "leading" resembles more to a chess game, a game of cleverness and perspicacity; for others it means a game of chance, a game they think they can win every time risking and betting everything on a single card.
I wrote this book that conjoins in a simple way personal development with leadership, just like a puzzle, where you have to match all the given pieces in order to recompose the general image.
The aim of this book is to offer you information through concrete examples and to show you how to obtain the capacity to make others see things from the same angle as you.
Without considering it a concord, the book is representing the try of an ordinary man - the author - who through simple words, facts and usual examples instills to the ordinary man courage and optimism in his own quest to be his own master and who knows... maybe even a leader.
