Tweet

Leadership-A Daily Gift

Written by: Jay Kubassek

Article Overview: We awake each day with the incredible gift to lead. Leadership is not pithy sayings, kitschy slogans, or daily calendar quotes. Leadership is taking on the personal responsibility, everyday, to have your actions and deeds be the example that your words describe. Leaders awake every morning with the conviction of person to carve their own path, they call on their own minds to be the lighthouse of guidance. A leader has the confidence, and welcomes the challenge, of standing alone, accountable and compassionate of others. A leader does not say, “follow me”, rather, a leader says, “follow you.” Be reliant, and unwavering with the commitment to yourself, and your own personal truth.

Leadership-A Daily Gift

I just spent the last week vacationing on the shores of Lake Ontario, a hallmark setting, not a rumble of city life for miles. Subsequent to this gorgeous setting I had very little access to the outside world. The one day that I was able to get the New York Times, I was struck by an article about President Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General.

Dr. Regina Benjamin is a rural Alabama family physician whom founded a clinic in a small shrimping village called Bayou La Batre. (sound familiar…yep Forrest Gump) The town of 2,500 contained residents with almost no health insurance, most are immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Since opening the clinic, she has rebuilt it 3 times due to hurricane devastation. During the rebuilding she twice mortgaged her own home, maxed out 3 credit cards, and to this day is owed $300,000 dollars of her own money she put into the clinic. If this is not the mark of a leader, someone who leads with action, then I don’t know what is.

I’ve often found that when academics, motivational speakers, politicians and the like speak of leadership, they regularly refer to military heroes. Individuals whom have marked themselves on the battlefield, bled for country, cause, or possibly just the man next to them. These metaphors ring true in our ears, years of cinematic vignettes flood our minds. We recall explosions, last breaths and the fearless leader promising it will be okay.

Fortunately for most of us, we have never had to endure the trappings of war, never been asked to charge a bunker in some distant land, or take a final sweetheart letter from a fallen comrade. But still each day offers us a chance of sacrifice, an opportunity to provide leadership in a moment of uncertainty, give hope when it seems there is nothing to be promised. We do not need a battlefield to experience this, we simply need to open our eyes to the opportunity before us.

We awake each day with the incredible gift to lead. Leadership is not pithy sayings, kitschy slogans, or daily calendar quotes. Leadership is taking on the personal responsibility, everyday, to have your actions and deeds be the example that your words describe. Leaders awake every morning with the conviction of person to carve their own path, they call on their own minds to be the lighthouse of guidance. A leader has the confidence, and welcomes the challenge, of standing alone, accountable and compassionate of others. A leader does not say, “follow me”, rather, a leader says, “follow you.” Be reliant, and unwavering with the commitment to yourself, and your own personal truth.

Leaders have vision. There is very little more powerful than an individual’s imagination. Imagination is often associated with fanciful daydreaming, the best friend of childhood. But imagination is the emotional capital of the true entrepreneur. It’s not enough to articulate your vision; you must be the very manifestation of your words. Leaders are always cognizant of the greater purpose, and have active plans of achievement.

Leaders set standards. Accountability begins intrinsically. We often assume accountability is a list of responsibilities. A schedule, punctuality, bills. Accountability comes from within. It is the fervent belief that I will not let myself down.

Leaders take vigorous action. Passivity is the mark of the follower. They are stagnant and allow themselves to be victims of circumstance rather. Circumstances only befall those who allow it to be so.

Leaders make excellence the expectation. An individual can never outperform their own expectations, if they expect excellence. Mediocrity is simply the result of mediocre ambitions. Be brazen with your thoughts, desires and expectations.

Leaders don’t set out to be so, the integrity of their actions and intent make them so.

All My Best,

Jay Kubassek

Related Articles
  Law of Attraction Marketing - Attract Your Ideal Coaching Clients When You Embrace Your Inner Helping Guru
  The Ultimate Gift
  2009 Hottest Christmas Gift Idea
  Daily Method of Operation of Internet Marketers
  Gift certificates for referral

Article Tags: alabama family, bayou la batre, breaths, comrade, distant land, family physician, fearless leader, forrest gump, hellip, hurricane devastation, lake ontario, maxed out, metaphors, military heroes, new york times, obama, rsquo, rural alabama, trappings, vignettes



Related Forum Posts
Re: Is any one making money with twitter here? - Daily activity is a MUST. I spend between 20-40 min a day on twitter building followers and relationships.
Import/distribution Business - I have 12 years experience in importing/distributing Kitchen/Gift items from Europe. I’ve been a successful entrepreneur to run the business. Recently, I lost my business ($5 million annual revenues) in my recent divorce and I'm ready to go again. I know the markets, the reps, the customers and the ropes. Need an investor. Is it you?
Re: What are your January Goals? - Here's a quick update on mine: Goal #1: Hire New Writer = done - Post job description on oDesk - Set up trial job - Pick top candidate Goal #2: Follow up with Clients = done - Create and send quarterly report - Touch base with last year's clients - Follow up with 4 connectors Goal #3: PERSONAL = about 70% done on the month - Do something nice for my wife each week - Exercise 4 times per week - Daily stretch - want to touch my toes
Re: Starting customized giftware... - Starting off with a Customized Gift is definitely a great idea. But you have not mentioned anything about what is or are the products that your organization is into. You have also not mentioned what is the target market or who your customers are. But it needs to be mentioned that whom you want to give the gift. There are two different categories of people who visit you. One category is those who are not much interested to buy. They visit the store for inquisitiveness or finding out what you have to offer them. These people can be given some smaller tokens. The other category is of those who buy from you are your real customers and you can give them gifts. The best gift after the sales will definitely be the after sales support and customer services. But these are in the longer run to retain the customers. You can start off with giving some percentage extra depending on what you have to offer. How about Discounts or different Gifts in lieu of purchase of X Amount, Y Amount...
Help from a computer guru needed, please - At the beginning of August, I installed a new navbar on all the pages of my webzine, a shockwave navbar. I thought I'd be getting "stand alone" buttons - buttons that would work regardless of whether the viewer had shockwave loaded on their computer. But my hits have been down for the last two weeks or so. I had assumed that this was because people were running around on vacation and trying to do stuff before school started again, but now I'm beginning to have second thoughts. Does anyone here NOT have shockwave loaded on their computer, and if so, will you go to thethunderchild.com and tell me if you see the navbar. It should be a bar at the top of the page with Home, Contact Us, Daily Space and various other animated buttons. I did ask this question on a usegroup for webmasters, and one person has confirmed my fears, and pointed out that search engines also don't follow shockwave links - but I'd like to confirm that's true from other people as well. Thanks for any help.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Digital Diet by Daniel Sieberg

Winning Market Share in a Tough Economy

Marketing & Sales tools – going back to basics

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.