By Ustaz Mark Bang
People will pay attention to what you say, just because of your position.
A leader’s job is to pay attention to what other people say, especially those who think their views don’t count. Show you’re listening by acting on what people tell you, and gain their trust by giving them the credit. Don’t step in with solutions too quickly. No one learns anything new if you keep doing what you already know how to do, and don’t allow others to try. Anyway, they may find a different, or better way, and if not… mistakes are valuable too.
Be authentic, passionate, and even emotional, about what you believe in. Share your vision and live your values. The personal is more engaging, even inspiring, than the process. Once a decision is made by the Board or the leadership team, it’s yours even if you argued against it during discussions. Your job as leader is to get others to believe in, and work towards, a shared goal, not to divide opinion or loyalties. Start from the position that everyone is doing the best they can, then look for ways to support and encourage them – which is so much more rewarding than finding fault.
Being a leader does not mean knowing more than anyone else. Recognize, encourage and promote others as experts. Give them the trust and autonomy to be creative and do excellent work, defined in their terms. You simply provide the direction, so that this excellent work contributes to a shared purpose. Your team know what they do and how to do it, but you can make a big difference by sharing a strong sense of why they’re doing it and where it’s heading. Help them develop a broad understanding of the team’s purpose and faith in how their role contributes to the whole
A great idea is of no consequence unless you can convince others to believe it too, and then persuade them to help you make your idea a reality. The best way to do this is to make the idea theirs. Focusing on the things that really matter and where you can make a difference. There may be a hundred different distractions and demands on your time and a hundred ways you could respond, but it’s the dozen carefully chosen actions that deliver the results. Get out and about and in the work. It’s hard to retain that sense of what the job’s really about when you are sitting in your office. You’ll see what people actually do, rather than what people tell you they do. And you’ll see their commitment, effort and achievements first-hand, and feel proud to be part of the same team. Always inspiring, informative, and better than any meeting! Don’t beat yourself up when you don’t live up to your own expectations. Reflect and learn from those times when you stumble and fall over. There was a story of a man who never gave up on his dreams.
Rowan Atkinson was born into a middle-class family and suffered terribly as a child because of his stuttering. He was also teased and bullied at school because of his looks. His bullies thought he looked like an alien. He was soon marked as strange and became a very shy, withdrawn kid who didn’t have many friends, so he dived into science, one of his teachers said. There was nothing outstanding about him. I did not expect him to be a brilliant scientist, but he has proved everyone wrong. Admitted to Oxford University during his days, he started falling in love with acting but couldn’t perform due to his speaking disorder. He got his master’s degree in electrical engineering before appearing in any movie or TV show after getting his degree, he decided to pursue his dream and become an actor so he enrolled in a comedy group but again, his stammering got in the way.
A lot of TV shows rejected him, and he felt devastated but despite the many rejections. He never stopped believing in himself. He had a great passion for making people laugh and knew that he was very good at it. He started focusing more and more on his original comedy sketches and soon realized that he could speak fluently whenever he played some character. He found a way to overcome his stuttering and he also used there as an inspiration for his acting. While studying for his master’s Rowan Atkinson co-created the strange, surreal, and now speaking character known as Mr. Bean.
He had success with other shows, Mr. Bean made him globally famous and despite all the obstacles, he faced because of his looks and his speaking disorder, he proved that even without a heroic body or a Hollywood face, you can become one of the most loved and respected actors in the world. The motivational success story of Rowan Atkinson. It’s so inspiring because it teaches is that to be successful in life, the most important things are passion, hard work, dedication and never giving up, because without caring about our feelings and weaknesses.
No one is born perfect. Don’t be afraid. People can accomplish amazing things every day despite their weaknesses and failures. So go and do the best you can with the one life you’ve got. “Public Staunchest Ally”
The writer of this article is a Human rights activist, writer and professional teacher.