Words of Wisdom - MARCH 2015

Hello Members,

Chris Widener believes that Leadership is a mixture of Character and Skills. They each go hand in hand – and neither can be discounted or relied upon.

By Character he means – humility, empathy, service, loyalty and so on. By skills he means the necessary knowledge and aptitude to carry out the roles required. We have seen from the election results over the past two years - that people seem to be looking for someone to solve their personal problems and vote for someone they believe they can trust to help them.

It is not my intention to judge nor am I qualified to determine the level of anyone’s character or skills. However, we need to assume that that the leaders that have been replaced or lost elections did or do have a good skills base. They are well educated, achieved much in their respective careers.

So – perhaps – it is more to do with Character. But is it the lack of their Character or is the lack of our own. Are we changing leaders because – they are not solving our problems? Or giving us what we believe we are entitled to?

In one of Michael Parkinson’s interviews it was stated that: “We are not really entitled to anything – but we can earn anything we want to have as long as we have a purpose (why), a vision (how) and are prepared to work hard and  persevere until we achieve the goal (what).

The more affluent we have become as a nation – although there is more poverty, more broken        families, more homelessness – the less we are grateful for what we have – food, home, friends, family, water, air, roads, planes – and the less we see these as privileges – rather than entitlements.

To be a leader with a balance of Character and Skills – a leader who wants to  improve and serve other people – we need to work on ourselves - our habits, our daily routines, our associations, our lifestyle, our health, our philosophy (mindset).

To be the leader we need to be as individuals – we need a big WHY? We need to know our purpose. We need the WHY to keep going through the good and bad times. We need to know HOW this will feel in the future. We will need to know WHAT skills and knowledge we need to acquire.

Don’t wait for the political wind to provide your entitlements. Go out and determine your own destiny starting with the WHY?

Take Care, Mario