Throughout my life I have worked hard to compile the best advice possible from anyone who would give it to me. While listening to a CD from the John Maxwell Maximum Impact Club back in 2009, I heard a tip that a leader should sit down and create a list of the best advice ever received.
So I sat down and wrote out some of the best wisdom people have shared with me.
Here is that advice, in no particular order:
- Love My Volunteers: Steve Elliott from CAM taught me that when working with and leading volunteers I must show them love. I show love for my volunteers by showing appreciation for them, encouraging them, and dealing with them sensitively in conflict.
- Lead By Example: Perhaps this is the best advice I have ever received. No one wants to follow a hypocrite, right? People want to follow someone who is genuine and sincere because your walk talks a lot better than your talk talks.
- Always Believe in Myself: A dear friend, Mike Mendoza, who has passed away once gave me this advice when I was a teenager. Mike taught me to always believe in myself because it positively affects my performance. If I believe I am the best then it will help me to perform my best, according to Mike. I have not practiced this advice recently and need to do a better job of it.
- Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day: I first learned this in John Maxwell’s book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Maxwell teaches that when someone intentionally wants to become a leader, she must work on leadership daily because the process takes time. It takes time to learn to work with others and develop the necessary character and skills to be an effective leader. With this advice I began reading and listening to good tapes every day, and I even developed my own growth plan.
- Vision Leaks: Andy Stanley taught me this in his talk, Making Vision Stick (which is also a book). The basic thought is that vision is something which must be taught, communicated, reinforced, discussed, and talked about constantly. It must be talked about so often because people get busy and forget what the organization stands for and what people are working towards. As a result of this teaching I printed the mission statement of A Day of Hope on the topic of every agenda we had for meetings, and as the meeting started I would read the mission statement to others as a reminder of what our vision was.
- There is Always a Way if Your are Committed: Tony Robbins taught this to me through his various books, seminars, and audio programs. When I am struggling to reach the goals I am working towards I need to be more resourceful. If I am working towards something and I cannot accomplish it, then I must stay committed and be resourceful to find new ways to accomplish it because if I am committed, I will find a way to accomplish it.
- You Can’t Win Unless You’ve Got a Great Team: Coach Hanny, my college golf coach shared this with his team. He often said that a good coach can’t win without a good team. For me as a leader I know that I must put together a great team if I want us to be successful in serving others.
- You’ve Got to Put in the Time: Coach Hanny also told this to me as I played for him, and he definitely lived out this principle in his own life. With golf there was a tremendous amount of practice and hard work I had to do in order to become better, and Coach always emphasized that to us. If we wanted to become the best, we would have to put in the time to become the best. This is a principle which has transferred to my life as a worker and writer.
Question: What is the best advice you have ever received as a leader?
