The Spotlight Campaign: Great Leadership
Jesse Bluma at Pointe Viven. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN
Our ideas, our creations, our spirit, and our great actions have always been key. I know what it’s like to create something, the hard work it takes to accomplish goals, and to stand with others. I know with my readers we share an elevated approach to food, information, and inspiration. Liberating food and taste is the mission. It is a holistic approach to living well and freeing our taste in food and much more. Pointe Viven reflects my spirit and its clients. It is a dynamic community of liberating food and taste.
Over the years it has been terrific to meet, spotlight, and feature creators, doers, and inspirational figures. I know no matter where I am, where I visit, and with whom I meet I will learn something and be re-energized by their endeavors. Each month join me in spotlighting the famous, the not so famous, the local celebrities, and those you believe have earned a thank you, a congratulations, and the recognition.
Each month a new theme will be chosen, so be thinking of those people you know exhibit the traits. Often the trait is something not so measurable, rather it is shown through the mundane, certain instances, and moments that surprise you. This is your opportunity to join me and take part in the campaign.
In June we celebrated wisdom. Those that exhibit bold thinking, desire, and powerful decision making. Individuals making great strides in liberating their lives and the lives of others through wisdom.
July: This month we are spotlighting great leadership. We are looking for those that exhibit a good sense of vision, those that inspire others, stand out of the way when needed, and have good values. The power of a great leader, of great leadership in business, schools, foundations, homes, sports, et cetera, is diverse. Leadership is demonstrated economically, through organization, communication, attitude, and more.
Personal leadership requires us to shape our own lives, to have good emotional health, good thinking skills, and to master certain skills in all fields of life--personally, in relationships, career, spiritual, and more. We may all be able to point to examples of these skills in our own lives and the lives of those we know or have read about. Skill is essential to leadership. Often life requires us to pause, reflect, and then to act. To respond in a thoughtful way. Not merely to react. This habit requires mindfulness, good values, practice, and the ability to imagine the possibilities. A good leader imagines the infinite possibilities, wants, desires, legacy, safety, and health of others. These decision points require consideration of what is at stake in events and options.
Great leaders are those that learn, encourage learning and growth, and use their brains. This means using their skills, talents, and gifts to create a better life and lifestyle for themselves and others. Patience and joy are also good attributes of leaders. The patience and enjoyment that comes in watching themselves and others develop and grow. The mindfulness to make wise, healthy decisions, and the desire to be proactive.
As James I, King of Scots in the early 1400s noted, “I do acknowledge, that the special and greatest point of difference that is between a rightful king and an usurping tyrant is in this: That whereas the proud and ambitious tyrant does think his kingdom and people are only ordained for satisfaction of his desires and unreasonable appetites; The righteous and just king does by the contrary acknowledge himself to be ordained for the procuring of the wealth and prosperity of his people, and that his greatest and principal worldly felicity must consist in their prosperity.”
John Winthrop, one of the founders of New England in the early 1600s explained, “we must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others' necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality (benevolence). We must delight in each other; make others' conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body.”
Our recognition of great leaders takes a key attribute into consideration. Great leaders are those with relationships based on good values. Popularity, fame, or infamy is out of bounds. President Reagan explained in his inaugural address of 1981 that “[i]t is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in the right place at the right time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look. You can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed all of us and then the world beyond.”
Examples abound of this kind of leadership. In the 400s B.C. the Roman military was under assault and a farmer, named Cincinnatus, stepped up to ensure the Roman Republic did not fall to the Aequi (a tribe in northern Italy). This devotion and life risking move was similar to that of the first president of the United States, George Washington. His custodianship of the infant county, his military efforts and treaties with European forces made him the father of a country.
The past, present, and future are made by people who have made a difference. Many have explored and discovered new lands, new ideas, new commodities, and new people. The people of the past have certainly influenced our lives and shaped our identities, from religion to government, to art and technology, to business and philosophy. What will our world in the future look like? The present and future is an extension of the past, history teaches us that these matters are typical, common, and vital to our existence and security. The answers to these questions depend a lot upon the people of the present. The leadership required is possible through the desire and pursuit of knowledge.
As we look for those with great leadership we are looking for those that recognize their own strengths, weaknesses, and personality, as well as those of others. Those with purpose, important, valuable, and exciting tasks to do. We are looking for those whose learning, discoveries, and adventures are guided by some basic principles. Leadership requires assertiveness, firmness, not aggressiveness, not passivity. It is about individuals that know when they and others act, think, and work they begin to believe they can achieve, which builds confidence. Those that challenge their minds and the minds of others to see that they Can!
Great leaders are good friends, mentors, family members, colleagues, and neighbors. One reason these individuals are successful is because of excellent communication skills. Often great leaders can tell awesome stories, express themselves, and listen more to you than they talk about themselves. In other words, great leaders are helpers, serve, and demonstrate a willingness to give. That does not mean in unhealthy, unethical, or immoral ways. Fighting off temptations, applying their skills, and serving their purpose is the key. Great leadership is not something that is a title or a job description. Whether at home, school, in the community, or workplace, great leadership is about relationships. Earning trust, which develops synergy and respect.
Ultimately, great leadership originates from a value of oneself and of others. There is authenticity, integrity, and the taking of appropriate actions. Excellent leadership requires us to see our own roles, what we were hired to do, or what we think we are to do, and contrast that to what others see and need our roles to be. We may see ourselves as needing to fulfill our job orders as having to organize endless meetings, while others may need us to simply serve, support, focus, and fuse the work and initiatives in the environment. In a family, workplace, on a committee, or on a team, good leadership is a challenge. That is why we are looking to celebrate and honor this trait.
Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net, www.royal.gov.uk, www.reagan.utexas.edu, www.pbs.org, Pexels.com, Mikes Photos, Valentin Antonucci
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