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A couple of weeks ago I was watching a program on the television about leadership. There are countless numbers of discussions around the topic of leadership: Are leaders born, can you learn leadership & management, is leadership genetic and what kind of leaders do we look for in the 21st century?

It’s not wrong to ask ourselves those kinds of questions and think & study about it. Personally I reckon people can be born with leadership characteristics, but it’s your choice if you want to develop, educate and practice your leadership potential.

Like John C. Maxwell says ‘leadership is influence’. But you can have two types of influence, positive & negative influence! I want to have a positive influence and I so hope you have the same goal in mind. I want to lead people well, make a positive difference on the planet and build a profitable business.

We need to be the kind of people that believes & encourages everyone to become better leaders. We are all born with certain characteristics, but we need to focus on developing, educating and practicing those characteristics for the greater good. In particular we need to focus more on practicing and developing leaders on the work floor. People will have to run with the idea’s and practice their leadership. You simply just can’t have knowledge and think you are a good leader.

However we keep asking ourselves the question, what kind of leaders do I look for and what kind of leadership do we need in the 21st century! Where did it go wrong in the past, and with this economic crisis we need good leadership. How can we improve in 2011? I reckon one of the main problems is that we have the wrong people in leadership positions at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

You as a leader need to be at the right place in order to maximise your capacity to be an effective leader. If you are a level 3 leader, you can’t be effective in a level 4 or 5 position. (I don’t say that a level 3 leader can’t become a level 4 leader, I’m a believer in people and committed to seeing them succeed in life). We can’t afford to have the wrong people leading our organisations. It’s not right for the organisation and for the leader itself to be at the wrong place. If you are a level 3 leader you need to be effective on level 3, and not be ineffective on level 4.

We definitely need to select leaders better. The lower, middle & higher levels, at all levels we need to select people better. Most people rush to the top of the leadership ladder and they didn’t get the leadership foundation & steps right, and all they end up doing is hurting people and making wrong decisions. It really doesn’t matter if you are born as a leader or not “so to say”, everyone has to work on becoming better. Be a great leader at your current level, and be committed to learning new things.

We need the right people at the right place, and leaders with a long term vision. I’m not only leading a business for tomorrow, but also for the generations to come. We are so focused on short term goals, wealth & success that we loose the bigger picture and stop building businesses for the future. Get leaders with a long term vision!

We really do need to find the right balance. We need to start developing, educating and practicing leadership, at the right place, at the right level and with the right people.

I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

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