What is the ONE thing that separates leaders from all other people?

by Tito Philips, Jnr.

What is the ONE thing that separates leaders from all other people?

This is a continuation of the series on the 3 essential roles of every CEO (leadership, management and entrepreneurship) where I began with the role of the CEO as a Leader and talked about the 3 essential qualities of effective leadership; character, vision and competence.

Character is about who you are as a person. It describes what kind of a person you are and what earns you the privilege to lead others since people naturally like to follow those they respect and those whose life they want to emulate. Until there’s something commendable and worth emulating from you as a person, attempting to lead the right people will be an exercise in futility irrespective of the position you might occupy.

Character is therefore the foundation of effective leadership.  In case you missed out on last week’s article where I shared some insights about what it takes to develop the right character necessary for effective leadership, you can read it here; developing the right character for effective leadership. Let’s now go over to the second essential quality of effective leadership – Vision.

(more…)

Do you have the RIGHT character for leading effectively?

Do you have the RIGHT character for effective leadership?

Truth be told; developing ones character is not an easy task, it’s a lifelong task, but its benefits outweighs any pain suffered along the way.

Character is not a destination that is reached; it’s a continuous process that must be perpetually worked on. Just as Eleanor Roosevelt rightly said,

“Character building begins in our infancy, and continues until death”.

Although character is related to personality, it is not the same thing. Personality is primarily inborn traits, while character consists of learned behaviour. Personality is what comes with you from birth; character is what you build all through your life.

Therefore, as a CEO in playing your leadership role, character development must be an ongoing process and this lifetime journey revolves around two key things that you must constantly focus on and always strive to improve. What are they?

(more…)

How effective is your leadership?

The foundation of every successful CEO is leadership. The two other roles (management and entrepreneurship) that make up the 3 essential roles of every CEO builds upon the success of your role as a leader. In continuing our discussion on the role of the CEO as a leader, here are three essential qualities of effective leadership;

• Character            -              a life worth emulating
• Vision                    -              an idea to die for
• Competence      -              expertise in any particular discipline, field or thing

(more…)

“Are you the kind of leader the RIGHT kind of people will like to follow?”

“Are you the kind of leader the RIGHT kind of people will like to work with?”

Last week, I began a series on The 3 essential roles of every CEO, this is a continuation that begins with the role of the CEO as a Leader.

The job of a CEO begins with a leadership role. The essence of your leadership role as a CEO is to make the organization effective –capable of doing the RIGHT things. An effective organization is one with the right people all occupying the right positions collectively engaged in doing the right things. That is;

‘right PEOPLE + right POSITIONS + right ACTIONS = EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION’

(more…)

What are your key responsibilities as a CEO?

Do you have what it takes to be a CEO?

A CEO in a very simple term is the leader of an organization. This title is only given to someone who is occupying the highest position in an organization and is solely responsible for the success or failure of the organization.

This means, you are a CEO because of a certain position you occupy (highest management) and certain functions you perform.

As with every position or role, whether in life or business, there are corresponding duties and functions. These duties and functions are collectively called ‘responsibilities’ and they are what clearly separates one position from the other.

Positions are created in order to define and assign certain duties and functions to them. Without functions and duties, positions and roles are useless. A position is determined by its functions.

Being a CEO therefore requires you to carry out certain functions and duties attributed to the position you occupy. Being in that position confers certain responsibilities on you. Success or failure is measured by how well these duties and functions (responsibilities) are carried out. A successful CEO is the individual who performs these required duties and functions exceptionally well.

(more…)