Leadership

Leadership is about leading, serving, loving. Leadership is pulling people, consolidating people, motivating people. A leader inspires people. A leader is eager to help and directs the group to a common vision. Leadership is making a difference; lifting up peoples hope and lifting the lives of others. It sees every situation as an opportunity to do good. It does not accept calamity as a tragedy but as an opportunity to re-do things and make it better. Having a vision and remaining steadfast until the vision is accomplished. It is not over until it is over. It ain’t over until the fat lady sings. The race is not over until you have crossed the finish line. Go the DISTANCE… The Indiana 500 is a race where contestants are supposed to finish 500 laps. Whoever finishes the 500 laps first is the winner. Imagine 500 laps! It takes patience and determination to do this. It takes persistence and being steady in our goal. Leadership is inspiring people to move to the direction that was envisioned by the group. It entails serving, loving, sacrifice and accountability. The leader must monitor and must report periodically what have been accomplished so that the group knows where they are and what they need to do to reach their goal. This entails training for everyone. Sometimes, people do not know how to do the right things because they do not know what the right things are. Once people are trained to do the right things, they in turn must train others to do the right things. There has to be continuity in the activity for the betterment of humankind. Continuity and dedication are the secret for continuous development. A leader’s task is to ensure the continuity of progress. The continuity of progress is dependent on the training we give our youth. The usefulness of the training we give our youth is dependent on the VALUES that we teach them. The funny thing about values is that it cannot be taught in the classroom. It cannot be taught using words alone. Values are taught through inspiration. Inspiration is taught through modeling, taught through living examples. WE HAVE TO LIVE IT for the young to follow. Our country is perceived with a problem with graft and corruption. Are we happy with it? What examples have we shown our youth? Why does it seem that our problem with corruption never stops? If we are to change all our leaders now and replaced them with our youth, will we be sure that they shall go on the right path? What is the right path? Are our youth equipped with the skills necessary to go on the right way? What are the right tools? VALUES must be first! Set your priorities! Make a time table. A complacent leader is a dead leader. A leader must challenge the accepted norms and create new paths for betterment. The benefits from inventions we are reaping came from people who had the guts to break away from accepted beliefs. They are trailblazers and pioneers who had to sacrifice and invest on what is unsure in the hope that they will be able to create something new. The brave are people who are afraid of what might happen but are willing to face fear in the hope that they could do something better. A leader is someone who is willing to try and try and try and try and try. A leader is someone who is not afraid to fail. A leader is someone who accepts failure as if it were success. For life is a summation of success and failure. It is only through failures that we learn and appreciate the sweetness of victory. A leader understands the importance of remaining steadfast in the battle of being the first. A leader is assertive! He always thinks of what could be instead of what could have been had he tried! It is better to have tried and failed but LEARNED through the process, than not to have tried at all! Our challenge today is on how we could fight the greatest enemy in our country. We must fight and eradicate poverty. The solution has always been in front of us. As the saying goes, “Give a man a fish and he lives for a day. Teach him to fish and he lives a lifetime.” It is how we bring light to others.It is how much we give an organization as students.It is how much we have helped others.If we care, we give everything.WE MUST see the needs of others.If we want to grow, we need to develop our younger generation of Filipinos. But did you know that our country is experiencing a problem with education in infrastructure and in the medium of teaching itself? How many of you are having difficulties with basic math? How many of you are having difficulties in science? EDUCATION for ALL is the solution to fight POVERTY. One fourth of the world population is uneducated. In the Philippines, POVERTY is the main enemy. We must address this by providing education. Our minimum basic solution must be to make our people LITERATE. Literacy has a difference with education. Literacy is simply training our people in CRITICAL Thinking. How many car accidents involving truck drivers, jeepney drivers, tricycle drivers and even private car drivers happen in our country? What could be the cause? Could it be that they were not taught proper road courtesy and safety? How do we teach them? Do we make them road-educated? Do we make them literate? As of present, Rotary International is promoting the Concentrated Language Encounter Program, where LITERACY is implemented through activity learning via group activities. It focuses on the activities in team-building workshops. A leader is responsible for the fate of the group. Any wrong decision affects the whole group. The path chosen by a leader, whether right or wrong, will decide the fate of the followers. Thus, leadership is a great responsibility. A leader cannot put his interest first over his followers. The lives of his followers depend on him. BENEVOLENCE, WISDOM, TRUSTWORTHINESS, COURAGE, DISCIPLINE! The characters of a leader are: generous, respectful, righteous, courteous, wise, analytical, trustworthy, disciplined, courageous, concerned, sees opportunity, fair to everyone, has good judgment. Judgment is not a matter of energy or intelligence but one of attention to details and thoroughness in investigation. Question by question, one can reach the bottom of the question and the root cause. Trustworthiness means that someone is credible, bankable. A leader must fulfill his word no matter what the cost. A trustworthy person is able to inspire willing obedience by putting himself in the shoes of another and be able to empathize with him. Understanding a follower is a key to understanding their needs. People have a common denominator in terms of basics needs, regardless of race and nationality, care and concern. A leader has to be kind to his people. This is shown in how he treats his subordinates. He fosters mutual understanding with his followers. He is familiar with who they are and he knows them personally. A leader must hold his people accountable and must manage on a clear system of reward and punishment according to the individual’s capability. Regulations and systems implementation must be strict and thorough. One must be conscious on the high standards from beginning to end. A leader must see to it that everything is done right. Every blessing comes from above. God has given us our blessings, God has chosen US to be blessed for he knows that the BLESSINGS must be given to generous people for them to spread and help people in need. It is our time to give back to GOD our blessings by helping our fellow Filipinos, our fellow Pangasinenses.When our time shall have come and we are to end our life in this world, we will never be sorry for not having accumulated more wealth, but rather we will be sorry for not having taken the opportunity to spend more time with our loved ones, for not having helped others when we had the opportunity to do so. In the end, we shall not be judged with the wealth we have accumulated but rather on the good we have done. Even when we are full of life, we can never find contentment on material things. As Blaise Paschal theorized, AS HUMANS, there will always be a GOD-shaped vacuum inside of us that only GOD can fill. The GOOD that we do to people is what GOD asks of us.Our purpose in life is to have a defined purpose of living: to LOVE and HELP people. Right now, we have with us the members of a US medical mission at the Region 1 Medical Center being conducted as SERVICE to Humanity. Serving and giving without expecting anything in return, except the fulfillment of just having done it and helping people in need. It is their sharing, caring, loving that makes them true leaders. With people like them, we are sure to have a better world. God has been good to them because He knows that they will be good to others. We are now living witness to this. They are sharing their blessings through their free service, their time in the Philippines and even spending for it. They are even planning on donating medical equipment. One might ask: “I just have enough to survive. Then, how could I make a difference?” All of us have blessings and the best blessing GOD has given us is TIME. Let us spend it wisely.We cannot keep it or rewind it. So use our days wisely, carefully and with inspiration for every moment because today shall never come back. Spend time with the family, spend time with GOD, spend time to helping others… LASTLY, IF YOU AIM TO BE A LEADER, YOU HAVE TO BE THE SERVANT. TRUE LEADERSHIP IS SERVANTHOOD. LET JESUS CHRIST BE OUR MODEL. HE SACRIFICED EVERYTHING TO SERVE AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE. A LEADER IS A SERVANT WHO HAS LEFT A LEGACY -- A LEGACY THAT IS LASTING; FOR THE BEST LEGACY A LEADER COULD GIVE IS THE LEGACY OF LASTING INSPIRATION. Inspiring others to help others see that the best way to live this very, very, very precious gift from GOD called LIFE is to engage in activities that count! Let us make a difference!!! Now.