Back to Basics

How do we go back to basics if we don't have the basics to go back to.

3 Key Leadership Principles

There are at least 3 principles in leadership I have learned over the years:

1. Leadership is a journey. Take people to a whole new land. A new experience. Get them to
thinking that where they are right now is not good. Paint a bleak picture of today and a rosy picture of tomorrow, or what is out there. Of course your personality comes into play how you can do this, esp if obstacles are in the path. And in all of this, do it with all honesty and candor. People hate liars and phony characters.

2. Leadership is about movitation (the heart). Its not enough to give them a good reason (head), but even more important engage their emotions. Remember, people buy on emotion and justify on reason. Study the people you lead and understand what makes them tick, each one of them:)

3. Leadership is caring. People don't care what you say (or where you're taking them) if they don't see that you care. This is basic human interaction process. Be sincere. Don't care for the sake of caring, people can see it. Be genuine too. Voice out your emotion. If you're angry show it. If you like it praise. This way people see your vulnerability and will respect you for that.

Contract

My son and I had a deal. He promised that if he is on the top 5 of his class that I award him with 70 bucks for his effort (1H2011).

To reinforce the importance of this deal and mimic the real world, I had to assemble a quick contract and we both signed the agreement inside a moviehouse (while watching Rango::).

Hope that he learns his lesson and that I am setting a good example for him to follow one day.

Updates

I looked at my post and it read January 17! Wow, it felt like its been ages since I updated my blog. Lets 'look back' and find out what happened over the course of 2 months.

February saw my inlaws, parent and brother in law, coming to town. The whole mid week of Feb was spent picking them up, touring SGP and of course lots of fellowship! Before this time was church work monitoring the couples night out.

March saw me celebrating my birthday with my parents in law. One memorable event took place at the dinner party where we celebrated. Just my being a 'hero' in saving the day with my kids, I almost ruined the dinner with a brief spat with the owner/manager who stubbornly refuse to let us take photo. I told her its my birthday for Christ sake! Even then, she came away with funny stories about how a woman who barge into her resto and turning out the person was in fact from a competitor.

Can't ask for more...