LEADERSHIP SKILLS FOR SUCCESS IN CAREER ASPIRATION BY MOSES UMORU (SPEAKPRENEUR CONCEPT) An extract from his presentation at YOUTH FOCUS AFRICA CONFERENCE.compiled by MARY AREMU DAYO.

Please note that leadership has nothing to do with seniority or position in an organization, it also has nothing to do with titles and personal charisma.

The fact that you have people under you doesn’t really mean you are a leader, and to succeed in career and enterprise aspiration, you must have the attributes of a leader.

Who then is a leader?

A leader is one that has the ability to transform a vision into reality…….Warren Bennis. A vision on the other hand is a mental picture of an expected future. As a leader, if you cannot see your future, you cannot seize that future…..Moses Umoru. The reason why people don’t succeed today is because they don’t know where they are going to. They have a scalar approach to goal achievement.

As a leader, you must as a matter of fact be able to IDENTIFY what needs to be done, BUILD SKILLS in relation to what has to be done, and COMMUNICATE what has to be done.

WHAT GOOD LEADERS HAVE

1; VISION; seeing and communicating what needs to be achieved

2; COMPENTENCE; It’s not just about doing something, its knowing how to do it and when to do it. Building skills in relation to what you want to achieve makes one competent. I personally define competence as your ability to do something well and being able to do it again. Any success you achieve and you cannot explain is a fluke. If you cannot explain it, you cannot sustain it. If you think you are competent in an area and your close friends cannot attest to it, you don’t have that skill. Test your competence today.

3; COURAGE; A leader must understand that there is no opportunity without a problem associated with it, therefore, he/she must have the nerve to take some risk. Most successful people always said they had to take some risk one time or the other.

4; lastly, a leader must have PASSION. Passion is the drive to succeed against all odds. Passion keeps you going even when the money is not forthcoming. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. The last tree was planted 20years ago, the next time to plant another tree is now. Take the bull by the horn now. Is not how long you sit on the chair and watch the ceiling of the sky move is about what you have done with your life. Go start something.

Everybody has a reason not to succeed. You have 1001 reasons not to succeed but you’ll always have one reason why you need to succeed. You must look at that single reason why you need to succeed. Hold on to it tenaciously. You need to be prepared so when the opportunity comes it will hit you and you will grab it. What is your capillarity index? What is your holding capacity? Can you hold opportunity? Are you improving every day? Are you sharpening your axe? Are you learning new skills? Are you improving on your skills?

Do something about your skill. In the morning ask yourself, what good shall I do today? In the evening ask yourself, what good have I done today? Stop counting days, start making the days count.

THANK YOU!!!