Leadership as defined by John C. Maxwell is all about influence nothing more and nothing less. But overtime we have seen not just few persons who lost this influence or got it corrupted. It is obvious that the higher you go, the more chances of falling and of course the greater the impact of the fall. This fall most times doesn’t just affect you; it affects everyone in your circle of influence. The earlier leaders start realizing that the destinies of thousands lie on their shoulders, the fewer pitfalls we will have.
Every pitfall reinforces the weakness of your followers
Every pitfall saps leadership energy from you
Every pitfall makes you more ineffective
Every pitfall has a ripple effect and can motivate other pitfalls.
Below are some of the pitfalls:
1. POWER-PRIDE: Pride comes before a fall. And pride comes majorly from power or position. And that is why positional leadership is the lowest level of leadership. Like John C. Maxwell would say “Position only gives you an opportunity to lead…it doesn't make you a leader”.
Humility and servant hood is the hall mark of leadership. Moses was the meekest man on earth and also the most powerful leader at that time. The devil was power drunk and continues to be the worst leader of all time.
Leadership is servant hood turned inside out. Power, pride, pride of life, position freak or whatever you choose to call it is a trap! Don’t become a victim.
2. LACK OF INTEGRITY: Integrity is the alignment of your thoughts, words and actions. It is doing what you say you will do and not doing what you say you will not do- in other words, meaning what you say and saying what you mean. I tell you the truth and lie not, (write this in capital letters if you can) VERY FEW THINGS DESTROY A LEADER LIKE LACK OF INTEGRITY. In fact people can forgive you as a leader for almost anything if you are a truthful and sincere person. There are two major areas you need to have integrity on- TIME and MONEY.
It is good to have money, but is better not to let money have you. Is it not surprising to know that the only thing God compared himself with in the bible was money not even the devil. Leaders…the love of money is the root of all evil.
Don’t handle money yourself, don’t become your own Judas, employ an accountant or get a volunteer to handle your money.
3. SEX (outside the marriage environment): This is the one I love to talk about the most and maybe that was why I kept it for last.
I usually like to say that your sex life is not news now because you are not yet news but when you become news (which you will soon become), your sex life also becomes a news.
Look at a man like David Jesse who was a man after God’s heart and one of the best kings Israel ever produced but ended his life in distress because of perverted sex with a woman called Bathsheba.
What about his son Solomon Jesse who was the wisest man that lived at that time but turned his wisdom into vanity because of the sex sin.
Time will not fail me to talk about Samson Manoah who allowed his sexual needs to convert his strength and bravery to weakness. Like somebody rightly said “You cannot sleep on the lap of Delilah and expect to wake up in heaven”.
Oh! This are ancient stories…you may say. But wait let me give you contemporary ones.
Do you know the man Bill Clinton? Who was supposed to be the best president America ever had but lost that on the lap of a woman called Monica Lewinsky.
Do you know Eliot Pizza who was disqualified for contesting for the position of the president of America which he was a favorite because of this same issue?
You should know Strauss Khan who lost his ambition of being the president of France and was also impeached from being the IMF president on the lap of a MAID.
Time will fail me to talk about Mike Tyson, Ibabuchia, Ethyl Messin, Tiger Woods and many more who came from Hero to zero, grace to grass, uppermost to guttermost, palace to dunghill because of this monster (as some may call it) SEX.
I pray for you today from the bottom of my heart:
You will not fail your generation.
You will not fail your family.
You will not fail yourself.
You will not fail your followers.
You will not fail God!
