The Annual Leadership Summit is a significant leadership milestone of the year. The purpose of the Summit is to present an annual theme that flourishes competencies such as leading ethically, being strategic and innovative, development, communication and mindfulness. Additionally, it refines skills such as: integrity, courage, authenticity, social consciousness, conflict resolution, solving problems, right planning and building purpose.
The objective of doing so is to place our scholars in situations portraying the theme to provide challenging milieus, in order to step out of their comfort zones, learn to lead with integrity, to think critically, share their truth, recognise their individualised leadership style, contest content and each other, and to reflect on challenging issues.
This year’s Annual Leadership Summit focused on the theme of strategy and innovation. Throughout the week at Spier Wine Farm Conference Centre we were privileged to have several speakers touching on their own personal journeys to leadership and how strategy and innovation influenced that journey. With keynote speakers such as our Founding Chairman – Francois Pienaar, David Duarte, David Brown, Lethabo Motsoaledi and Carrie Leaver and our facilitators – Russell Raath: President of Kotter Consulting and a Member of the Senior Leadership Team and Rudi Buys: Dean of Humanities at Cornerstone Institute; our scholars’ curiosity and leadership dialogue was sparked. Although each speaker and facilitator had their own unique stories there were five messages that were consistent throughout all speakers.
These messages are as follows:
1. Identify your risk tolerance
In any given situation you are faced with the decision on how you react. Russell Raath discussed the concept of the freeze, flight or fight reaction. This concept focuses on the three types of reactions you have to any situation you are faced with (particularly when faced with risk). You have the opportunity to freeze from fear, run away from the situation and take flight or to fight and face the situation head on. It is important to identify what your immediate reaction is.
This will give you the ability to actively acknowledge this reaction and then decide how you want to respond. People will always act based on the way that you make them feel, remember to act the way that you want the people around you to feel.
2. Build your network
As a future leader it is important to acknowledge the people that walk with you on your path to leadership. This community of people are not only your support system but your inspiration and are often the people that you aspire to be one day. It is at this point that you should look at your closest network of people. Are these people acting the way that you want to be perceived as a leader?
It has been said that you are the sum total of the five people you spend the most time with. This concept was reinforced by almost every single one of the speakers at the Annual Leadership Summit. It is important to befriend people who have achieved things that are beyond your scope of capabilities.
These are the people that will encourage you to do more, be more and achieve more. David Duarte mentioned that every person you meet; you meet for a reason. Each and every person you meet has the potential to impact your life. Focus on building a network of people that you want to be associated with, that motivate and inspire you and that you build a mutually beneficial relationship with.
3. Hold onto your nuttiness
It is a general assumption that leaders have no “nuttiness”. Rudi Buys discussed this assumption with our scholars and encouraged them all to hold onto their nuttiness. In your leadership journey you will constantly be faced with the challenge of being original. Hold onto your nuttiness throughout all the challenges that you will without a doubt be faced with, because, your nuttiness will be your originality.
The one thing that no leader before you have, is the parts of you that make you unique.
4. Find your why
On your path to becoming a leader you are going to be faced with challenges but once you take on the role as a young leader you will be faced with many more. This is because when you make the decision to tackle a problem you realise that you are faced with a thousand other challenges that you wouldn’t have faced if you had just ignored the problem in the first place. Although these challenges and/or failures may make you feel like giving up they are in fact an indispensable part of your leadership journey.
These challenges can bring you down and make you feel incapable and that is why it is vital to identify your “why”. This is the one reason that you are doing what you are doing. This is the motivation that you can turn to when everything else falls away. Your “why” is the reason you will never give up.
5. Always listen to your user
We have all heard the saying that the consumer is always right. As a leader this could not be more true. You will have to continuously listen to your users to identify the areas that need to be changed in order to make a difference that will matter to them. It is essential for you to understand the problem from their perspective. You need to delve into their worlds and look at the problems that they face every day. This is the only way that you will be able to identify solutions that will make a difference to the end-user.
We hope that these lessons have resonated with you and that you can implement them in your own personal journey to leadership. We would like to close with a quote from the Founding Chairman of MAD Leadership Foundation, Francois Pienaar:
“I follow the philosophy of the four D’s: Desire, Dedication, Determination and Discipline.”
Ask yourself these questions:
- Desire – What is your burning desire, that keeps you awake, that excites you?
- Dedication – What are you committed to?
- Determination – Ask yourself, why? Why do you believe in this and why are you doing it?
- Discipline – You have to do whatever it takes to achieve your desire. Nothing can be too much to achieve your goals.
“With this in mind. You have to decide if you are a critical thinker or a group thinker. Critical thinkers speak up. They speak up for what is right, and what needs to be addressed. Give yourself time to be a critical thinker, to think about yourself, your family, your community, your country and the world. You are Madiba’s children, and we are here to make a difference.”