12 powerful quotes by John Maxwell

These quotes have changed my life

1. The only way to be valuable to someone tomorrow is to learn something new today
2. A leader is not great because of his power but his ability to empower others
3. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care
4. You can love people without leading them but you can not lead people with out loving them
5. None of us is as smart as all of us
6. Only the secure can stoop to serve
7. leadership is about servant-hood, its not about titles its about towels
8. You get out of people exactly what you expect out of them
9. What you will accomplish is restricted by your ability to lead others
10. Every leader's potential is determined by the people closest to him
11. No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or who wants to get all the credit for doing it
12. The leader finds the dream and then the people, the people find the leader and then the dream

Be a good example to children

I have being a children's teacher both in church and work for about 5 years now. I have being working closely with kids from the age of two to about eighteen. Its been a wonderful experience for me because they are phenomenal. I some times think that adults are deteriorated children. I have learnt a lot and am still learning a lot from them. If you want to be a great leader, look closely at children and you will see qualities that will marvel you.
One thing I have learnt from kids is that they are very eager to learn. They are teachable.
However, that wonderful quality can also make them susceptible to picking the wrong stuff; behaviours, belief, words and so on. What ever position and where ever you find yourself there are children in your circle of influence. What do they see when they look at you? Are you an inspiration to do good or an excuse to do evil. As parents, brothers, pastors, public office holders, teachers, there are children who see your actions. Children see, children do.
Our society is filled with children going on the wrong path not because they love it but because that is what they see their parents, teachers, pastors, governors and so on do. If we can teach them better, they will do better. When ever I see a pregnant woman, I believe that God has not given up on the human race.
We must teach our children in the school of example for they will learn in no other. It was John Maxwell who said, "We teach what we know but we reproduce who we are". People including kids don't want to follow your worlds, they want to follow your acts. I think that is why the bible has "acts of the apostles and not words of the apostles"  
We as parents, teacher, and the society at large can train our children any how we want but we can only train them once.
Children are assets, lets not make them liabilities

The world needs you

I was listening to an audio tape some days ago and I came across a story that had an impact on me. Am writing this post just to share it with you
Here it goes
"Anthony De Mello saw a starving child shivering in the cold. Angrily he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, "God, how could you allow such suffering? Why don't you do something?" There was a long silence and then De Mello was startled when he heard the voice of God answer him, "I have done something-I have made you".
This story was touching to me because in place of the man De Mello my name would have fit in perfectly. I thought to myself, how many times have I come across people in pitiable situations and I go on my knees and pray for them when I could have easily done something about it. The world out there is going through trying times. People every where in the world are going through hard times. What are you doing about it. You may say what can I do. I say to you, you can do a lot. I watched a movie some time ago entitled "pay it forward" and it gave me a paradigm shift. There is always a chain reaction to what ever we do be it good or bad. If we can all do our best in our little corners, the world will surely be a better place.
Mother Teresa quipped, "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop"
Don't deprive the world of that drop. You matter. Your important. If you can't feed a hundred people feed just one. If you can't give scholarship to a community, let one child be in school on your account. If you can't motivate millions of people, inspire a soul. Make sure the world becomes better because you came.
MAKE IMPACT BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU WERE CREATED FOR
Share with friends lets transform our world one soul at a time. I need you.

5 pitfalls on the part of great leaders

Early this morning I picked up a book from my library that I haven't read. Gregory M. Dickow in this powerful book, "why leaders fail and why you wouldn't" shares 12 powerful principles for exceptional leadership. I want to share with you on this post some hindrances on your path to exceptional leadership that l learnt from this book

5 pitfalls on the part of great leaders

• Pride: when a leader starts becoming proud, he has started walking through the exit door on his leadership. Pride is simply over estimation of self. To maintain your leadership, you must remain humble.
• Insecurity: Though leaders are not expected to be proud, leaders are also not expected to be insecure. A leader should not think less of himself but think of himself less. 
• For profit mentality: Do not be in leadership because of what you want to get but for what you have to give. One of my mentors (through books) Zig Ziglar said "If you can help enough other people get what they want, they will help you get what you want". Always ask, what's in it for the rest.
• Lose of focus: You must maintain your focus on your vision and goals. When you loose focus on whats is important to the group you lead, you end up loosing the group.
• Arrival mentality: Once you see yourself at the top already the next thing is to start coming down. And no one wants to join you on that downward journey. To avoid this pitfall, keep expanding your vision, set new and exciting goals and keep working to achieve them

There are more pitfalls that hinder you speedy arrival at your desired destination. Check out this wonderful book to become a better leader. 

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4 Ways to Show Balanced Leadership

This week in my maths class, we have been looking at solving equations. To day we explored a method know as balance method for solving equations.
This method states that in solving an equation, what ever you do to the right side, you must do the same to the left side. In class we call it the wheelbarrow method. If you want to transport two 20 liter cans of water, you don't put them one on-top of the other on either sides of the barrow. You put one on each side. Why? To maintain balance.
Leaders are always on the platform, being watched by all. People are looking to see how well they lead. The leader that leads very well by what he or she does earns more respect from his followers and hence becomes more influential with them. Whether you are a parent, teacher, pastor of a church, president of a nation, an army commander, you have been called to lead. People expect to be led by someone they trust to be balanced. As a leader you can show a high level of fairness in the following ways;

4 Ways to Show Balanced Leadership

• The way you treat people: People expect that their leader should not show favoritism in the way he or she treat his or her followers. As a parent you should not allow your children to observer that you love one more than the other. If you want to know more about that you can read the account of Jacob and his children in the book of Genesis. A pastor or any leader for that matter is not expected to treat some followers as more special than the rest. 
• Decision making: Your followers expect you to make decisions putting into consideration all the factors to be considered. Leaders are not expected to take hasty, irrational or ignorant decisions and actions
• Knowledge: How rich is your knowledge bank and how vast is it? Most leaders are very well informed in their field of endeavor but know next to nothing about any other field. Some weeks ago I was teaching in class about rate and I mention Canada. One of the students stood up and asked me what continent Canada is. I told him North America. He went further and asked me to mention 20 countries each in Africa and Europe. I did. Thank God I did. But what is I didn't? What would have happened to my level of influence with them, just imagine.
• Words and Deeds: Followers want to see you work the talk not talk the walk. The more your words and actions line up, the greater their level of trust for you.

If you have any issues with your leadership, you can solve it using balance method.

Please share with any leader you know.

EQUATION

EQUATION

For those who do not know, I am a mathematics teacher in a public junior secondary school in the community where I live. I believe that am at the center of God's will for my life at this stage of my life. While teaching maths, I explore ways of sharing life transforming insights from the topic we are exploring in class. I will be sharing some of those with you this week and in the weeks to come.

To make my students understand what an equation is, I simply define it as an algebraic expression that has left side, right side and an equal to sign in-between. Recalling that an algebra is a mathematical expression containing numbers and alphabets. 

Example of an equation is; 2x + 1= 5

The alphabets (x) is a number that we do not know yet. In solving an equation, our responsibility is to calculate the value of (x) for which the left side (2x + 1) will be equal to the right side (5). 

When we find this value we can smile because we have made the equation balanced. 

But this is not about mathematics, this about your life, your family and the world around you. For you to be successful you must live a balanced life. All areas of your life are important. Are you giving all areas of your life the necessary attention they deserve? Are you missing out something, some unknown that could make it all make sense for you. You can't make your life balanced until you find out that unknown. It might be a switch in career, a closer walk with God, a more loving relationship with your spouse and kids, a more productive time at work. You have the responsibility to find that (x) and make your life stable. Life is giving you an assignment to solve your life's equation. No one will do it for you. Get started.

Join me tomorrow as a explore the lessons from BALANCE METHOD for solving equation.

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8 things students expect from their teachers

I have been in the educational sector as a teacher for nearly 2 years now. I was originally trained as a civil engineer but just after I graduated from the university I began to discover my passion for teaching. It has been a fascinating journey for me. I have always asked my self one question, "what do my students expect from me?" I began to pay close attention to the way my students responded in my class and in those of other teachers. I also thought about what I expected from my teachers when I was in secondary school. I discovered that their desires were not much different from mine. If you want to be an effective teacher you must always put yourself in your students' shoes. If your not satisfying their expectations, you are not making impact but just wasting your time. This article tells you eight things your students expect from you;

• They want teachers who make the class interesting and fun                               children want to be in an environment that is fun and lively. They don't want to listen to a news caster or a clergy.  If I may ask, how many of you liked to listen to news or read news papers as children? I bet none of us did. You must seek ways to make you class more fun and engaging. 
• They want teachers who love their job                                                                  Do you love your job? If you don't, then don't expect to be an effective teacher. Students can tell when they see a teacher who wants to be with them. Passion is a must for every teacher who wants to make a mark in the lives of their students.
• They want a teacher who knows what he or she is doing                                     If you don't know what you are doing you will not be know for any good thing among the students. Students came to learn and they know those who they are actually learning from. Students expect you to know what they don't know.
• They want teachers who are caring                                                                        Though you need to know what you are doing, students place care above knowledge. In-fact they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care
• They want teachers who don't just lecture                                                            Your student expect you to tell stories that makes the topic more practical. Story telling separates teaching from lecturing
• They want a teacher who is respectful                                                                   Did I hear you say respectful? you may ask. Yes, respectful. Every one deserves some measure of respect, including children. What you give is what you get.
• They want to be noticed                                                                                           I teach in a class of over a hundred students. They all want me to call them by their name. what a high expectation. They don't mind, because each child believes that he or she is special. I believe the same
• They want teachers who believe in them                                                               Students will do almost any thing for a teacher who doesn't only see them as they are but also as they can be. Children gravitate towards those who they believe believe in them.

I make it my responsibility to match my student's expectation and you should to