Growing up, I counted myself off the leadership chat and could not volunteer myself to take up any leadership roles only because my understanding of leadership tilted towards the belief that for one to lead or be in a leadership position, they needed to be famous, strong, and vocal, since I thought I was none of these, I did not experience the three Bs of leadership; Believing, Becoming and Being Bold.
However, in the early stages of my professional life, I begun to deliberately redefine my understanding of leadership as I slowly interacted with myself and others in the course of discharging my duties, and on this journey of discovery, it downed on me that indeed everything rises and falls on Leadership!. I have in the course of time discovered that Leadership has nothing to do with seniority or position in the hierarchy of the company, titles, and or personal attributes but that it is the choice of Believing, Becoming and Being Bold to fulfil individual and shared aspirations
According to John Maxwell, “Leadership is Influence nothing more nothing less”. But to have influence over our individual lives and those we lead; we need to take steps towards the fulfilment of the three Bs of leadership. In the bible, again and again God shows us that anyone can be a leader, but very few of us believe this because of the way we tend to view what leadership is in our eyes.
Judges 6:11-16 shows a classic account that leadership is not merely for titles and prestige but a special purpose vehicle or the means of confronting challenges that threaten our individual and corporate aspirations. In this account, God calls out to Gideon for leadership. The beauty of Leadership is in most cases only exemplified in the midst of a crisis or challenge.
Believing- View yourself as God views you; in the midst of a leadership challenge, it matters how you view your persona, Gideon viewed himself as one from the weakest tribe and youngest in the family but God viewed him as a Mighty Man of Valour, in Gideon’s understanding, the leadership challenge at hand needed one from a famous, wealthy and strong family with awesome legacies, however in God’s school of thought the leadership challenge at the time simply needed a leader with Belief regardless of their background or age, Gideon by his perception put a wrong tag on his Leadership credentials however to thrive in leadership we need to put the right tag of belief on our leadership credentials.
Becoming- Transition from a posture of weakness and inferiority to a posture of mighty, wealth and victory; Gideon had a choice to make, either to continue believing his narrative that he was weak and from a poor background and not worthy of the leadership challenge or to believe God’s narrative that he was a mighty man of valour; For anyone person to confront successfully challenging situations, they will need to transition to a level of understanding of the capabilities they possess even as they confront their leadership challenges.
Being Bold– Be courageous and confront situations. Franklin D. Roosevelt said “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” Challenging situations are good testing ground for your leadership capabilities. Gideon began to prepare the group that was to confront the Midianites and of course those who were afraid did not go into battle because leadership requires those who are bold.
As Gideon was awakened to who he was and his God given ability within him, I urge you to believe, become and be bold as you take up that leadership position because you are well able.