YOU CANNOT BE AN EFFECTIVE LEADER, IF YOU ARE NOT AN EFFECTIVE READER - Opeyemi Oladimeji

Leadership is the ability to lead people, the ability to create a change, the ability to influence people. Leadership is not about post or position, it is beyond that, it is the ability to create or build something. So many people today find themselves in various leadership positions but still lacks the ability to lead. A leader doesn't have to be in that exalted position to lead or display his leadership skills even though being in such positions is a plus.

A good leader is a good reader, someone who cannot devote time to reading cannot lead well and effectively.  Not even in this time that we advocate for young people to take up leadership positions. I wonder the level of display of  ignorance when we have an empty-headed youth taking up political positions. Read about past leaders in various positions, read about people that succeeded well and those that had little success, read about those who didn't succeed, read about what made those that succeeded to succeed, and why those that failed fail, learn from their strategies, principles and patterns of leadership.

The man who fail to learn from history is the greatest tragedy of history.

Where are you leading? In a church, school, political party, state, local government, nation, office, region, continent or where? find a book pertaining to where you are leading, leadership is complex and diverse, no one approach is suitable for all. Someone has been there before, you are not the first person to be in that position, ask questions.

One major problem with our country today is leadership, the inability to lead. If you don't learn from other's faults or mistakes, you are likely going to make the same mistakes.

How far has the present administration learnt from the previous administration, have they studied why and how they succeeded where they recorded successes and studied why and how they failed where they recorded failures? How many books on leadership has the president read, what book is he currently reading? Leadership is not just political, it is more of intellect.

A leader must be equipped to lead, he must be trained and ready to face the task ahead. Study to show yourself approved, what have you studied? how many people's story have you read, who are you looking up to? who are you learning from? You would be the same person that you are now in the next five to ten years except for two things; the books you read and the people you meet. Reading is very vital to human capacity building, no books, no development. It might be visual, audio or the raw book, just make sure you are depositing something inside of you, out of the abundance of the mind, the mouth speaks. You are a product of what you have read.

Also, start putting what you know to practice, it is not enough to know what you know, the most important thing is to make use of what you know. Some have read so many books but it doesn't have any impact in the way they live their lives. What you read or learn should transform you, it should make you improve and create the needed change. If you are reading and nothing is changing about you, watch it. What you have read should show in how you address people, how you talk, how you dress, how you think, how you relate with people, how you perceive and lots more. You can't be reading and be stagnant. I respect anyone that reads but value those that makes use of what they read.

If you want to be an effective leader, go and start reading!

Opeyemi Oladimeji