One of the most important confessions and resolutions you must make as a leader is “everyone around me grows” you must not only say it but you must ACT it. It defines your leadership, its quality and everything.
Nothing you are building today outweighs the lives of the people you are building it with. They must not be used as a collateral of some sort. It’s not worth their happiness, self esteem, fulfillment and growth. I understand that coming to work for you requires their time and commitment. I know that they are earning their paychecks but the environment must support their wholeness.
None of your followers, staff, mentees and proteges should be looking like a dilapidated structure, hopeless in vision, dumped in low self-esteem because you refuse them the freedom to soar.
The proof of your leadership is the growth of your subject, not ONLY the success of your vision.
If people are building your vision and they are not becoming something for themselves or own a part of what they’re building for you, you’re a USER who is only interested in your edifice. And I can promise you that the edifice will not be truly progressive, successful and completed. It will fail the test of integrity. Leadership is nothing without integrity.
Many years ago, John C Maxwell introduced me to the concept of success that has impacted my leadership, which is knowing your purpose , growing to reach your maximum potential and sowing the seeds that benefit others. I would rather not build anything than sacrifice anyone building.
The spirit of leadership improves. It doesn’t leave anyone the way it met them.
It upgrades and enlarges the capacity of people to imagine and execute. It breathes and replicates. If potentials reduce where you are, that is not leadership, that’s a cemetery. It doesn’t dam energy and limit expression. In the realm of leadership, people are expressing. That space that won’t allow people to talk or contribute or express themselves is not a space to belong to. Leadership acknowledges the profundity of the human mind and it taps into it to create meaningful products. It’s not an assembly with only one leader who knows it all and does it all.
The spirit of leadership is a life-giving and inspirational spirit. Life giving because you give life, hope and confidence to people.
About two weeks ago. We were planning for the recording of The Breakthrough Podcast. We needed to reach out to our guests. CEOs, topnotch creators and their EAs. I did the first line of communication and handed the conversation to Nancy, my EA on the project. And one of the instructions I gave her is. “Remember no one is more important than you, you are made and qualified to do this” That was instructive. I know that handling corporate conversation could be a lot. You could be intimidated by the poise of the person on the other line. You could second guess yourself. You are also careful to be professional and not communicate something that could be costly or reveal your project in a bad light. She needed me to communicate the trust I had in her to do this excellently and I did just that. There could be mistakes but I will rather double down on the things I want to see, the value she has the capacity to deliver. She excelled at the role.
Leadership is the spirit that guarantees the liberty to BE, become, to create, to exist, and to express. It’s a spirit that empowers and authorizes.
Fear is the oxygen of limitation. If you enter an environment and fear festers. No product can come out of that place other than limitation. They will be producing limitations in batches.
Leadership gives wings to people to fly in their space . Giving nods to their baby attempts and thumbing up to their worthwhile efforts. It’s not a lone walk. It’s creating an assembly of giants!
I hope this helps.
Enjoy your day and breakthrough from within
©Abiola Iyiola, 2025
