Michael & Linda Dlouhy
My dear friends and mentors, Michael and Linda Dlouhy, wrote the following article that may just help us all in the network marketing industry to further our success. What about you? What kind of leader do you desire to be?
“When a great leader falls because of a lack of integrity, it is very painful for all involved. Tearing another person down to build yourself up, only leads to a false impression of yourself.
When someone is tearing others down in front of You this is a guarantee they will do the same to You behind Your back.
Ultimately you will crash and burn from your lack of character.
The question is:
Would You Want This Person As Your Sponsor ?
Life can give us challenges in many areas of our life. How we handle those challenges ourselves and who helps us, can determine our success or failure. Loyalty to do the right thing enters into all decisions. Friendships built on loyalty and trust are like support beams for a foundation.
A foundation is the beginning. This applies to your marriage, your friendships, your home and your business. If you build them correctly, they will sustain you your lifetime. If you build carelessly everything will crumble around you.
Leaders are built. Day by day, Lesson by lesson. When a leader chooses to fall, they sacrifice their integrity, their honor and their character.
If after knowing the facts and fully utilizing their “critical thinking skills” when someone decides to leave Your Team please wish them all the best.
Excerpt from “Launching a Leadership Revolution”
Foundational Leadership Quality: Honorable
Integrity can be considered as the condition of “not doing what’s wrong.” Character can be defined as doing the right things, for the mere reason that it is the right thing, even if that thing is difficult and unpopular.
The two sewn together make honor. Author Jeff O’Leary, in The Centurion Principles, writes, ” ‘Honor’ encompasses the virtues of integrity and honesty, self-denial, loyalty, and a servant’s humility to those in authority above as well as a just and merciful heart to those below.”
Honor is such a rarely used word in our times that it seems a little old-fashioned. But living a life of integrity and character is timeless and, for a leader, absolutely necessary. It’s about choices, and a person’s choices in life follow him to the grave.
Is this to say that a person needs to be perfect to become a leader? Of course not. Perfection in this life is not possible, and we, the authors, are certainly not exceptions. However, a leader must strive continually toward perfection even though she knows she can never exactly attain it.
It is a question of the heart. The most effective leaders through out history have led with their hearts, in trust, and with honor.
If a leader cuts corners, misuses people, or misrepresents, the truth, a time bomb begins ticking. Someday, somewhere, the bomb will go off. It is obvious in our times only too often: public figures at the pinnacles of power and fame crash and burn in the cloud of self-inflicted shame. From political scandals to high-profile corporate frauds, these calamities are brought on by a lack of honor in the leadership.
“Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.”
The difference between leaders we revile and those we praise is their individual level of honor. In fact, honor is the force that holds a leader’s hunger in check.
Without honor, hunger runs rampant and ultimately serves only selfish interests. Honor is the component that makes hunger productive for the leader’s fellow man. In fact, what we are basically describing here is another “old-fashioned”
George Washington said of duty, “Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.” So leadership is spawned by hunger and held in check by honor.
Under that combination, leaders will find happiness in the fulfillment of their duty to others. It has been said that the character of a man is the only thing that will walk back from the grave into the hearts of the people who knew him.
That is the legacy of a leader. The words a leader say and the walk a leader walks must match. As the saying goes, “Your word is your worth and your worth is your word.”
Andy Stanley, author of The Next Generation Leader, says, “To become a leader worth following you must give time and attention to the inner man.
To leave a legacy that goes beyond accomplishment alone, a leader must devote himself to matters of the heart.”
Character is developed in the valleys and the peaks of life, enabling a person to overcome obstacles and deal with success.
Abraham Lincoln observed, “Nearly all men can handle adversity, but if you really want to test a man’s character – give him power.” Character connects a person to what is right and true.
If reputation is what others think of you, then character is what God knows about you. This concept of honor is so important to a leader because people will follow a leader only as far as they feel they can trust him.
People will not follow a leader they can’t trust. According to R. Ruth Barton, “We set young leaders up for a fall if we encourage them to envision what they can do before they consider the kind of person they should be.
” Warren Bennis tells us, “In the leadership arena, character counts. I am not saying this casually, of studies, observations, and interviews with leaders and with the people near them…. I’ve never seen a person derailed from [leadership] positions for lack of technical competence.
But I’ve seen lots of people derailed for lack of judgment and character.” And, as Heraclitus said, “Man’s character is his fate.” Finally, it should be remembered that a major component of honor is personal courage.
Without the courage to do what’s right because it’s right, regardless of ramifications to self, one is not truly worthy to be called a leader.
When people don’t “Believe” they deserve Success they will self destruct every time…. This is the reason we tell everyone we meet to “Participate” in the 30 Day Mental Cleanse if You want to own Your life.”
pblevins
