Saji Ijiyemi's Blog, page 6

Testing Royal Slider

.new-royalslider-2 .rsThumbsHor { height:80px; }
.new-royalslider-2 .rsThumbsVer { width:220px; }
.new-royalslider-2 .rsThumb { width: 220px; height: 80px; }


#1 — Don't lead beyond your own exposure


#1 — Don't lead beyond your own exposure
You need to be exposed beyond the people that you lead or you forfeit your right to lead them.


#1 — Don't lead beyond your own exposure

#2 — Don't choose your leadership team like you choose your friends


#2 — Don't choose your leadership team like you choose your friends
Thou shalt not choose your leadership team like you choose your friends.


#2 — Don't choose your leadership team like you choose your friends

#3 — Don't reward nepotism


#3 — Don't reward nepotism
When you surround yourself with people who are like you and reward only your relatives and friends in your organization, you teach people who are not your friends or relatives that in order for people to be promoted around you, they have to be a kiss up to you.


#3 — Don't reward nepotism

#4 — Don't avoid confrontation


#4 — Don't avoid confrontation
What makes you likable to the people can destroy your organization if at the expense of being liked, you won't confront what needs to be confronted.


#4 — Don't avoid confrontation

#5 — Don't overpromise and under-deliver


#5 — Don't overpromise and under-deliver
Do people get what you advertised when they get you or your advertisement is better than your reality?


#5 — Don't overpromise and under-deliver

#6 — Clearly articulate expectations


#6 — Clearly articulate expectations
The failure of a team or a staff member to deliver what you expect is not with the people, it is because you–the leader–did not clear enough to make them understand what you really want.


#6 — Clearly articulate expectations

#7 — Don't mistake regimentation for revelation


#7 — Don't mistake regimentation for revelation
If people are driving behind your leadership car and you are busy with upkeep activities—changing the oil, waxing the car, or changing the tire, as important as those activities are, they are maintenance, not leadership.


#7 — Don't mistake regimentation for revelation

#8 — Don't lead forward without leadership updates


#8 — Don't lead forward without leadership updates
It’s a leadership mistake to change without telling anybody. The fact that you are exposed to new information does not mean that your followers are exposed to the same information.


#8 — Don't lead forward without leadership updates

#9 — Don't lead without listening


#9 — Don't lead without listening
Talking to others make you feel important; listening to others make them feel important


#9 — Don't lead without listening

#10 — Cross-pollinate with other leaders


#10 — Cross-pollinate with other leaders
You have to get out of your circle, out of your box, and be exposed to other information


#10 — Cross-pollinate with other leaders

The post Testing Royal Slider appeared first on SajiGroup International.

The John Maxwell Leadership Assessment Tool — Get A 360 Degree View Of Your Influence As A Leader

The John Maxwell Leadership Assessment tool offers insight into your leadership level

What is The John Maxwell Leadership Assessment Tool?

The John Maxwell Leadership Assessment Tool is an online based tool that offers a 360 degree view of your influence as a leader. Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less — John C. Maxwell

Critical in the development of any leader is receiving 360° feedback — David Hoyt

Max Dupree said “the first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.” The John Maxwell Leadership assessment tool will help you to define the reality of where you are on the 5 Levels of Leadership and also reveal areas that need improvements.

Developed in partnership with the industry leader in assessments, The John Maxwell Leadership assessment tool will help you increase your influence no matter what stage you are as a leader

What Does the John Maxwell Leadership Assessment Tool Measures?

Based on John Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Leadership, The Leadership Assessment tool is a series of questions and statements that offer insight into your leadership level to help you identify your strong leadership attributes and areas where there are opportunities for growth.

The Leadership assessment tool measures 64 attributes that help leaders have success at each of the 5 Levels of Leadership:

Position—The Leadership Assessment tool rates on your trustworthiness and commitment
Permission—The Leadership Assessment tool rates on your relational abilities and interpersonal skills.
Production—The Leadership Assessment tool rates on getting results individually, organizationally and as a team.
People Development—The Leadership Assessment tool rates on reproducing and developing your skills in others.
Pinnacle—The Leadership Assessment tool rates on who you are as a leader over time, your awareness of yourself and others.

What can I expect from the John Maxwell Leadership Assessment Tool?

You can add unlimited number of raters
You will get feedback compiled into a full-color, easy-to-read report.
You will have the ability to see your overall results as well as your results categorized by the type of raters.
You will get a summary of your Leadership attributes including lists of all items ranked from highest to lowest based on overall average score.
You will get written comments provided by your raters listed in an unedited form.
You will get category scores in the areas of Position, Permission, Production, People Development, and Pinnacle from The 5 Levels of Leadership.
You can add unlimited number of raters
You will get feedback compiled into a full-color, easy-to-read report.

What makes the John Maxwell Leadership Assessment Tool different?

The John Maxwell Leadership Assessment tool was developed in partnership with RightPath, an industry leader specialized in assessments.

The Maxwell Leadership Assessment was developed for ease of understanding, ease of use and, most importantly, practical application for leaders — David Hoyt

According to David Hoyt, the VP of The John Maxwell Company, “RightPath offers us a strong blend of the very best of the academic world as well as the business world all in one. With solid statistical and research validation behind all the tools, we gain the best of the Industrial Organizational Psychology and Psychometric academic world.

Where can I get the John Maxwell Leadership Assessment Tool?

Click here to get started.

Have you taken the Maxwell Leadership Assessment tool? Do you have any questions on the tool? Leave a comment and let us hear from you.

The post The John Maxwell Leadership Assessment Tool — Get A 360 Degree View Of Your Influence As A Leader appeared first on SajiGroup International.

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #10 — Cross-pollinate

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #9—Cross pollinate

Thou shalt cross-pollinate. This is the tenth commandment of effective leadership and it is a law of nature.

As beautiful as your flower is, it does not have enough nectar to produce its own fruit. Likewise, if you don’t get other influences to come in and irrigate your inner gifting, you won’t be fruitful. You have to get out of your circle, out of your box, and be exposed to other information to be fruitful.

Cross-pollinate with leaders outside your circle

As a spiritual leader, there are some things a business leader could teach you about leadership and vice versa. A business leader might not quote the Scriptures but they might be able to tell you something that could make your vision successful. But if, as a leader, you have trained your ears to only respond to one tune, you won’t be able to learn from leaders outside your domain.

Cross-pollinate with people you don’t agree with?

You irrigate your resources when you cross-pollinate various type of information because you can eat the meat and throw away the bones. You could learn something from people you don’t agree with.

For example, you might not like someone’s politics, but you might love their fried chicken. But if you are so myopic in your thinking that you can’t eat their chicken because you don’t like their politics, then you have to stay in your small world with people who think like you in order to make you comfortable.

You will not cross-pollinate if you are not secured enough in what you believe to be exposed to various idioms of thoughts and still be able to function.

You might not agree with everybody on everything but you can learn something from everybody — Saji Ijiyemi

Nike makes tennis shoes, but people don’t buy tennis shoes, they buy personalities, so Nike gets personalities to wear the tennis shoes. You might be making the greatest product in the world but they may be on the wrong foot.

Cross-pollinate your ideas

To cross-pollinate, you have to expose your ideas to other people beyond your circle so people can discover what you have. But if you are a worm that only eats off of one leaf, a flower with one kind of nectar, a leader who only reads one kind of book, or a leader who only hang around one kind of people, you will hardly be successful because you don’t cross-pollinate, interact with others, or go anywhere except your work, religious house, and home.

If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always be what you’ve always been — Bishop T.D. Jakes

Your lack of cross-pollination might be the reason why all your illustrations have dried up and you don’t have new ones because new illustrations are based on new information.

Remember: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always be what you’ve always been.” — Bishop T.D. Jakes

The post The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #10 — Cross-pollinate appeared first on SajiGroup International.

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #9—Don’t Lead Without Listening

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #9 —Don’t lead without listening

Thou shalt not lead without listening; this is the ninth of the ten commandments of effective leadership.

You cannot lead without listening and you cannot listen when you are too busy. You can be so busy doing what you are called to do that you can’t hear who called you.

If want to respect this commandment of effective leadership, you cannot take every engagement, and you cannot respond to everybody who wants you.

Mind Your Busyness

Just because you are busy does not mean you are effective. Your busyness can be the enemy of your greatness. If you’ve been busy for the last three years and you don’t see any progress, you busyness is your enemy. You can go farther if you do less.

Leaders, listen to your leaders

Don’t put people in position if you don’t respect their gifting. If you don’t respect your leaders enough to at least listen to what they have to say, then you have the wrong people in leadership position.

Respect has to have reciprocity. You cannot ask people to respect you if you don’t respect them.

If you stop appointing flunkies and start appointing professionals, half of your meetings should be spent listening to the people who are doing the work, allowing them to inform you on what is going on in the trenches. Just because you sit in the office doesn’t mean you know what is going on in the basement. You cannot lead without listening.

Listening does not make you weak

Just because you listen to your people doesn’t mean you have to obey them. It does mean, as a leader, you are going to consider their perspective in your decision.

Listening does not make you weak, it makes you wise. — T.D. Jakes

People don’t like to follow people if they can’t be heard. As a leader, even if you don’t like what somebody says, give them the chance to say it anyway. Then weigh what they said according to your belief, and you don’t have to do it just because they say.

You can kill your relationships if you are leading but not  listening

One of the greatest marriage killers is Not Listening. As a husband, your wife doesn’t really want to fix everything or advise her on everything, she just want to be heard.

It’s hard to get a driver’s license if you are deaf, this is because it not just your visual senses, but your auditory senses that warns you of oncoming danger. Sometimes you can’t see the enemy but you can hear them coming.

You might not see the train but you can hear the train if you listen.

The post The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #9—Don’t Lead Without Listening appeared first on SajiGroup International.

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #8—Don’t Lead Forward Without Leadership Updates

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #7—Don’t lead forward without updates

The eighth commandment of effective leadership says “Thou Shalt not lead forward without updates.”

It’s a leadership mistake to change without telling anybody. The fact that you are exposed to new information does not mean that your followers are exposed to the same information.

Moses was receiving updates on the mountain—seeing the glory of God while the people he was leading are not exposed to the same updates at the foot of the mountain—they were busy having a wild party.

Send out leadership updates

When you are exposed to new information as a leader, find a way to update your followers with the same information, if not, they could be faithful at giving you what you use to need.

It’s time to take another look at your organizational structure, services, ads, websites, and social profile to make sure they are not reflecting where you have been instead of where you want to be.

When you are exposed to new information as a leader, find a way to update your followers with the same information, if not, they could be faithful at giving you what you use to need. — T.D. Jakes

If you are not downloading and or sending out leadership updates, you are building the mentality of your people around where you’ve been instead of where you want to be, and they could be busy making flyers in a twitter world.

Update your relationship

The leading cause of divorce today is because there are no updates between the couple—they have stopped making an investment in the other person to talk about what they see now, and both are busy functioning under what they have seen and where they have been.

Watch out for the leadership Updates

If you are good at working with the computers but afraid to download the updates, you might end up with a computer virus, and your workstation might malfunction. If you refuse to download the leadership updates you are getting, it might be because you are afraid of change.

Are you refusing to download the updates because you know change will you out of your comfort zone and out of the familiar? Watch out for the updates!

Don’t keep missing leadership updates

Updates are not mandatory, they are merely suggestions, and they don’t force themselves on you. The leadership blog you are reading right now, the book you are reading right now, the leadership seminars, workshops, and conferences you are attending, the audio and video teachings on leadership, and the notes you are taking in your leadership development are all updates and you should find a way to send these updates to your followers. You can send the updates to your followers now or later.

Don’t catch leadership virus

If you are not developing yourself as a leader, you are missing the updates, you don’t like change, and you might end up with a leadership virus.

As a follower, you also need to watch out for updates. It is wise to download the updates from your leader—now. If you choose to download the updates later, it will keep popping up to remind you that updates are still available for download. But if you keep missing updates, you will get left behind.

As a leader, when last did you send updates to your followers. As a follower, when last did you get an update from your leader?

The post The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #8—Don’t Lead Forward Without Leadership Updates appeared first on SajiGroup International.

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #7—Don’t Mistake Regimentation for Revelation

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #7—Don’t Mistake Regimentation for Revelation

“Thou shalt not mistake regimentation for revelation.” This is the seventh of the ten commandments of effective leadership, a teaching by Bishop T.D. Jakes at the 2013 Pastors and Leaders Conference.

A quick personal story came to mind while writing this blog:

I had a lot to learn when I arrived in the U.S.A 8 years ago. After passing my driver’s license knowledge examination, vision screening, and the road skills driving test, I was thrilled to finally get my driver’s license and started driving in Washington, DC.

I remembered driving home from work one evening after rush hour and I was not expecting much traffic. After driving for a few minutes, I got stuck behind a car while other lanes were moving at regular speed. I honked a few times to alert the car in front to move, change, or do something but there was no movement.

After standing still for about ten minutes with a little road rage, I decided to change to the other lane that has been moving at a regular speed and what I discovered was very alarming.

I did not know that I’d been standing behind a line of parked cars and that the road was zoned for street parking after 7 PM. I was even angrier with myself to have deliberately stayed behind a parked car.

Is it possible that people are not following you because you have a regiment and you are not moving? A leader moves!

A leader moves

According to dictionary.com, to regiment is to manage or treat in a rigid, uniform manner.

As a leader, you need people who are focused on maintenance. Such people are solid, stable, and stiff. They build structures and infrastructures to support your vision. Such people are managers, not leaders, they are interested in maintenance, not movement—a leader moves.

It is possible that people are not following you because you have a regiment and you are not moving.

When people always know what to expect when they come to your organization, you have a regiment. People will not follow something that doesn’t move no matter how much they love it!

Are you leading or maintaining?

As a leader, you need to ask yourself if you are leading your organization or maintaining it. If people are driving behind your leadership car and you are busy with upkeep activities—changing the oil, waxing the car, or changing the tire, as important as those activities are, they are maintenance, not leadership.

People don’t follow things that don’t move. Nobody follows anything that doesn’t move.

If people always know what to expect when they come to your organization, why should they come? Why should people be excited about something that never moves?

It’s time

As a leader, it’s time for you to be creative again, think again, get out of the box again, dream again, go after something that is challenging again, read again, study again, and prepare again, rather than doing things that are just regurgitation of old information.

To be an effective leader, you need people who are focused on regimentation but it doesn’t have to be you. However, if you are gifted in managing and maintaining things, don’t be the leader. Instead, get someone who can lead and help them manage what they are leading.

Find your place

Your ineffectiveness as a leader does not mean you are bad person, it might be that you are out of place as a leader and should find your place as a manager. Likewise, there is a difference between a teacher and a leader, just because you can teach does not mean you can lead; a leader leads and moves people.

The post The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #7—Don’t Mistake Regimentation for Revelation appeared first on SajiGroup International.

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #6 — Clearly Articulate Expectations

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #6 – Clearly articulate expectations

The sixth of the ten commandments of effective leadership says “Thou shalt clearly articulate expectations.”

So far, I’ve discussed five out of the ten commandments of effective leadership, a teaching by Bishop T.D. Jakes at the 2013 Pastors and Leaders Conference.

Leadership Commandment #5 – Don’t overpromise and under-deliver

Clearly articulate expectations

If you always expect more than what you say, you have no right to be frustrated when people under-perform because you did not clearly articulate your expectations.

When you speak an expectation, you know what you meant but that doesn’t mean your follower(s) heard what you said.

Leadership Commandment #4 – Don’t avoid confrontation

How to clearly articulate expectations

As a leader, whenever you are giving out expectations and you are counting on someone to deliver based on your conversation, don’t stop the conversation after giving out your expectations.

To be sure that your team clearly understood what you expect, have them say back to you what they heard and what they get out of the meeting or the conversations to make sure both of you are on the same page.

When you speak an expectation, you know what you meant but that doesn’t mean your follower(s) heard what you said– T.D. Jakes

The failure of a team or a staff member to deliver what you expect is not with the people, it is because you–the leader–did not clear enough to make them understand what you really want.

Leadership Commandment #3 – Don’t reward nepotism

What other ways can you suggest to help leaders clearly articulate their expectations? Leave your comments below.

The post The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #6 — Clearly Articulate Expectations appeared first on SajiGroup International.

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #5—Don’t Overpromise and Underdeliver

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #5—Don’t Overpromise and Underdeliver

I’ve been discussing the 10 commandments of effective leadership — based on T.D. Jakes‘ opening message at the Pastors and Leadership conference held earlier this year in Dallas, Texas.

The fifth of the 10 commandments of effective leadership says  ”Thou shalt not overpromise and underdeliver.”

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #1—Don’t Lead Beyond Your Own Exposure

Don’t Overpromise and Underdeliver

Disappointment will kill relationships in your life if you bait and switch.

Bait and switch is a sales tactic in which a customer is attracted by the advertisement of a low-priced item but is then encouraged to buy a higher-priced one (Merriam-Webster  Dictionary).

If you don’t want to be a leader that overpromise and underdeliver, you have to constantly ask yourself: Do people get what I advertised when they get me or is my advertisement better than my reality?

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #2—Don’t Choose Your Leadership Team Like You Choose Your Friends

Bring your reality up or bring your advertisement down

If you can’t bring your reality up, then you have to bring your advertisement down because it is better to under-promise and over-deliver than to overpromise and underdeliver.

Disappointments will make people to stop listening to you because they’ve heard it all before. If you are preaching change but not producing change, people will come for a while but when don’t see what you said, they will gradually leave.

People will stop going to KFC if they can’t find the chicken. People will stop checking the vending machine if Coca-Cola run out of soft drinks.

If you can’t bring your reality up, then you have to bring your advertisement down — T.D. Jakes

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #3—Don’t Reward Nepotism

Adjust your expectations

To keep the fifth commandment of effective leadership as a leader, you need to be able to tell people if you can’t get something done. It is better to adjust the expectation than to live in the atmosphere of disappointment.

If you observe that you keep taking more and more and more on yourself because you are the leader and have not set any boundaries for yourself, maybe you need to get help.

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #4—Don’t Avoid Confrontation

Don’t promise everybody everything

If you keep saying yes to everything, you are snared by the words of your own mouth and people won’t believe you for anything because you’ve promised more than you can deliver.

Bring down your expectations and let your people know what they can count on you for. Don’t promise everybody everything.

What are you personally doing to help you deliver on their promises?

The post The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #5—Don’t Overpromise and Underdeliver appeared first on SajiGroup International.

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #4—Don’t Avoid Confrontation

The 10 Commandments of effective leadership #4—Don’t avoid confrontation

The fourth of the 10 commandments of effective leadership says “Thou shalt not avoid confrontation.” One of the challenges of leadership is that the qualities that makes you a very good leader—nice, kind, generous heart—can also make you ineffective.

Do not avoid confrontation

As a leader, people generally expect you to be nice, but you destroy your potential to lead effectively if you care so much about preserving your image of niceness. What makes you likable to the people can destroy your organization if, at the expense of being liked, you won’t confront what needs to be confronted.

“When you are afraid to confront people, you will throw your frustration in your speech and hope your team members get it out of the speech.” You need to take the issue out of the speech, look whoever is concerned right in the face, and tell him or her exactly what needs to be said. Do not avoid confrontation!

Being liked vs. being effective

To obey the 10 commandments of effective leadership, you have to be prepared to put being liked at risk for the sake of being effective. As a leader, you have to decide if you want to be liked or you want to be effective.

What makes you likable to the people can destroy your organization if, at the expense of being liked, you won’t confront what needs to be confronted.— T.D. Jakes

Most great leaders are defined by history. People like them after they are gone. Dr. Martin Luther King became popular after his death, he confronted issues while he was alive. You cannot be a leader if you cannot confront issues.

Confront the issue without being confrontational

To be an effective leader, you’ve got to be prepared to confront issues without being confrontational or argumentative.

“You can confront the issue without being confrontational”— T.D. Jakes

The only reason you are angry is because you waited too long to say what needs to be said. You could have destroyed the problem in its embryo before it became a grandparent.

As a leader, you have to have the nerve and the audacity to confront people and let them know they said that you don’t like, what you don’t like about what they said, what needs to change if both of you will continue to work together, how you can both make it if they are willing to fix it, and the possibility of parting ways if they are unwilling to change.

You are going to lose some people

You are going to lose some people; if Jesus lost one out of twelve, you should be prepared to lose ten percent to make it where you want to go. Stop trying to keep the infection in the house. Let it go! Bleed it out! Get it out! Push it out! Pull it out! If you don’t, it’s going to contaminate your gift, your organization, and your team; it is going to make you lead with bitterness rather than with happiness.

Confront the issue, not the individual

The very first thing God taught Joshua about leadership is character for effective leadership: be strong and be very courageous.

You have to have the courage to confront the issue, and not the individual.

If you make the issue the focus of the confrontation rather than the individual, you might be able to save the relationship and remove the cancer without destroying the kidney.— T.D. Jakes

When you make the issue and the individual synonymous, you destroy the kidney while removing the cancer. This means in order to eradicate the issue you have to destroy the individual.

You have to be able to make the individual understand that you are not against them personally, but you are against what they did, you are against being late, or you are against the fact that they can’t type. Let them understand that you can have their person but you cannot have the issue in the organization. But you cannot do that if you are not mature enough to master your own feelings and personality while you confront theirs.

As a leader, have you had any reason to confront any of your team members in the past? How did you handle it? As a team member, have you been confronted by your leader in the past, how did you think they handled it? Share your thoughts:

The post The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #4—Don’t Avoid Confrontation appeared first on SajiGroup International.

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #3—Don’t Reward Nepotism

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #3 – Don’t reward nepotism

The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #3

The third of the 10 commandments of effective leadership says, “Thou shalt not reward nepotism.”

If you break the second commandment of effective leadership by surrounding yourself with people who look like you, you will eventually create a nepotistic and a preferential treatment culture within your organization where you reward people for their personality instead of their performance.

Nepotistic environment is counterproductive

When you surround yourself with people who are like you and reward only your relatives and friends in your organization, you teach people who are not your friends or relatives that in order for people to be promoted around you, they have to be a kiss up to you.

A nepotistic environment within the culture of your organization is counterproductive to the growth and development of your organization. For example, you don’t want an accountant who is trying to get you, the leader, to like him. Because such an accountant will tell you what you want to hear until the Internal Revenue Service come to arrest you.

Great organization, toxic culture

No matter how good or talented you are as a leader, no matter how great your sermons are as a pastor, you will have a toxic organization if you reward nepotism. When the culture becomes toxic, the people in the organization become a gang.

For your organization to grow, outsiders and foreigners need to come into your organization, but if you breed gangs and cults in your organization by rewarding nepotism, the gangs will kill anybody who is different because they feel threatened and your organization will never grow.

Read  The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #1

It’s not your heart, it’s the environment

Sometimes leaders wonder what they are personally doing wrong when their organization is not growing but it might not be what you are personally doing wrong; it might be because the environment in your organization has become toxic for things and people to grow.

You might have a good heart as a leader, but if you reward nepotism, everybody will feel obligated to drive out anybody who is different. When people in your organization don’t like one another for no reason, you have a virus in your organization.

When the culture becomes toxic, the people in the organization become a gang.

Drive out nepotism

To fulfill the third commandment of effective leadership, you have to drive out nepotism and you can drive it out by rewarding people for their performance instead of their personality. People do watch who you reward—who you give a raise, who you smile at, who you eat lunch with, who you talk to, who you turn around to look at when something is good.

They pay attention to what you feed and if you reward people because of who they are instead of what they have done, others will transform who they are to what you like to the detriment of what you need.

The post The 10 Commandments of Effective Leadership #3—Don’t Reward Nepotism appeared first on SajiGroup International.