Hello everyone. Welcome back to Real Talk With Reginald D. So glad you can tune in with me today. The topic today is very, very passionate to me. We're going to talk about leadership and effective leaders. I used to look at leaders or people in leadership and I would say to myself that they had it made until I got into the leadership myself.  Boy was I wrong. Being a leader is very demanding and challenging, especially if you are an effective leader.

Let's talk about leaders. Most people are leaders in their lives. They can be the head of the household, they can have people that report to them on a job or be a pastor that has a congregation, etc. Regardless of what kind of leader you are, as a leader, you are someone who can see how things can be improved and rally people to move towards that vision. That's what you do as a leader. An effective leader will have passion for the vision but will have more passion for the people. You have to control your emotions as a leader. 

The most ineffective leader is one who lets their emotions get in the way. As an effective leader, you have to realize that your people's emotions are more important than yours. As a leader, you can't show your emotions to people you are leading. If you have issues in your personal life, say for instance household problems, don't let people know that because people can take that and use it against you -- because they think you should be perfect and you are not, as a leader. Leaders are human like everybody else. But the difference is they have more responsibility than others. Therefore, their probability of making mistakes is higher. As a leader, it's okay to make mistakes. Just don't make them so detrimental to the point that it affects your people and vision. An effective leader does not allow their emotions to get in the way. If someone on your team disagrees with you. Embrace it. Don't become vindictive because you were challenged. I have seen so many people in leadership put a target on people's back and attempt to fire them because somebody disagreed with them. Remember an honest disagreement is a sign of progress. The people you are leading have the right to have a voice and be free about how they feel. And as an effective leader, you have to take in consideration their feelings and present something to them in a way that they may understand the purpose better. If someone challenges you, you don't have to give them an answer right away, just tell them that you will think about it and get back with them tomorrow. And make sure you get back with them tomorrow. Do not wait to next week because they are going to think you are a liar. Then they will tell everybody else that you lied. And now you have more people thinking and questioning your integrity. Whatever you do don't lie to anybody, because if you lie, you will never get them back. I know so many people can get on your nerves, and you want to tell them something just to get them to leave. I've been there and I've done that. But you can't do it. Tell them the truth, even though it might strike a whole other conversation that you don't have time for at the moment. Tell them the truth, even if it hurts. It's better to deal with the moment truthfully versus dealing with the same things over and over again because you were not truthful at the beginning. Now, as a leader, never call anybody you're leading a liar. That can be very detrimental. If someone says something to you that's untrue, you don't have to call them a liar. A leader proves to them that they're wrong without saying it. For instance, I used to manage this trucking company, and this driver, every week his truck was cutting off because it was low in oil. The maintenance manager came to me and said, hey, this guy is not pre tripping his truck. He's not checking his oil. I went out and talked to the driver. I said, hey, are you checking your oil every day? He said yes, I am. I said OKAY. And then I walked away. He went home. I went out to his truck. I popped the hood, got a rubber band, and put a $20 bill around the dipstick and put it back down in there and shut the hood. The next day he went on route. When came back in, I was outside waiting on him. I asked him, did he check his oil? He said yeah, this morning. I said pop the hood. He popped the hood. The $20 bill was still wrapped around that dipstick.  I said, if you would have checked your oil, you would have found the $20 bill on the dipstick, he looked at me and he said, you know what.  I'm sorry! I was wrong. I didn't check the oil. I looked at him, but I didn't freak out because he lied to me. I didn't have knee jerk reaction or anything like that. I just looked at him and said, don't let that happen again and walked away.  I know he learned a lesson at the end of the day. 

Now, if you're a leader and never get burnout, then you are not an effective leader. The burnout is a sign that you are effective. If you are the type of leader that needs a break from their assignment every month or every two months, you are not an effective leader. You are a lazy leader. For an effective leader, the burnout would take months and months before it happens. The reason it takes months is because a real leader does not tap out in the middle of the mission or the process. Now, leaders must be mindful of how they manage burn out. It's critical that you take time for yourself and go on a vacation and don't work or check in with people that you left in charge when you leave. Because if you do that, it will trigger your mind and you will start worrying about what's going on there while you're away somewhere else. In order to stay an effective leader, you have to allow your mind to reset. I have seen organizations struggle because their leaders didn't know how to manage the burnout situation. They tried to keep fighting when they had no more fight left in them. At that moment, they just needed to take time for themselves. Now, I know at times, as a leader, you want to quit. I've been there more than one time. What you don't do is tell your people or your team that you want to quit. You keep that to yourself. I used to come home about every other day, go up in my room and be like, I'm going to quit, I can't do this no more. I'm burned out. I'm not motivated anymore, things like that. But I was at this award ceremony, and I looked and saw a lot of my team members racking up awards at the ceremony. And a voice spoke to me and said, you see what you built? What are they going to do if you quit? And that stuck hard with me, and it made me rise up again and keep leading. Ask yourself that question - if you quit, how many people are you going to let down? 

For some people, a real leader is all they got to help them through things. When Dr. King was assassinated, people lost their minds and started looting and destroying everything. They were totally out of character because Dr. King taught love, peace, and non-violence. Because he was so effective as a leader, the people didn't know what to do when they lost him. You can't quit as a leader. Remember this. Do you know an effective leader will outwork their team or people who are following them. 

Now, Jesus said that leaders should not exercise authority over people. Instead, whoever wants to become a great must lure himself to be a servant. An effective leader is not a boss. They are a servant. They push away pride, roll up their sleeves and get in the trenches with their people. Real leaders are servants to their people or their team, and they make sure they are tuned in to whatever their needs are. A leader is not a boss. I'm going to say this again. They are a servant. If you don't display servanthood as a leader, then you are not a leader. You just have a position. Leaders do not boss your people! Serve your people. I'm going to say that again. If you boss your people, you will lose your people. If you serve them, they will be dedicated to you for a long time. Now listen, everybody has a leader in their life. Take care of your leader. Do you know, most effective leaders suffer from some type of depression. It's because the responsibility is so heavy at times. So please continue to encourage, support, and most of all, pray for your leaders. They need that from you. And to my leaders, keep leading, stay passionate, stay motivated, and keep working the vision. You won't regret it. For every leader that's on here, I salute you today. Remember this, and I was told this by my pastor, Curtis Johnson. He said, there are a set of people out there hurting that's waiting on you as a leader to help them through their situation. Remember that as a leader. Thank you for tuning in to Real Talk With Reginald D. This is all I have for today. Like I said, I'm very passionate about leadership, and let's continue to support our leaders, pray for our leaders and pray for one another. Until next time, be safe.