mardi 14 mai 2013

How are leadership and communication linked?


Discerning and consistently choosing the right direction to go in one’s various roles can be called self leadership. Haggai defines group leadership as "the discipline of deliberately exerting special influence within a group to move it toward goals of beneficial permanence that fulfill the group's real needs." (Haggai, 2009). Leadership can be described as a bipolar function in which there is a direction setter on one side, and a direction follower on the other. Hackman and Jonhson ( 2009) note that leaders must create and aptly use shared symbols like words, stories, rituals, etc; that carry specific meaning.
Ongoing mutual influence between leaders and followers is at the heart of leadership.  If a leader fails to create and consistently use a communication system that clearly explains the expectations and aspirations of the organization at every level, performance will significantly suffer. Baldoni (2003) notes that this failure of communication is actually failure in leadership. How can a team align and synchronize its effort if no clear direction is given to team members? How can a community be healthy and strong if no one creates and shares the common dreams for which the members want to live? It is obvious that for a group to function and be effective, leaders must develop the ability to create clear and unequivocal messages (Torsten, 2007), while they also help their followers to understand and respond to the signals they receive.

References

Baldoni, J. (2003). Great communication secrets of great leaders. New York: Mc Graw Hill.
Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2009). Leadership: a communication perspective (5th ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.
Haggai, J. E. (2009). The influential leader: 12 steps to igniting visionary decision making. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest house publishers.
Torsten, M. (2007). What makes a good leader & how might the performance of leaders be measured. Munich: GRIN Publishing GmbH.

samedi 20 avril 2013

Young Leaders Flash 04 2013


Modeling Leadership and Character for Youths

ThYoung Leaders Club activities argoing on in schools. Leadership implementatioworkshops sucas knitting or arts and crafts are also goinon in the clubs. They are all providing a wonderfuframeworfotutortmodel leadership and character, and foparticipants to implement the leadershiprinciples theare learning. Creativity, innovatioand excellence arsomothprinciples youthare learning in thesworkshops. Excellence taught in workshops does not end at the technical dimensiooapprenticeshipCoaches also communicate leadership values sucas integrity and the fear of God in their workshops. Somparents exprestheir joy to see the contribution of the YounLeaderClub in the lifotheir children.
Thmother oYounLeader TOUONENE Leaticia, an upper sixtstudent at college IPONI said: I am sglad for the involvement of my daughter in the Young Leaders Club. My daughter had rebelled and was in a constant conflict with me, she was always seizinthe slightest occasion to annoy me, anto challenge my authority. She constantlmade very bad moral choices foher lifeanas a resuloalthese, faileher AdvanceLevel examination lasyear. But to my greatest surprise she habecome a model at home, ever since shgot involved in the Young Leaders Club. Thanks fothtimand energthaYoung Leaders coaches invest in the lifomy daughter.
Coach Mrs Kakula (l) with Young Leader Laeticia (r) of Collège Iponi

Y2L Youths Learn Principles While Hiking

To end the activities of this seconsemester, young leaders of our threpartners schools (College IPONI, College de la Victoire, College les Sapins) participated in a student-led hike at MonEloumden. The objective of this trip wato teach the young leaders the principles of endurance, perseverance and gooattitude before lifes trials. Halfway up to the top of the montain, bees attacked the group and we were forced to stop the trip. While running back away from the bees, one student slipped and got injured.

He was examined by Dr. Florence Manyim on the spot and evacuated tthe hospital immediately. This didnt stothe Young Leaders from drawing thfollowing leadership lessons:
    Failure is not bad in itself, bufailure to draw a lesson from failureis a mistake one ought to avoid.
    In a leadership crisis, one needs tdecide quickly and well.
    Working in team makes us moreffective than working alone.

lundi 17 octobre 2011

October 2011 Update

The academic year 2011-2012 is on. We have resumed the Leadership And Development Studies course ( LADS) in three partner institutions of the city of Yaounde. LADS will be a full graded course delivered in a class setting in these schools. Through this transformational leadership course we will help equip more than 750 young people this year with paradigms of servant leadership. The launching of Young Leaders Clubs is also going on in the same high schools. In the Club setting, we will help members to engage in a dynamic personal relationship with The Lord Jesus while they are trained to lead and serve according to biblical principles.
The video below shows the first meeting of the Young Leaders Club at College IPONI (a partner high school in the outskirts of Yaounde) two weeks ago.

It is a custom for us to end each ministry year with a Young Leaders camp. We are still receiving testimonies of changed lives at the camp of last June. A few weeks ago, we received the encouraging testimony below from the mother of a camper:
"The grace and love of our Lord Jesus-Christ be with you! I wish to express my gratitude to God and to you, the whole team who worked to make this camp happen.You did a great ministry at Libamba and even beyond, by encouraging us to give our children a daily devotional book. Once a week, William shares with the family the teachings of one day at the Libamba camp and we are blessed. Be strengthened for other activities, for which I hope you are planning already”.
Many blessings in Christ

         Victor & Florence