Mike Holt Enterprises Understanding the NEC

Mike HoltBeing a leader is about living your life in a way that inspires or encourages others. As part of my efforts to provide free resources to help the industry, I will be sending out a monthly newsletter, each with a section on the skills you need to be a leader of your life. To lead is to serve. If you make it your goal to do the best that you can and to help people, then you can't fail. I encourage you to commit to keep learning.

The content below is extracted from Mike Holt's Leadership Skills - Taking Your Career to the Next Level.

1 Introduction

Being a leader is about living your life in a way that inspires or encourages others. Leadership has to do with the day-to-day choices you make to succeed in your personal life or in your work. It’s about being the best you can be, no matter what part of your career you’re in or what stage of life. Regardless of whether you currently lead others or even plan to someday, you can make choices that will have great impact on all areas of your life and help you be an example to those around you.

If you ask people who they think of when they think of a leader, they might reel off a list of names of charismatic, well-known people they see on the news, but the signs of outstanding leadership appear all around you every day.

Leadership is living your life in a way that inspires or encourages others.
Leaders are the ones who are:
• Reaching their full potential
• Continuously learning
• Serving others
• Achieving results
• Managing conflict appropriately
• Changing with grace

Are you born with leadership skills or can they be learned? Rest assured—the skills that make true leaders can be developed just like any skill. Some people will find that leadership skills come easily, while others will find they have to work hard at them and continuously practice, but everyone has the capability. We regard leadership as a quality that bestows power, commands respect, and fosters achievement. We sometimes come across people who exhibit these qualities early in life, and we might say “they’re a born leader,” but generally these skills are carefully cultivated over the course of a lifetime, rather than the result of a genetic lottery.

The ultimate compliment in today’s society is to be considered a leader, but the demands of being one are significant and impact not only yourself, but others around you. Leadership entails sacrifice, dedication, focus, hard work and long hours, and can be a lonely journey. It puts you in a position of being in the spotlight, of becoming a “visible target.” People might turn against you if your decisions aren’t to their liking, so to be effective you’ll want to develop a thick skin.

A leader’s role is to provide and maintain momentum and clarity, whether the focal point is an organization, sports team, group of volunteers, family, or personal life. This momentum will come if you have a clear vision of the end goal. You’ll need a well-thought-out strategy to achieve that vision, along with a carefully formulated and communicated plan. The plan must foster and enable everyone involved, and you’ll need to be accountable for achieving those goals. To maintain this momentum, and grow, you’ll find there’s give and take, and you’ll find there are times when you need to be willing to allow others to lead you.

A significant factor in your success is having a support group. Ideally, you’ll want to find your encouragement and positive reinforcement from family, close friends, and business associates, but this is not always possible. If you can’t find support from those around you, you’ll need to go elsewhere. Seek out like-minded individuals so you can discuss ideas and share opinions and goals that will help you succeed. The rewards of leadership are many, and this textbook will provide a great opportunity for you to develop your own vision of the type of leader you want to become.

If you are currently leading others, use this textbook for inspiration and ideas to train your team to become the next generation of leaders. Our goal is to assist you in recognizing, developing, and improving on the skills that will help you become a successful player in your own life—being in control of your own destiny, whatever you determine that to be. To achieve even a modest level of success requires total participation and commitment on your part—no-one else can do this work for you. Set an example that others can follow with pride.

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We'd love to hear from you about this series, and the ways you're using it. Send us your comments and feedback by clicking on Post a Comment below. Look out for the next part in this series a month from now, and please share with your colleagues.

To review or catch up on previous newsletters on business and personal development click here.
The above content is extracted from Mike Holt's Leadership Skills textbook.


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888.NEC.CODE (632.2633) www.MikeHolt.com
Mike Holt Enterprises, 3604 Parkway Boulevard, Ste 3, Leesburg, FL 34748
"... as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" [Joshua 24:15]

Comments
  • Dear Mike, You are a true inspiration! I have attended your classes over the years. Although I am now retired, I still enjoy your columns. You may find humorous a description of electricity when asked on a You-tube interview. I said you can picture it as a beehive. The hive is the generator or source, the bees travel from there to work(collect pollen) and return to the hive. Don't get in their way! Thanks for all you do. Henry PS do you still water ski barefooted?

    Henry A Brann  April 30 2019, 6:36 pm EDT
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