Good Leadership Starts with Humility

At the HEART of every good leader you will find a tremendous amount of humility.

In simple terms, humility is others focused - it gets on one knee bringing relief to the weary or offers a ‘leg up’ over the obstacles others are facing.

Well known philosopher and author of the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis, said it best — “humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less”.

It was a game changer for me when I realised that I did not have to maintain a low self esteem or suppress my outgoing personality to cultivate humility. All I needed to remember is that ‘it’s just not about me’… Oh the freedom!

When it comes to leadership, there’s very little that is more fulfilling than leading my family on this wild adventure called life. The truth is my kids, and especially my wife, are leading me more often than I’d like to admit. It just takes me a little while most days for me to realise it. And one of the greatest lessons my kids are teaching me lately, especially August, my youngest, is this — ‘we’ is much better than ‘me’.

You see, my kids don’t always ‘need’ my help or ‘need me’, they’re more often looking for the shared joy and experience of ‘we’ — that magical place where we lose ourselves in the moment together. That regularly looks like endlessly jumping on the trampoline, or that 12th kiss goodbye at school drop off gate, or the bedtime story that dangerously lulls us both to sleep, snuggled up in his bed together.

The good leaders that have left a lasting impact on my life weren’t just my mentors, or guides, or teachers… they were my friends, who found joy on my pursuits and knew that I needed their presence and encouragement more than their principles and expertise.

Good leadership always starts with humility.

#HeartOfAGoodLeader #Humility #HEART #Leadership #Empowerment #LessonsFromMyKids

Exposing The Real Borders That Divide Us

This image is all that I need to remind me that forgiveness and healing is always possible.

It’s in times like these that we need to find examples of hope that a world where “enemies” — divided by our own made up borders — can still become more than just neighbours, but the closest of friends.

For three years, dozens of families led by these two men lived side by side in a micro-village built for refugees that had survived and escaped the horrors of ISIS who had ransacked their homes.

These two men represented families of different ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, and opposing cultural practices. In any other circumstances, they would be considered enemies. However, their lives were bound together through survival — I witnessed them daily share their food, water, electricity and their lives. Their children went to school together, the adults sat together and processed their pain and loss together.

They walked the long hard road of healing together and on they way discovered that their had not just survived, they had learnt to thrive.

And so, when the time came for them to part ways, because of the courageous decision for their families to return and rebuild their homes now liberated from ISIS, this became the moment I witnessed the power of love, forgiveness and hope.

You simply can’t tell me that peace isn’t possible — that Shalom is not worth fighting for!

“What if the borders that divide us are not the lines we find on a map but the walls we build in our hearts and minds?”

I think it’s time to tear down some walls and erase the borders we’ve fooled ourselves into believing divided us.

Thanks @missjessieparks for capturing this moment, forever etched in my memory.

Most of all, thank you Abu Raed & Mam Fahsool for teaching us all that courage and kindness has the power to obliterate the unnecessary borders we create in our hearts and minds.