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52 | The Lion King
Synergy Creates Energy
By Solo Ezinwoke
The highlights below are excerpts
from Keith Harrel’s book titled
‘The
Attitude of Leadership: Taking the
Lead and Keeping it.’
The lessons
are quite insightful and would be
helpful, both in one’s individual
and corporate life.
Synergy via Attitude!
Henry Ford, the automobile leg-
end and founder of the famous
Ford Motor Company, was quot-
ed as saying, ‘Coming together is
a beginning. Keeping together is
progress.’ That’s synergy!
Synergy must be consciously and
responsibly pursued and main-
tained at all costs. The success
of any organization depends on
it. Do you remember how much
fun it was when you were a child
and you and your buddies did
things together? You played ball
together, swam together, ran
together, traded cards, and were
probably mischievous together.
Imagine if the ‘we-do-every-
thing-together’ attitude were
maintained throughout life and
became evident in everything
that we did. In the pursuit of indi-
vidual success, it’s easy to forget
the value of teamwork. Why is
that? Whatever the answer, indi-
vidual success isn’t as meaningful
as corporate success.
Creating the right synergy takes
a purposeful and motivated
leadership. Being motivated as a
leader takes an attitude adjust-
ment. Attitude is the motor that
keeps your motivation running
smoothly; therefore, strive to
become the best at what you
do, because others depend on
your positive guidance. Keep in
mind that no one wants to follow
a leader with bad attitude. Atti-
tude above aptitude determines
one’s leadership altitude.
Attitude Check
As a leader, you are what you
say; you are what you do. The
biggest mistake any leader can
make is to talk out of both sides
of their mouth; to voice one
opinion to one person, but an
opposite opinion to another. Re-
member, words never die! If you
can’t follow through, don’t put it
out there. People don’t expect us
to be perfect. They expect us to
be honest!
‘Change is not change until you
change’
The attitude of leadership
transcends titles, positions, race
or gender. There is no special
difference between the attitudes
required to lead a company, or-
ganization or individual. Leader-
ship is leadership!
Taking the lead and keeping it,
however, will require you to em-
brace an attitude of love and an
attitude of continuous improve-
ment. It requires change, and
change produces growth; but as
Dr. Dollar quotes often, ‘Change
is not change, until you change.’
Mahatma Gandhi puts it this way,
‘Be the change you want to see.’
Albert Einstein, the mathemati-
cal physicist of Relativity Theory
fame, once said ‘Try not to
become a man of success, but
rather to become a man of
value.’ Everyone should do his or
her best to add value positively,
which is anchored on the right
attitude. By so doing, an endur-
ing synergy is created. It is our
responsibility to seek congruent
leadership roles, so that we can
make the biggest possible contri-
bution to our immediate environ-
ment and to life, while here on
earth.
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