Becoming a Leader by Living Second takes the faithful following and serving of others first… Many of us think that in order to be a leader we must also carry a title.  Titles in fact mean very little in the business world as they no longer garnish you with guaranteed respect or esteem they once may have. We all know someone in our life that carries a title of manager or lead yet could not find their way out of a wet paper sack. Leadership requires others to become followers, not followers in the sense that they worship the ground you walk on per se hang on every word you might speak.  Followers as in those that look to you for guidance, as a decision maker and one that will steer them straight. Many times a leader is the quiet one that sits in the back of the room.  They may even be the sarcastic one that comes across a bit callous or rude.  These are the people who know exactly where they are going, they reek of confidence and whether they like it or not (usually not at least at first) they make others want to follow wherever they might be going. The silence exudes authority and intelligence and the sarcasm a quick wit and raw honesty.  We all know who these leaders are, sometimes long before they ever do. Although they may shirk titles and wish to remain anonymous, their morals, values and character generally shine through. When you are at peace with your […]

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Will you pray for us? Many of us, especially men can find those words terrifying, I know I do.  You might ask why?  What is so difficult about praying?  You pray every day throughout the day not only on your bended  knees at night, but also whenever we want or need anything during our day. However whenever we are asked to pray over someone else, or prior to an event or just aloud we choke on our prayers and our throats go dry. It should come naturally with the words rolling off our tongue and yet we begin to get anxious and our palms start to sweat like we are getting ready to speak to thousands rather than just One.  We are humbled in prayer to ask of anything and our words become laden with the arid air of the desert as where the battle was won so many years ago. We are entangled in a battle of the mind against the heart every time we pray as we have the thoughts of inadequacy and the fear of a child asking for anything.  While we are told to pray unceasingly and that our prayers will be answered we still feel incapable and unworthy. The seeds of doubt and fear are planted within us at birth and we are forever burdened with the overcoming and the desire to battle in a war already won.  We allow naysayers to get into our minds and convince us that we are not worthy of Grace,  yet Grace was granted […]

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There are some leadership lessons that can be learned from Kevin Durant’s MVP acceptance speech. Kevin Durant was just named the NBA MVP – In a matter of a few minutes he shows all of us how to be a MVP leader in just over 7 minutes he exemplified what being a servant leader means and set an example we could all try to follow. 1. Share the credit and spotlight with others – As a basketball player  he could have made the MVP award all about himself, yet  he gave all credit to God and his teammates and never once made the award about himself.   As part of any team we are only as successful as those that we lead.  In moments of triumph a leader is best to be humble and gracious and acknowledge their teammates. 2.  Publicly Honor and commend the sacrifice of others– He stresses about how his team sacrifices for him and how they would run through walls for him.  He expresses his gratitude for their actions both on and off the court that motivated and inspired him to be his best. Will your team sacrifice for you and you for them? http://youtu.be/AKk-yJ4cRDM 3. Always thank those that help you succeed (especially your mom) – He gave most of the credit to the real MVP in his life, his mom who had sacrificed for him and his brother to get them where they are. He played the heart-strings a bit when he talked about moving into their first apartment that had nothing in […]

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