Wednesday, February 5, 2014

For the Love of my Life



Since we are in the month when predominantly the "love is in the air", let me share to you my poem for my sweet inspiration - the Love of my life!

Actually, I have written this way back 2011 in my past post about the 6 Types of Love. (And if you would like to know what type of love is dominant in you, please do check it out.)

For the Love of my Life
© 2011 Erickson Ibana

That when everything else around me seems to fail,
And when my faith seems to falter,

When all I hold on to seems to be gone,
And all my hopes and dreams  seem to vanish.

When things are not going as I first expected,
And frustrations seem to eat away my flickering faith…

Whenever I look at your love for me,

And focus on your unconditional love,

Everything around me starts to dim,

Giving me another reason to strive,
And run this race called “life”,

For You and only You, my God, my Friend.

I might consider myself a failure in this "area" (one reason might be my extreme introversion, most especially towards the person that I like, and other "valid" reasons), but there is one thing that I have proven to be true all along - Jesus Christ, with His unconditional love, did not leave me even at those times when my faith on Him was weak and rather chose to please myself.

I might not know the future yet (and that includes my future wife), but I am sure He will never leave me (because He promised it, and I believe He will keep His promise).

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” - Hebrews 13:5
You might have found your "better half" already or still in the progress of meeting that person, but still, know that it is Jesus Christ who is the only Person who can love you unconditionally - but you have to let Him love you first by surrendering your life and turning away from your sinful ways.

I hope and pray that God would open your heart and your eyes, by His grace, for you to see how you really need Jesus Christ in your life. And to fully experience a lasting satisfaction from this "Love Month" on!

© 2014 Erickson Ibana

Image can be found at http://www.saidaonline.com/en/news.php?go=fullnews&newsid=34982

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Leadership Level 2: Permission or Relationship



Most of the times, this level is being skipped out. After getting the "position" as the leader, most of the aspiring starters jump straight through Level 3. They start to give out orders and commands, not being aware that they are dealing with humans (and not robots).

As a recap, we learned that in the First Level, your title or your position is the only influence you have. Furthermore, climbing in this level, the "relationship" level, you are trying to get people to work for you even if they are not obliged. 

Does it sound as if this only exists on a "perfect" or "ideal" system? Isn't it? How can you make someone work for you beyond his work schedule, that is, it's like working for charity? This might sound weird, but yes, if you excel in this level people naturally allow themselves to follow you, even if it might cause "some inconveniences" on their part.

John C. Maxwell gave an illustration from the story of Henry Ford (in Amitai Etzioni's book "Modern Organizations"):

He made a perfect car, the Model T, that ended the need for any other car. He was totally product-oriented. He wanted to fill the world with Model T cars. But when people started coming to him and saying, "Mr. Ford, we'd like a different color car," he remarked, "You can have any color you want as long as it's black." And that's when the decline started.
The "permission" level is where you work out your inter-relationship skills. You need to build solid and lasting foundation of relationship with your followers in order to sustain a long and effective kind of leadership.

As John C. Maxwell puts it in words:

"You can love people without leading them, but you cannot lead people without loving them."

To excel in the "relationship" level of leadership, most of the times, you would need to invest your time, your patience, and your finances - it is more of investing "yourself" for them. There would come a time when it seems you are not seeing the results yet, but still, be persistent on building up on this level. Remember, one of the most difficult tasks in constructing a skyscraper is laying out its foundations. But once the foundations are all set up, it is not impossible to erect a giant building, even if it is the mighty Burj Khalifa - the tallest man-made structure in the world!

If you aim to proceed to the next level, these are the qualities John Maxwell listed in his book "Developing the Leader Within You" that you must exhibit first, with excellence.

Leadership Level 2: PERMISSION or RELATIONSHIP
  • Possess a genuine love for people.
  • Make those who work with you more successful.
  • See through other people's eyes.
  • Love people more than procedures.
  • Do "win-win" or don't do it.
  • Include others in your journey.
  • Deal wisely with difficult people.

Now, if you see yourself excelling in this level, you need to climb to the next level of leadership.

And we will be talking about that on the next post about Leadership.



© 2014 Erickson Ibana

Image can be found http://greatleadersserve.org/servant-leadership-works/

Second image can be found in John Maxwell's book "Developing the Leader Within You"