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In this article, I want to share with us on Mindset and Transformational Leadership. We want to look at how our mindset as leaders go a long way to shape and help us to overcome every obstacle and every challenge that we may be facing in our leadership as we journey along in this assignment of leadership. Now, the very goal of transformational leadership actually, is rooted in the leader inspiring and motivating his team to go all out in achieving the impossible.
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Now when it comes to achieving a seemingly impossible task, or whether the organization that you are leading, or the entity that you are leading, is trying to conquer a new frontier that is meant to shift that organization into a new horizon, most of the time, what we require is a change of mindset. What we require is a positive mindset that can help us to journey in that transformational process, thereby we are able to take our organization and our leadership into the next level. And this is why we are looking at the subject matter because it is important that every leader has a mindset that is transformational in nature, because this is what can help us to be able to overcome every obstacle, and every challenge that may come our way in the course of our leadership.
Now there is a story that we’re going to consider as a case study that is going to help us to understand this subject matter of mindset and transformational leadership in the proper context. Now that story is found in the Book of Numbers chapter 13 and I’m quickly going to read from verse 26 all the way to verse 30.
Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.” 30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.”
Now, don’t forget, we are looking at mindset and transformational leadership. Now, the story that we just read is the story of the children of Israel when they were being led by Moses. And Moses said to 12 Men of the tribe of Israel, that they should go out and spy the land of Canaan, so that they can have a firsthand information of what the land look like, and to corroborate everything that God had told them about the land. Now, in this Numbers chapter 13 that we just read, the Bible showed us that the 12 spies that Moses sent out on that expedition came back to the children of Israel and they were given the report. What we just read were part of the report that they brought to Moses and the congregation of the children of Israel. Now, there are a few things that I want to extract from that story which I believe strongly that is going to help us as leaders, when it comes to our mindsets when it comes to transformational leadership, and when it comes to how we tackle obstacles, challenges and every difficulty that we may be facing in our leadership and as we journey along in this path of leadership.
Now, the very first lesson is that transformational mindset is all that we need as leaders if we are going to overcome every obstacle and every difficulty in our leadership. Now, from that story, you will discover that a leader with a transformational mindset is able to see success, even when there are obstacles in place. That was exactly what verse 30 showed us. Despite the report, the negative report from the other spies, a man called Caleb saw beyond the obstacles. Now, in the course of our leadership, I believe what I’m about to say, is something that we already know as leaders. In the course of our leadership, obstacles will always arise here and there. As a matter of fact, if you are not facing any obstacle in your leadership right now, then I don’t know how you are measuring your effectiveness in that leadership. As a matter of fact, what makes for our effectiveness in leadership is how well we are able to surmount every obstacle that comes our way.
So as a leader, measuring your effectiveness has so much to do with how many challenges, how many obstacles that you have been able to overcome in the course of your leadership. I don’t think I have read or come across any leader anywhere in the world that is not facing one obstacle or the other. If you’re a political leader, for example, there are obstacles about your nation that are before you. If you are an organization leader, for example, maybe you are leading a multinational corporation, there are obstacles that are before you. So, leadership is about overcoming obstacles, leadership is about surmounting every difficulty, every problem that is thrown at you in the course of your leadership. However, no matter how big or small the obstacles may be, a transformational mindset is primarily the way out of every obstacle, every challenge, and every difficulty that we may be facing in our leadership.
Now, again, leaders with a transformational mindset don’t focus on the obstacles, they tend to focus on solutions, instead of whatever problems or hindrances that may be militating their progress. Now, one way to know if a leader has a transformational mindset is this. Look at what they talk about most of the time. When you see people, for example, people that call themselves leaders, and all they talk about is the problem, is the challenge, is the difficulty that they’re facing in their leadership, they talk about this 90% of all the time, and they don’t talk about the solution, or the way out, what is lacking in their lives and in their leadership is simply a transformational leadership mindset. Because you can’t have a transformational mindset, for example, and all you talk about are your problems and not the way out.
Every problem has a solution. Every difficulty has a way out of those difficulty. There is no problem anywhere in the world that there is no solution to them. So, you can’t be talking about your problems most of the time as a leader and you are not talking about the solution, then you will be defeating the purpose of your leadership and your calling as a leader. Now, if you go back to that story, that example that I just said is in that story. If you read from verse 31-33. The Bible says: “But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” These are leaders. They said they are not able. Then why are you a leader if you are not able to carry out the task of your leadership assignment? Now they even explained the reason for the problems they were given. They said in verse 32: 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Now, don’t forget. These set of men that are given this bad report are leaders of the people. If you read from verse 1-2 of that numbers 13, the Bible showed us that God specifically spoke to Moses to select men from the tribe of Israel. And these men were leaders. If you read verse two, it says: “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them.” So, these men, these people that were given bad reports, they were actually leaders, because you may be thinking, well, thank God, they are not leaders and that’s why they’re speaking the way they were speaking. No, they were leaders of their people. And so, they were given a bad report of the obstacles and the challenge that may hinder them from taking over the land. What was the missing link between them and Caleb? It is simply mindset. Caleb had a transformational mindset. They didn’t have a transformational mindset. And that was why they went all the way to give bad report. So, they wanted the organization, the children of Israel to remain in the wilderness, to remain on the same spot, simply because they felt that they couldn’t take over the land. But Caleb with a transformational mindset saw a solution out of the problem, saw that they could take the land, because this is a man who is transformational in his thinking. So, every leader ought to be transformational in his or her thinking.
As a leader, if you are not transformational in your thinking, then there is no thing that you are doing in the corridor of leadership because leadership requires that you think, leadership requires that you prefer solution to every problem, to every difficulty that may come your way. The reason why you are a leader in the first place is because there is a problem that required solution and that is why you are chosen as a leader. So, you can’t afford not to be transformational in your mindset and in your thinking as a leader. And you call yourself a leader. So, leaders with transformational mindset as we saw in that story, they think ahead, they are able to see solution out of every problem, they are able to share vision, goals and aspiration out of every obstacle that may be facing them in the course of their leadership.
Now, let’s conclude this way. I have come to realize that there is no obstacle or challenge that is too great for a leader with a transformational mindset to overcome. If you are a leader with a transformational mindset, there is no obstacle to great, there is no problem too high or too low, that you cannot overcome if you have a transformational mindset. So, what are we supposed to do? Every leader is expected to be transformational in his or her thinking. A leader must be transformational in his thinking, a leader must be transformational in her thinking. This is the way out of every problem. This is the way out of every challenge that may be facing your leadership per time. And my prayer for us today as leaders is that the Lord God is going to bless us with that transformational mindset so that we can see solution out of every problem, so that we can see the way out, out of every obstacle that may be militating our leadership, that may be militating our progress in the course of this leadership assignments that has been given to us.
This is where we’re going to draw the curtains on today’s episode of Leaderview, I believe you have picked one or two lessons that you are going to apply in your leadership when it comes to mindset and transformational leadership. Please don’t forget to share this podcast like it. And also Drop your comments with me in the comment section so that we can get to interact with ourselves and also help our leadership by interacting and sharing solutions to whatever problem or obstacle that we may be facing in our leadership. Till next time on Leaderview, God bless you.
