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PERSONAL RENEWAL, IS FUNDAMENTAL FOR EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

By Kholwaphi Mdziniso | 2018-10-23

Self rejuvenation is a habit that many leaders tend to postpone through-out their career, yet leaders are people just like the rest of humanity.

Some leaders postpone it until work takes its toll on them and they eventually fall sick.

Self rejuvenation is a habit that leaders have to LEARN TO EMBRACE through their career lives.

Self-rejuvenation is not rest when the leader fall sick but a process the leader initiates and books it off in the year plan.

I am not saying that leaders should rest when they are sick but I am saying that when a leader is resting because they are sick then that is not self renewal but recuperating.

Self renewal ought to be scheduled by each leader when he/she sets the personal annual plan.

Planned renewal will ensure that the leader will take time off to rest in spite of the many things that demand his/her time.

Steven Covey in the seven habits of highly effective people lists self renewal as one of the fundamentals that make leaders continue to be effective.

Covey sites that sharpening the saw, enable it to work much better because an unsharpened saw becomes blunt over time.

Leaders have to make time to rest and renew, not that they find time because finding it will be very difficult since life will always throw things at them.

Booking time off duty as part of the annual work plan

Self renewal demands that a leader be disciplined to take time off to rest and regenerate. If leaders such as President Trump busy as he is, canfind time to walk out of office to go on holiday then surely all leaders can set aside time to rest and renew.

Our own head of state the Ingwenyama takes time off on his annual plan and that shows that renewal is a very important aspect of life.

Covey sites that renewal is preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have, which is you.

He assets that self renewal has four dimensions which is physical, spiritual, mental and social /emotional.

According to research done on self renewal, some authors speak of four elements which are; perspectives which is your spiritual, autonomy which is your mental, connectedness which is your social as well as tone which applies to your physical body.

Sharpening the saw means expressing all of the four dimensions of our nature regularly and consistently in wise and balanced ways.

Coveys sites that in order to renew our whole being, we have to be proactive and be effective, we have to take time to just focus and connect with ourselves.

Covey sites that renewal should be a definite activity and something that people must act on.

Physical faculty involves exercise, nutrition and stress management. The social or emotional faculty includes; service, empathy, synergy and intrinsic security.

The spiritual faculty includes value clarification & commitment as well as study and meditation. The mental faculty includes; reading, visualising, planning and writing.

The physical dimension

This dimension involves caring effectively for the physical body and that involves eating the right kinds of food, getting sufficient rest, relaxation and exercising on a regular basis.

Exercise is something that many of us do not do consistently because it is not urgent.

And because we do not do it, sooner or later we find ourselves dealing with the health problems and crises that come as a natural result of our neglect of our physical body.

Most of us think we do not have enough time to exercise. What a distorted paradigm! Health experts say thatwe do not have time not to.

Health expects says that a 30 minutes exercise each day goes a long way not only in renewing the soul and body but it spins off to a longer healthy life.

The spiritual dimension

Renewing the spiritual dimension provides leadership to your life. The spiritual dimension is your core, your centre, your commitment to your value system.

It is a very private area of life and a supremely important. It draws upon the sources that inspire and uplift you and tie you to the timeless truth of all humanity and people do it very, very differently.

The mental dimension

Most of our mental development and study discipline comes through formal education.

But as soon as we leave the external discipline of school, many of us let our minds wither.

We do not do any serious reading, we do not explore new subjects in any real depth outside our action fields, we do not think analytically, we do not write, at least not critically or in a way that tests our ability to express ourselves in distilled, clear, and concise language. Instead, we spend our time watching TV.

The mental dimension is important and every leader needs to renew that faculty through continued reading.

The social or emotional dimension

The social and the emotional dimensions of our lives are tied together because our emotional life is primary, but not exclusively, developed out of and manifested in our relationship with others.

Renewing our social/emotional does not take time in the same sense that renewing the other dimension does. We can do it in our normal everyday interactions with other people.

Self renewal is important because “we are all human being and mortal” as my doctor would often say to me when I visit him thinking that I am sick yet I am tired and worn out. Leaders have to learn to take time off so that they are able to think clearly and continue influencing their organisation.

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