It’s easy to drive people, but difficult to lead them.
No matter how good an idea is, if the people you lead aren’t ready for it they will obstruct your efforts to implement it, or else change it in some way to reflect what they are ready for.
Many an institution has died when some project, often quite worthwhile, was rammed down the throats of members who were unwilling, or unable, to swallow it.
And many a leader has ridden to defeat under the standard of a beautiful theory that he preferred over reality.
People are more important than things.
No matter how good an idea, if the people under you are not ready for it, respect their position.
Work with them as they are, not as you would like them to be.
Be patient: Understand that it often takes time to bring people to new points of view.
Reflect on how long it probably took you to come to your new point of view, before you could present it to them.
To win loyalty from subordinates, first be loyal to them.
Never demand loyalty of others, for true loyalty cannot be commandeered: It can only be won.
Be concerned only with being completely loyal yourself.
The same is true for love: Never demand love of others.
Love them without worrying whether or not your love will be returned.
One who gives love freely is, of all people, the most certain to receive it back-even a hundredfold.
In correcting someone, think not only of his need to hear what you have to say; think also of his readiness to hear it.
Wait until the right time to speak, when what you have to tell him will do the mot good.
If you speak at the wrong time, you may never get another chance: When next you raise the issue, he will be likely to remember only the inauspicious time when “you said that before.
” Be loyal first of all to your own: In a school where the students were invited to share in the administrative work, complaints (not necessarily justified) were made against one of the teachers.
The headmaster, eager to win the students by showing his loyalty to them, immediately took strong action against the teacher.
Wouldn’t the wise and more truly loyal thing to do have been first to inquire into the justice of the charges, and then, if possible, to work quietly with the teacher to correct her fault? (Excerpts from his book The Art of Supportive Leadership, published by Crystal Clarity, Publishers)
Swami Kriyananda is a living disciple of Paramhamsa Yogananda He is also the founder of Ananda Sangha with nine communities all around the world