Our church Victory Greenhills sent one of our campus missionary, Nikki Sandi to school to equip her how to minister effectively with the students. I was in her graduation night and was amazed at the recognition Nikki got. If you know Nikki, she is not flashy or the type of leader who likes the limelight.
During the awarding that night, Nikki Sandi got three of the top coveted awards of their class: best preacher, best strategic paper and the excellence award. I think what she accomplished that night was a first in our school’s history. I was surprised that Nikki achieved such an incredible feat in class.
I’ve been working with Nikki the past year and here are some of the things I saw in her and the lessons I’ve learned in leadership that might help us achieve success in what we do.
1. Humility.
God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.
Nikki was an unassuming, low key member of our team. She does her work without any fanfare. She just gets the job done. Some leaders tend to be flashy and show off their skills but some just do the work quietly and contribute and the whole team is surprised to see the added value she gives to us collectively.
2. Hunger
When Nikki won the best strategic paper, her fellow campus missionaries were not surprised because during the process of doing her paper – she would go and consult different people on how to go about it, their feedback on her strategy and how it can be further improved.
In life – you have to stay hungry. You have to keep on learning. You have to push yourself. You cannot settle and not improve on your leadership and craft. You have to get down on your knees and pray for God to bring you to a level of growth and maturity every year by giving you the grace to work hard and stretch your faith.
3. Content
A lot of people are good at marketing themselves. They can have the most convincing advertisement of themselves or the most convincing website on how good they are in their craft. Most of the people who focus on marketing and not content face a big predicament – nobody wants to get their service after the first experience with them.
At the end of the day people are looking for content. The people you lead are
asking – what can this leader offer that would help maximize my potential. Leaders should work on making sure they are worth following not because of their position but because they have content.
To have content is to know where you are leading your team, how you are going to lead them and how you are going to navigate through the changes that is required of any organization.
Let me end with this reminder though. All of us are going to be tested in the field and our leadership will go through some fire and testing. Nikki, I am excited for your future and also to those leaders who are raring to change the world. Once class is done – the battle begins. Praying for your success!