It was a great feeling to grace the 2019 Zambia Open Chess Championship which has to be one of the mightiest events in the land. There at the Zambia Open I learnt one leadership trick from the ZCF President, Mukubulo Chilufya.
As I perambulated around the playing hall with my camera, the Zambia Chess Federation President caught my eye, he was playing in the tournament. After his game I asked him why he deemed it necessary to be playing in the tournament when he is the top most official. He told me, “I need to motivate the youngsters and others”.
We call that influence. Use your position to influence people to do good. People will generally not follow what you say, but what you do. If you want your child to develop a reading culture, read yourself. If you want your child to be doing household chores, don’t just say it, influence them by doing it yourself.
It’s not surprising that the Zambian tournaments have the biggest turnouts, it starts from the influence from the top. Somebody said: “The fish rots from the head”. If the head is on fire, everybody else will be.
As the desiderata puts it ” ..there shall always be somebody greater or lesser than yourself”. Influence those that are lesser than yourself through your good deeds. Humble yourself to do the work they are mandated to do. Go to that construction site under your supervision, help in some manual jobs, there will be a difference.
Do not be bossy, seeing everything from the office armchair but experience the fire on the ground, then you will appreciate better the problems those on the ground are facing.
If you want your cook to cook high quality meals, stand in the kitchen to give them a model of how to prepare a good meal.
If you want your child to join sports, influence them by taking part in sports yourself. Pushing people around doesn’t work, but influence will never fail because people are willing to follow what you do, not what you say.
Even Jesus Christ humbled himself to live among us.
Your high position should be combined with humblebees, so that you influence better.
