Leadership Unchained

By Lita Williams

Are you looking to take your performance as a leader to another level? Well, Leadership Unchained is here to assist you and help you guide others to becoming more innovative, more productive, and more streamlined into being the best version of oneself.Say goodbye to the chains of yesterday. A new day is dawning, and tomorrow will not wait for the leadership needed today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098042271

Book preview

Chained

Lock Them In

The idea of being chained is when something is used to confine, restrain, or secure. A series of metal links or rings connected used on prisoners is a practical example of being chained. Chaining someone or something is often used in society today as a method to control. We have seen this type of restraint used during the historical days of slavery or in the prison system today. Moreover, people can be restrained mentally, socially, and financially. Let me explain. The obvious physical chaining can be done by simply denying a person freedom of movement. Mental chaining involves controlling the total emotional and intellectual response of a person to his or her reality. Men and women who are, or have been, trapped in abusive relationships where they are, or have been, constantly told they are unworthy of anything or anyone better than their current situation. Social chaining is isolating a person from people he or she would normally spend time talking to or doing enjoyable things to the point where they are unwilling to do on his or her own.

Financial chaining is easily recognized in the debt-to-income ratio. Most people look at debt as credit extended. Credit qualifies a person to get into debt. Debt is a restraint that has hindered millions, for centuries, from living free of it. The truth of the matter is most of us want more than they can pay for, so we apply for credit to get the things we desire. We give lenders the right to place chains on us financially. Often, lenders present new opportunities to remain chained by praising customers for having a good credit history or, more accurately, for being a good slave to debt. I know that comparing debt to slavery is raw, but indulge me please.

Slavery by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is, in one definition, submission to a dominating influence. Is not the lender the dominating influence that dangles products, services, credit cards, and money in the faces of all who need them or just simply got to have them? In either case, the takers are those who cannot afford or choose not to pay for it all at once, so the next best alternative is to get what they want with chains of stipulations attached. The stipulations are explained in a contract, and when it is signed, the borrower is then locked up or chained to the lender until the agreement is fulfilled. I realize that borrowers capitalize on ways not to pay lenders back. You may use your own imagination to understand where I am coming from. The bottom line is, getting out of the debt by whatever means does not necessarily release a person from being chained. I like to call the credit report a chain extension that remains attached for a decade or more in some cases. The chain extension warns other lenders that they, too, might not get what is owed to them. I personally would rather live within my financial means, preferably debt-free, than to get something I cannot afford to pay off. I understand that everyone is not able. Before you become chained in any way, I admonish you to count the cost first.

A Long Time Ago

In 1993, I signed a five-year enlistment contract to support and defend the Constitution of United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As a teenager, five years was a huge commitment that I wasn’t completely certain I could fulfill. Nonetheless, not only did I complete the first five years, I retired a chief warrant officer with twenty-two years on active duty. I reflect on those years often, and it seems like time flew by unnoticed to me. I can honestly say I had an auspicious time in the military, and I would not trade it for any other life experience. It is in the military I learned the importance of followership to leadership. I learned through experience that great leaders are also great at following. I have been privileged to work for both good and not-so-good leaders. I prefer to focus my efforts on those that provided the right leadership; however, I am thankful for both. Both kinds of leaders taught me something and made me who I am today. By that, I mean, some taught me what to do, while a few taught me what not to do. I would like to take this time to say thank you to every leader that has influenced my life in one way or the other.

Please pardon my digression. Back to being chained. Although I willingly and voluntarily signed a contract with the military, I was still chained by all the stipulations of the contract, both in time and to perform a specific occupation. Being chained can be voluntary or involuntary, just as it can be both good and bad. The choice is good or bad based on the outcome. Involuntary chaining is obviously out of one’s control, as it is typically done without choice and is not subject to the will. Volunteering for anything, hopefully, is mostly choice-driven and not what we called in the military voluntold. The military is a tremendous organization, where leaders must often direct movements and take part in campaigns that are not so favorable, but completely honorable to the individual, his or her family, and our great nation. Nothing can ever be hidden