LEADERSHIP CAPSULE
equipping leaders with skills, weapons and tools to provide effective leadership for nations to ultimately fulfill the Great Commission.

Thursday, 11th May, 2017

TITLE : The Leadership Lessons & Wisdom Principles From The Ants 1

#1 SELF MOTIVATION

"Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest." Proverbs 6:6-8

Ants appear only twice in the Bible, both times in the Book of Proverbs being lauded for their wisdom (Proverbs 6:6-8, 30:24-25).
To teach us the danger of foolishness in our lives, God points us to an unlikely teaching source. “Go to the ant”, He tells us, to learn valuable lessons.  It's amazing that one of the smallest of God's creatures can become one of His greatest teachers.This tells us that the scope of your wisdom is not a function of your size. If an ant could be deemed as wise because of certain practices, then no one has an excuse for not being wise. What can we learn from the ants? Are you ready to learn from the ants?

The first leadership lesson we are told about the ant in our anchor scripture is that they have no guide. This speaks of self leadership or self motivation. The Ants teach us how to be self-motivated. “Which, having no captain, overseer, or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer.."
Unlike sheep that need someone to lead them, direct them, encourage them. The ant does not have anyone to tell it what to do. In other words, the ant uses its initative without supervision. The ability to preempt situations and act accordingly is a key attribute of wisdom and leadership.

World renowned Business consultant, Brian Tracy said "only 2% of the world population can work effectively without supervision. We call these people leaders. This is what you are meant to be". You're not a leader if you cannot work or do what you're supposed to do without supervision. As a matter fact this quality of working without supervision is a litmus test of maturity. No one carries a whip behind the ant to ensure the work gets done. There are no time cards in the anthill. No ant mothers nag their babies to get out of bed. These creatures are self-motivated, and need no captain to ensure they get their work done. Why? Their work is for their own good! As Christians, maturity means we no longer need someone standing behind us, Bible in hand, to ensure our work gets done.

Leaders are initiators. John C. Maxwell has said, "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way."  This is true of the ants; they have no leader because they require no leader. They know the way, they go the way and definitely they show the way to all who care to learn from them. These creatures are leaders, they are self-starters, and they are initiators. No one needs to point them in the right direction or monitor them to ensure they go there. They are able to do this all by themselves. This is without doubt the characteristic of a leader.

Leaders are motivated irrespective of feelings or circumstances. Leaders do not require motivation to do what they know is important and required. They are self-motivated. These creatures do not need a leader to motivate them to get the job done; they motivate themselves.

The ants are initiators, self motivated and can work effectively without a leader or supervision. Do you possess this quality as a person.

We will continue this discussion tommorow as we study more leadership lessons and attributes of wisdom that we can learn from the ant.

Thanks for reading this article.