Four Lessons in Leadership...

Leadership is Situational...

Let me repeat that, Leadership is Situational...

Before you read this, Google this...

What is Leadership...?

You'll probably get over 4 Million results with the first page being all about courses and certification schemes available, articles describing the key traits of effective leadership, how you can become a leader, a better one of a more effective one...

Then you'll see all sorts of different flavours of Leadership from the soft and gentle, empathetic leaders as supporters and cheerleaders right across to the bold adaptability of leadership in a crisis...

Now whilst there are some basic common traits of leadership, it doesn't mean that leadership is the same in every situation...

It's a lot easier to be clear on what doesn't work rather than what does...

Here are the Four Lessons in Leadership I learned during the last month...

On Sunday 27th February, having seen what was happening following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we sat over donner considering what we could do to help...

What triggered us to do this...?

It was really simple, I saw President Zelansky replying to President Joe Biden's offer of a ride out of Kyiv by saying...

I don't need a ride, I need ammunition...

That one phrase touched me and made me decide to support this guy in any way I could...

1st Rule of Leadership - Be clear about what you want to happen...

So we thought it would be a good idea to drive our hatchback over to Medyka on the POlish - Ukraine border and drop off some nappies and wet wipes...

I chose Medyka simply because that's where the motorway crosses the border and I figured if people were leaving Ukraine, that would be a busy place...

Lynn, put a note out on the Village Facebook page letting people know we were going and if they wanted to donate any items we'd be happy to take them...

I did a similar note on LinkedIn hoping for someone to ship and help with the fuel etc.

And then something amazing started to happen...

Within 48 hours we had been inundated with donations and contributions. Four people had volunteered to come with us, a van was hired for us, we went from the hatchback to the SUV with a top box and a trailer and we had raised 3,000 Euro in our PayPal account...

2nd Rule of Leadership - be clear on the cause, the what, and not the how...

So off we went, dropping off around 2 tons of equipment ranging from blankets to clothing, shampoo to teddies, and we managed to bring back a family of five from one of the refugee centres too - safely taken to Berlin via Dresden on our return journey...

Arriving back home on Sunday, we had collected more donations, more items and gathered a tribe of followers in the local area, on LinkedIn and Facebook too...

So we decided to go again - we had the funds and enough items to fill four vehicles again...

Once we announced we were returning, something magical happened...

We had more people volunteering, offering help and support, collecting money for us, and offering to make the journey...

So we are scheduled to leave in one week and at the time of writing here's what is happening...

• 11 Vehicles will make the journey with 24 volunteers delivering around 8 tons of aid to four nominated locations in Poland...
• German Television is making a documentary about the journey and embedding a video reporter with us when we travel...
• Villeroy & Boch saw what we did and were inspired to get involved, offering us the use of their vehicles and funding the fuel, hotels, and food for the whole team...
• The local Mairies' have done collections of specific products requested by the refugee centres in Poland - carloads have been arriving here...
• 8,000 children's Juice Cartons - weighing around 2 tons, will be delivered to our village on Sunday for us to take with us next week...
• Total fund value collected so far - 30,000 Euro and climbing...
• Vehicles and volunteers arriving from the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany...
• Team of translators on standby to help us when we arrive - we can cover Polish, Russian, German, French and English...

3rd Rule of Leadership - attract, not recruit like-minded people to the cause...

So now we are having regular Team ZOOM meetings, Lynn has pre-booked all the hotels for us, been in contact with the aid stations and got shopping lists from them so we can target deliveries of what is needed...

It's turned into a proper logistics operation - we have team leaders, drivers, organisers and supporters. what was due to be Jonathan and me driving a hatchback with some wet wipes in has turned into a professional aid convoy within a few weeks...

We have adapted and changed, become more organised, clear on our mission, clear on our purpose and how we target the aid and support we give...

Did we have a plan - No...

Did we have a budget - No...

Did we just figure it out as we went along - pretty much...

4th Rule of Leadership - stop planning and start doing, you'll figure it out...

The biggest lessons I have learned so far are;

• Where there's a crisis, there are always helpers...
• People will do crazy-good things when the cause is strong enough...
• Action creates attraction - we have made a splash and the ripples have had a positive effect allowing people to trust what we are doing and feel strongly enough to get involved...
• When the cause is clear the path reveals itself...

So we are about the depart for another expedition - and yes we'll be doing updates as we proceed, there is no escape...??

If you'd like to help, support, or contribute, the link to our PayPal account is HERE - every penny goes directly to the refugees now spread across Europe...

Thanks for reading - please comment, like, and share to help us spread the word and inspire more crazy people to get involved.

Best Regards

David

Epilogue

We had a comment from someone stating that they had many conversations and meetings about how to help the refugees, and after long deliberation had decided it was not efficient to get in a vehicle and drive to the Ukraine border - better to simply give money to a Charity and let them do the work...

And yes, of course, the Charities have a massive role to play, please donate to them if you wish...

Our approach is direct, targeted and enables the tons of donated aid to be delivered directly to the hands of the refugees, and we can bring families out of harm's way to the safety of host families and centres across the region - we go where the Charities can't...

So I acknowledged the comment and asked how much had been raised and donated to a charity, to date I have received no reply...

Perhaps the biggest lesson of all is that in order to effect change, make a difference and make a positive contribution we just have to stop thinking and planning, doing endless budgets, holding meetings and weighing up the options, and...

Just get on with it...

It may not be pretty in the early stages but it is really effective...

David Holland MBA is a Business Coach based out of France with offices in the UK and Luxembourg...

He works with Business Owners, Executives, and their Teams enabling them to Be more Do more and Achieve more..

Married to Lynn since 1986 although they have been together since 1979, they have two boys, two dogs, some chickens, rabbitts, and guinea pigs in the garden of their renovation cottage in the Moselle Valley.

To find out what it's like to work with David all you have to do is drop him a message and arrange a coffee ZOOM - there are no injections and it's really quite painless...

So drop me a note on my personal email and let's have a chat...

Email -?[email protected]