LEADING PEOPLE MORE EXPERIENCED THAN ME

LEADING PEOPLE MORE EXPERIENCED THAN ME

By Dr. Josimar Salum

I am actually leading a number of 45 people in our factory . The most challenges I have faced is to lead people who are older than me and have an experience relate to our department duties and responsibilities. So what you would say it should be my key strategies to manage and lead them.

Managing and leading a team with members who are older and more experienced can indeed be challenging, but it also offers an opportunity for collaborative growth. 

Here are some key strategies to help you lead effectively:

1. Show Respect for Their Experience

• Acknowledge their expertise and contributions to the team.

• Seek their input on decisions, especially those related to their area of expertise.

• Avoid micromanaging and trust their ability to handle tasks.

2. Demonstrate Your Competence

• Build credibility by being knowledgeable and prepared.

• Take the time to learn the technical aspects of the department if you haven’t already.

• Be decisive but open to suggestions, showing confidence without arrogance.

3. Foster Open Communication

• Create an environment where everyone feels heard and valued.

• Encourage regular feedback and act on their suggestions when appropriate.

• Be transparent about your decisions and explain your reasoning.

4. Leverage Their Strengths

• Assign tasks that align with their skills and experience.

• Recognize their accomplishments publicly, reinforcing their value to the team.

5. Balance Authority and Collaboration

• Be firm in your decisions when necessary, but involve them in problem-solving processes.

• Use inclusive language like “we” and “our” to foster a sense of teamwork.

6. Invest in Building Relationships

• Take the time to get to know your team members on a personal level.

• Understand their motivations, career goals, and concerns.

• Celebrate milestones and successes to build rapport.

7. Encourage Continuous Learning

• Promote a culture of learning where both you and the team can grow.

• Provide training opportunities and encourage knowledge-sharing among team members.

8. Stay Professional and Composed

• Handle conflicts or disagreements calmly and objectively.

• Maintain consistency in your decisions to build trust and respect.

9. Be Humble and Open to Learning

• Accept when you don’t have all the answers and be willing to learn from their experience.

• Show appreciation when team members guide or teach you something new.

10. Focus on the Shared Goal

• Reinforce the importance of collaboration for the success of the team and the factory.

• Emphasize that everyone, regardless of age or experience, contributes to achieving the overall objectives.

By combining respect, collaboration, and assertive leadership, you can inspire trust and cooperation, even among those who may initially feel hesitant about following a younger leader.

#ASONE

🎥 3 WAYS TO DEAL WITH MISTAKES by Tarcisio Lisboa

🎥 3 WAYS TO DEAL WITH MISTAKES by Tarcisio Lisboa

➡️ Easy Way: Learn from other people’s mistakes.

Pay attention to the stories around you! Observing the mistakes of colleagues, leaders, and even companies can save you from making the same missteps.

➡️ Hard Way: Learn from your own mistakes.

When you make a mistake, it’s painful, but it’s also a golden opportunity to grow. Analyze what went wrong, understand the causes, and commit to improving.

➡️ Tragic Way: Learn from no mistakes at all.

Ignoring mistakes—yours or others’—is a direct path to repeating the same problems. Don’t underestimate the impact of reflecting and acting on failures.

💡 Tip:

Take note of the mistakes you observe or experience. Write down what you’ve learned and how you can avoid repeating them. Even better: teach others! When you share your lessons, you turn a mistake into a powerful legacy of growth.

   Remember: To err is human, but learning is what makes you grow!

   #JSalum #ASONE

   #Learning #Leadership #SelfDevelopment #MistakeManagement #Growth

REAL (37) - Who a leader is: a servant of servants." By Jeremie Nitirandekura &Josimar Salum

"Who a leader is: a servant of servants." By Jeremie Nitirandekura & Josimar Salum (JSalum)

You will be totally free when you become a full servant. You will never become a true leader until you have learned to serve others.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Philippians 2:3-7

The word (hum)ility from Middle English humilite, from Old French (h)umilité, from Latin humilitas (“lowness, meanness, baseness, in Late Latin humility”), from humilis (“low, lowly, humble, earth”).

To be humble can mean to be simply who you are: human. There is nothing in me or in you that makes us different or to be considered highly above one another. Even God Himself became a man! 

Humble and humility comes from the same root of the word (hum)an. Don't elevate yourself, be just humble. On the wither hand, don't consider yourself less than anybody no matter who they are or where they came from.

Jesus said once: “He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.” Luke 16:15

 I hope I am spelling his name rightly...  My king Jeremie Nitirandekura, a volunteer of Burundi English clubs shared with me today these thoughts:

"People don´t understand how to be a servant of servants. Yesterday during english club I asked my pupil one by one , "who do you want to become after your studies?"

Every one told me: "I want to become a boss." None of them said: I want become a servant."

I tried to make them understand a value of being a servant. After i asked them , "who wants to be a leader? "They cried out: Oooh! 

They explained to me what a leader is. According to them a leader is a high person, someone honorable."

It took me a long time in order to make them understand  who a true leader is. 

After my explanations, fortunately each of them said: I am eager to be a true leader.

"Yes, yes", I told them, "you have to think why you need to be a leader. It will asked of  you to ignore the benefits to be a servant of servants."

I believe that through my generation,  BURUNDI WILL BE A GOOD COUNTRY. Then everyone will be able to serve owing to the love."

Wow! Wow! Great thoughts! It is encouraging to read them! I think there is a Love Revolution going on in Burundi!

I will finish with these words from The Message by brother Eugene Peterson:

“In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? 

So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.

If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help the needy; be inventive in hospitality.” Romans 12:6-13 MSG