Becoming a Better Leader

How to Use Self-Analysis and Self-Improvement to Boost Your Leadership Skills

Leadership skills are a key component in the attainment of a successful life, and a person cannot become an effective leader without knowing who they really are. In the new book, “Self-Confrontation, Self-Discovery, Self-Authenticity, and Leadership: Discover Who You Are And Transform The Leader In You” (published by AuthorHouse), Patrick Chudi Okafor combines the process of developing facility for leadership with an invitation to self-discovery, self-growth, and self-empowerment.

This voyage — through a gradual exposition of common-sense, classical leadership theories, motivational theories and spiritual psychology — becomes a deep journey of self, involving the physical, the rational, the psychological, and the spiritual.

“Self-Confrontation, Self-Discovery, Self-Authenticity, and Leadership” stresses that the development of leadership skills is a lifelong quest. The underlying principles of leadership are openness and honesty as to one’s own nature, while continuously working towards becoming a leader. A good leader is self-actuating and self-transforming.

Okafor explains how the Enneagram personality theory can bring to light the unique impulses of each type of personality and how such knowledge offers possibilities for transformation. He maintains that the Enneagram theory shows us how our personality is limited by compulsive behavior patterns. Additionally, it uses the insight and lucidity of psychology as a gateway to our deep spirituality. Okafor utilizes the Enneagram personality theory in discussing the personality profiles of several world leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Pope John Paul II and Martin Luther King, Jr.

In an exploration of spirituality in leadership, “Self-Confrontation, Self-Discovery, Self-Authenticity, and Leadership” offers the theorem that, although the idea of spirituality as an aspect of leadership is new, the spirit of one’s inner self has always been an intrinsic part of leadership and the primary influence of good leadership behaviors. Our spirituality is what ultimately guides our leadership actions.

About the Author: Patrick Chudi Okafor holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and master’s degrees in theology, social and public policy. He holds a professional diploma and a doctorate in educational administration and supervision from St. John’s University, New York. He is trained in clinical pastoral education and is a chaplain at Stony Brook University Hospital, Long Island, N.Y. Okafor is the president and a co-founder of Childhood Development Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa (CDISSA).