Leadership, it has been said, is getting people mobilized to follow. Without people a leader can find no impact and no ability to bring about change.
Leadership, it has been said, is about seeing and unlocking potential in other people. No plan, General Colin Powell writes, can be accomplished without people.
It might seem that leadership is the art on one getting others to follow. True enough. However, there is a significant piece to which every leader must attend. It is the art of self-leadership.
Before you or I can lead anyone, we might do well to lead ourselves. We should probably spend a good bit of time in self-reflection and self-examination discerning our strengths and weakness, evaluating our priorities and clarifying our negotiable and non-negotiable values. We should probably spend a good amount of prayer seeking God's will for our lives by discovering our unique spiritual gifts and talents, our passions, and our frustrations so that they might direct our actions. We must check the deepest areas of our souls and see where that darkness lies which can catch us unawares and lead us to destructive lies and behaviors. We must always be disciplined by spiritual principles and practices which are shared with us by trusted and honestly tough spiritual guides.
Self-leadership is the art of tending the precious child of God that we are so that we might become all that God has intended us to become in this life, in His world.
Self-leadership is learning to see, as Fredrick Buechner wrote, where our greatest passion "meets the worlds deepest needs."
Self-leadership is the humble act of offering oneself over to God again and again to be and to do His will each and every moment of each and every day.
Self-leadership is the wisdom of being a follower of the One who, by His sacrifice and death on the Cross, brings life to those who come to Him in a trusting way and seek to embody His life and His purpose in their own everyday lives.
Great Christian leaders are those who allow themselves to be devoted followers of Christ. We are all called to follow Jesus. We are all called to lead others to Christ Jesus.
God intends us all to lead wherever we are.
Where can you share in leadership where you are?
