Leadership

By Crystal Drake – Great leadership isn’t simply having the courage to speak up in public meetings.  I’ve seen and heard a lot of people do that in the past and they have not inspired me to follow them.  It also is not a condescending attitude towards others who share a different perspective in an attempt to quiet them.  I’ve also witnessed that behavior and I have seen it shut down others in the room that may actually have had a great idea or solution but were intimidated into being silent. Truly effective leadership is being able to articulate your thoughts and ideas in ways that those listening will consider your input as valid and be willing to consider incorporating your ideas into their own reasoning process.  It also means that you are willing and capable of doing the same information assimilation with new information or perspective from those around you.  This is what transforms someone from being a ‘figure-head’ into being an agent for positive change and movement towards a shared goal.  That is the essence of great leadership.  It hinges on your reputation and the level of trust your listeners have for you.  Your audience must trust you to be honest and transparent.  They must know that you are not speaking out of self-interest alone, but they must believe that your intentions are for the good of the organization (or the family in a smaller context).  If you personally benefit, that’s okay, as long as the organization/family benefits also and that the advantages you will gain are being made transparent.  That is the foundation of civic virtue.

For example, my son wanted to play T-ball.  I went to the Youth Athletics Organization meeting.  It was determined at the meeting that T-ball would not be offered that year due to a lack of coaches.  They would only be supporting Little League and Girls’ Softball.  I was so disappointed that I wanted to throw my sucker in the dirt.  But instead, I volunteered to coach a T-Ball team and promised that I would find other coaches if they would agree to offer T-Ball.  I left that meeting agreeing to do something that I had never even witnessed before, but I was becoming a problem solver!  Was I motivated by self-interest?  Sure, I wanted my kid to get to play ball.  Fortunately, my self-interest was beneficial to my community as well because a lot of other kids got to play that year that wouldn’t have had the opportunity.  That’s called a win-win.  This is an example of civic virtue at work.

I’ve learned in my short time as an elected official serving on a board, that being a leader is more than simply being vocal.  In fact, being vocal is often irritating to those less inclined to engage in discussion.  It takes building credibility with your peers, listening, respecting others, asking questions, having tough conversations and following through.  But, most importantly, it takes a commitment to do and say what you believe is right regardless of what others might think or say.  It takes being willing to possibly lose the approval of those around you.  As an elected official, it also takes an internal moral obligation against doing something out of a desire to be re-elected, instead of doing what you know is right and appropriate.  In short, it takes guts!

When I think of leadership in the Bible, I immediately think of Moses and the task that God gave him to lead his people to the ‘Promised Land’.  Moses was unsure of his leadership skills; he had to learn to trust God.  God used unusual and strange events to assist Moses on his journey that sometimes looked ridiculous to his followers.  Yet, they learned to trust him.  The sad part of Moses’ story is that he did not get to enter the ‘Promised Land’ with his people.  His mistake came when he stopped trusting God.  “For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there.” (Deuteronomy 32:52)  God instructed Moses to SPEAK to the rock, but instead he struck the rock with his staff, as had been done in the past.  God wanted Moses to do something new and different.  It was a minor difference with a huge consequence.  So perhaps, the real secret to being a successful leader who gets to see the outcome of his or her work, is to listen to God and do EXACTLY as He instructs, even if it has never been done before. Go coach a t-ball team!