Good morning Gentle Reader.
These past few days I have been thinking about leaders, followers, and leadership. I have also engaged in a number of conversations with leaders. One question I presented to each of them was: What are the six most difficult things for you to do as a leader? Given our conversations I have been thinking about leaders and what they do – the easy and the difficult things they do.
There was a period of time, 2001-2010, that I wrote down a leader’s response to this question. During 2010 I took time to re-visit their responses and I emerged a list. I have decided to offer you the list today. The six are ranked in order of the number of responses from the leaders (this is the 2010 list). Since 2010 I have shared this with other leaders and with a number of ‘consultants’ and I have found general agreement with and support for my list.
CONSIDER: 6 difficult things for a leader to do – perhaps for most of us to do; they certainly are a challenge for me.
- Return love for hate
- Include the excluded
- Admitting that he/she is wrong
- Offer healing when wounding occurs (especially to self —- self-violence is, perhaps, the greatest violence)
- Saying ‘thank you’
- Being vulnerable (two ways)
- Being transparent = being fully human
- Carrying the wound gracefully (from the Latin, ‘vulnus’ to carry a wound with grace) – You will be wounded, both intentionally and un-
Gentle Reader: What are the six most difficult things for you to do?
Searcher-Seeker 