If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams
Each of us has the choice of being a leader. True, there are role-defined leaders and they are charged with and entrusted with a variety of role-defined responsibilities. AND there are situations that require someone to step forward and take the lead; each of us is charged with and entrusted with this type of leading.
To say ‘yes’ to leading – whether by role or by situation – is to say ‘yes’ to living dangerously. Being a leader is dangerous because the leader challenges (sometimes by simply inviting folks to ‘consider’) what the other holds dear – daily habits, deep assumptions, values, beliefs, stereotypes, prejudices, loyalties, and ways of thinking (to name a few of the things we hold dear). What ups the ante for the leader is that the leader does not offer ‘surety’ or ‘guarantees’ but ‘opportunities’ – the leader who consistently provides ‘surety’ is setting him or herself up for some real bother.
The leader – especially by situation – often chooses to exceed his or her authority as he or she embraces the challenge; this is often disturbing to others. When folks are disturbed they push back; they resist in all manner of creative and unexpected ways. The leader is at risk of being marginalized or of being ‘removed’ from the process or of being undermined or shunned.
No wonder folks choose not to lead; even leaders by role hesitate. On one hand it is wise to hesitate; only ‘fools rush in.’ On the other hand, no matter how careful you are, how gentle you are, how invitational you are, choosing to lead is risky at best and truly dangerous at times.
Given all of this, why would anyone choose to step out ahead and lead? What’s in it for them? What’s in it for the other(s)? Because each of us is unique and because each of us has certain skills, talents, abilities and capacities and because we, for the most part anyway, espouse that we care for the other(s) – all of those stakeholders we serve – we are called to lead and we respond to the call by choosing to lead. We have knowledge and experience that the others need and in choosing to offer these up we choose to lead.
To be a leader requires the courage (i.e. heart) to choose, to act, to experience, to reflect and to learn. It requires embracing doubt more than surety. As Lincoln reminded us: It involves trusting the ‘better angels of our nature’ and the ‘better angels’ of the other(s). To be a leader requires that one believes that ‘we really are in this together’ – interdependence is required.
Being a leader is dangerous. Yet, there is hope. There is hope for the person who chooses to lead because for the most part the others are capable of embracing both the ‘good’ news and the ‘disturbing’ news; they are capable of engaging the burning questions and they are capable of thinking together in ways that tap the wisdom of the collective (which, for the most part, is more impactful than the wisdom of the individual).
Searcher-Seeker 