But I also am truly blessed at the moment to be involved with people and organizations that give me a chance to observe and learn a lot about working with people and leading people. This is a chance that I have not had as much opportunity with in my professional life. Sure I have led people on paper. I have had the tiles “supervisor” and “commander” next to my stationary. But if I am really being honest with myself I would have to admit that the reality of those situations was always more tell than show.
So when I work with people at my church or with the various volunteer organizations I work with, it comes as a fun opportunity to try things or experiment with principles of leadership.
The principle of leadership which was demonstrated to me today was the need, as a leader, to sometimes just get out of the way! I have worked with a lot of supervisors, most of whom, I am happy to report, have demonstrated an overwhelming competence in the jobs they have been assigned. However, I have also seen a number of them prioritize that competence above that of those that work for them.
What do I mean by that? Well, sometimes I have had supervisors that were more concerned with getting the job done than they are in developing the people working with them. Sometimes that is absolutely merited and necessary! But the form that so often takes, is the supervisor just doing the job themselves. This is not good leadership.
In my opinion, the definition of a good organizational leader is the type of person capable of inspiring and showing the way to others in doing a job or task. This definition does not prioritize the job itself (though it certainly does not ignore the job). It instead prioritizes the resources, in most cases the people, and their capability to do the job.
I had this demonstrated today by a colleague of mine in the youth group I volunteer in. You see, the group has its own youth leadership, young men ages 12-14. When this colleague was asked about an upcoming activity, despite his more numerous years, and vast experience, he completely deferred to the young president of the group for answers.
Why is this such a big deal? It would have been so easy for the friend of mine to just give the answers himself, to just make the decisions himself. So why not just do that?
As far as I can tell, the reason is because this friend was being a true leader. He knew that developing this young man into being a capable contributor to the group and society would net far better good than just providing the immediate need himself would. He knew that providing that opportunity for growth mattered more.
So how do we apply this in life? Leaders need to understand that many can do far more than few. They need to let go of the need to prove their own brilliance and instead focus on letting others grow. Because what is the end result of this type of decision? The result becomes a group of capable individuals, rather than just one hyper-competent person. And the amount of good that a group of competent persons can accomplish is vastly more than any one individual.
Have a nice day.
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