Leadership is a choice: It’s such an odd thing to say.
The benefit of the doubt is withheld from many of us, options are unevenly distributed, and indoctrination is real.
And yet… no matter where we begin, we each get the choice, every day, to choose to lead.
Today Seth is selling courses as well as making a valid point: We can all lead.
It’s tragic that the brainwashing runs so deep that we’ve hidden that choice from many people. But it’s there, in areas big and small.
The world is changing faster than it ever has before, and we can choose to lead those changes or simply follow them.
In Proposal Land, we can choose:
- To learn and use new apps, new techniques
- To communicate openly
- To be cheery, even when we’re tired
- To speak up when we think the consensus is wrong
- To respect someone else’s dissent when they think we’re wrong
- To appreciate others’ contributions generously
- To look for our point of maximum leverage
- To accept imperfection
- To work hard but not stupidly so
Or we can choose to follow the existing path in our organizations, whatever it is.
We can all lead. By example if not by fiat. No matter where we begin.
Your points about “speak up” and “respect dissent” ring bells for me. I’ve worked in organizations where a meeting agreed on a course for progress, and then afterwards had several people tell me — in confidence, of course — that the decisions was railroaded through, was wrong, etc. etc. Andthey ALWAYS say something like, “I don’t think it’s my place to speak up…” or “Ernie always gets what he wants….”
In the church context, too, the dissent is rarely open. It happens in all the little “off the record” mutterings in the parking lot. And festers under the surface.
Jim T
Jim – Yes, proposal writers can also be passive aggressive – not taking issue with something, but just ignoring the direction(s) given. That’s death on teams. Maybe instead of teaching linear algebra we should teach dealing with conflict.