Verse of the Day
Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
~ Matthew 20:25-28 `
Today we had a work event where the head of our department (fairly new to our organization) wanted to take the time at our first all-around get-together to talk about his views on leadership and the principles he lives by. He started out with a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry about leadership being inspiring people to long for something rather than assigning tasks, then he moved on to discussing the balance between control and trust and how it plays into empowerment.
With the topic of leadership coming up, it reminded me of this:
“I think leadership comes from integrity – that you do whatever you ask others to do. I think there are non-obvious ways to lead. Just by providing a good example as a parent, a friend, a neighbor makes it possible for other people to see better ways to do things. Leadership does not need to be a dramatic, fist in the air and trumpets blaring, activity.”
~ Scott Berkun ~
Sometimes I wonder if I’m being the kind of leader I need to be, or was meant to be. Sometimes it pays… to take stock of our lives and ask the questions – are we leading? Are we doing what needs to be done and sharing in the work? Are we doing the non-obvious things as well as the obvious things? And where we lead – do people follow? Should they follow? Are we the family member, friend and neighbor we should be? And when we’ve asked the questions – do we like the answers? And even if we do like the answers – can we work on it and make them better?
Just my thought for the day…
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