A Step Ahead

So I was thinking about leadership this morning. I've come to believe that one of the greatest things a leader can do is to call people to be just a little further ahead of where the are. Really, the word "leadership" suggests exactly this. By definition, a leader most often goes ahead of those he or she leads.

When I was in seminary I had a wonderful pastor who modeled this for me. He would often talk about our church and say, "We are a church that ..." It took me a while to realize that often when we said, "We are a church that ..." he was often talking about us being a church that we weren't quite yet. He wasn't talking about something that was way different than who we were as a church, just a step ahead of where we presently where. Amazingly, our church continued to move, one step at a time.

In college I led a group of friends up Mt. St. Helens. Most people did quite well on the climb, but there were a few who really struggled, especially over the last mile. So I walked with them, I told them not to look up, but simply to look ahead and focus on where they would place their foot next. And, when all was said and done, they made it to the top, one step at a time.

The most challenging part as a leader is to be patient with your people. Often leaders see the big picture and work so hard to get our people to see this picture as well, but that is a very frustrating endeavor. Instead, if we help our people take one step at a time towards where we are going we can often get there much faster and with less difficulty.

This also means that a leader doesn't have to know every step to take, just the next one. So what's the next step for you, and what's the next step for your people? That's where you begin.