I read a great article by Andy Stanley over the weekend that spoke to some of the things running around in my head. I haven’t done a good job of this lately. Can anyone else relate?

“When God created leaders, he equipped them with an unsettling urge to unpack, undo, and unearth methods. This explains your tendancy to question everything around you. It’s the reason you have such strong opinions - and such a strong desire to share them. God wired you that way. Deep in your heart you may feel that if you were in charge, things would not only be different, they’d be better. This is not a problem of arrogance or pride. It’s simply the way God wired you. It’s a good thing.

Unfortunately, your zeal for improvement isn’t always appreciated out in the real world. As a matter of fact, your natural bent for leadership sets you up for resistance from virtually all sides - including other leaders. And unless you understand the nature of these dynamics, the very instincts that qualify you for greatness can also lead you to disqualify yourself and sabotage your opportunities. Effective leadership means learning to challenge the process without challenging the organization. There’s a fine line between the two. But it’s a crucial line.

Many talented leaders have “led” themselves right out of a job because their desire to challenge the process was misunderstood, or perhaps even threatening to those in charge. While on the other side of the spectrum, many skilled leaders have resigned themselves to conform to the status quo, squelching and squashing their natural instincts because there’s no obvious opportunity to be who God made them to be.

When you stop challenging the process, you cease to be a leader and you become a manager. And if you cease to challenge, then you have abdicated your true calling and giftedness in the world.”

This entry was posted on Monday, November 7th, 2005 at 11:15 am and is filed under Leadership, What's In My Head. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.