Leadership

My thoughts lately have turned to leadership.

I've been what some would say is the leader -- sometimes, that's just really the manager. I was in Boy Scouts and served as a patrol leader, senior patrol leader, and as a chapter chief in the Order of the Arrow. In the latter, I put together the first camporee for our district in a few years. Except for that latter one, in many ways I was in the role but not so much in the function perhaps. I was probably more of a leader at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in 1981, doing the function without a role.

Since high school, I've had a number of leadership roles, and many times functioned in those roles, and functioned as a leader outside of the role. When I try to function as a leader, I usually end up trying to manage more than lead.

I've tried to repress the leadership the last couple of years, however. Some of it is due to control issues, sometimes on my part, often with someone else feeling usurped. And maybe for a season that was right.

Clarifying my thoughts on leadership more this past week has been Seth Godin's book Tribes. The challenge is to be a leader in the way you are, not as a role. Modern leadership is in bringing together communities, and typically standing back and letting it happen. The community may have a mission, or simply a common interest. This kind of thought toward leadership is kind of fitting with some "apostolic" gifting some in the last few months have said they see in me. I try to see what that means ...