I’ll never forget the phone call.
I was joining a new team, and I anticipated being considered for a leadership role. The call informed me that a younger, less seasoned teammate was being tapped for the job.
I was stunned.
After all, I had far more work experience, leadership experience and felt confident that I was a better “natural leader.” All that may have been true, but for the record, I think the decision makers made the right call. I wasn’t ready, because I wrongly equated position with leadership.
A couple years later, the “big boss,” the man responsible for that leadership decision, pulled me aside for a little chat. He started talking with me about some problems he saw with the team, and was suggesting ways I could help the group be more effective.
Externally, I was calm, but internally, I was indignant. I finally looked at him and said, “Aren’t you talking to the wrong guy? Remember, you hired the OTHER guy to lead, not me!” His response was classic. “I am talking with the right guy, because in this case, you’re the guy that can institute change!”
Message sent, message received.
I learned that a title on a business card has very little to do with leadership. I learned that leading “from the middle” is a great way to hone both a reputation for leading and the actual experience to take on more leadership. And most importantly, I learned, as my friend Craig Parker once said, that “leaders aren’t necessarily in charge, they’re in front!”
What are your thoughts?
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Consider the pastor at front of the church, speaking via his microphone to hundreds once/wk… while a teen from his back row tweets to hundreds… daily.
As we move from the somewhat isolated controlled-management model, to a more open-source model, it begs great questions about true leadership.
Exactly! And though physical position makes it look like the pastor is in front, in actuality, it’s the tweeting teen!! Love that example!
Great thoughts. A person I know could not be considered for a leadership position, I ask them about that and how they felt. They said they could be the leader without the title. They had the right attitude.