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Leadership with a small “l” is leadership found in the home, ward, community and workplace. It focuses on serving, ministering, loving, and supporting others. I am a Leader in my home because I have the roles of a wife daughter, sister, and parent. These roles mean that people will watch and learn from me because of the responsibilities I have. l am jointly responsible for the choices that are made at the family and couple level in my home. I am a leader (with a small “l”) in my home as I show my love for my family by working to serve my husband and daughters, minister to their individual needs, and supporting them in their uplifting endeavors. I am a leader in my home as I act in ways that reflect the love that the Lord has for each of us. I am a leader as I accept responsibility for making the best personal choices I can make in every situation I find myself in. At the end of the day, my leadership is an accidental by-product of choices that have always been between my spirit, my conscience, and God.
Quote:If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
-John Quincy Adamsgreat thoughts! I like the leader/manager distinction better. Leaders do inspire people, they are relationship oriented, have vision and are supportive. Managers are about compliance, sticking with policy, budgeting, etcetera. They tend to be less interested in indivduals’ growth and development, and tend to stick with the status quo.
Speaking realistically, I think every leader has to embrace a certain amount of management. There are always existing structures and policies that have to be followed in conventional organizations. There are times when the growth of followers has to take a backseat to managerial imperatives. But leaders are have far more vision, relationship building, and genuine concern for their followers than managers do.
Sadly, most of the people I’ve reported to have been managers. The ones who were leaders always seemed to get fired, and then started their own businesses and leadership experiences.
SilentDawning wrote:
Leaders do inspire people, they are relationship oriented, have vision and are supportive. Managers are about compliance, sticking with policy, budgeting, etcetera. They tend to be less interested in individuals’ growth and development, and tend to stick with the status quo.
I think we can see this in how assignments are given in families. It seems that in every situation I co-parent with my spouse in, one of us is the manager (taking care of the details) and one of us is the leader (having the vision). And it isn’t always the same person having the vision while the other person manages it. Maybe one of the parts of growing up spiritually is learning to accept and execute with humility the role that you are needed to have at the time and being able to switch with equal dexterity and humility as circumstances change.
SilentDawning wrote:
Speaking realistically, I think every leader has to embrace a certain amount of management. There are always existing structures and policies that have to be followed in conventional organizations. There are times when the growth of followers has to take a backseat to managerial imperatives. But leaders are have far more vision, relationship building, and genuine concern for their followers than managers do.Sadly, most of the people I’ve reported to have been managers. The ones who were leaders always seemed to get fired, and then started their own businesses and leadership experiences.
This reminds me of the passages of scripture dealing with shepherds vs hired hands. Maybe hired hands are shepherds in training learning the gist of care-taking and those responsibilities before they become shepherds of their own flocks?
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