Message of the Day - Fear of Leadership

Good Morning,

 

Have you noticed people who seem afraid to take control. They are horrified and even sickened to step into the lead position of any project or organization.

 

This fear is a fear of leadership.

 

Here is an example. In one of the organizations I have been a part of we looked for volunteers to take care of an important, but not that difficult, part of the organization. We had one person step up saying they had no problem helping out when it was necessary. For this we were grateful. When the next step was added, of having this person who stepped up then coordinate other volunteers, they became very agitated and did not want to do it, pointing out they only wanted to help.

 

In this case, the leadership part of the process would have been grabbing a pad and paper and listing names and dates other people were to volunteer. This task, this taking leadership in this area became a scary and imposing force which frightened and overwhelmed someone.

 

Please realize, it was not the task itself which was intimidating, rather the notion of being in leadership.

 

Leadership is often misunderstood to be something more than it often is.

 

When you commit to be a leader over an organization or a task, it does not necessarily mean that you are going to have to roll up your sleeves and dive into a three year long, 80 hour a week grind of talking to and motivating people to get work done to achieve the goals of the task or organization.

 

Sometimes taking a leadership position is as simple as pulling out a pad of paper and taking a list of names and handing it off to someone else.

 

Leadership, being all the rage in the bookstores, business circles and the internet, is not always the giant it is made out to be. Since most leadership materials are presented by current and former CEO's and larger than life 'Leaders' it is no wonder folks may have a misperception of what it is all about.

 

Throw all of that away, and realize that leadership is as simple as taking the lead in a specific area or over a group and taking the steps to get it moving in the right direction. There is more to it than that, but you don't have to be ready to take over a mega-corporation or mega-church to be a leader.

 

Most leadership activities are just not that scary.

 

Honest.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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