Friday, January 14, 2011

Risky Business

No.. this isn't a post in honor of Tom Cruise or running and sliding around your hardwood floors in your underwear.  Although, leadership might make you do crazy things.  It is a risky endeavor when are given the opportunity and choose to lead.  There is a great quote in a book I have begun today.  "The hope of leadership lies in the capacity to deliver disturbing news and raise difficult questions in a way that people can absorb, prodding them to take up the message rather than ignore it or kill the messenger."

Have you ever had a message that you knew, as a leader, needed to be shared?  Did you share it?  What was the outcome?  Regret or a fond memory.  The journey of the leadership process can be exhilarating, but have to dare to take the risk.

3 comments:

  1. With leadership comes the responsibility of having to deal with tough situations. What I tend to do is to approach it each time in the most sincere way possible and explain what needs to happen. Be honest and straightforward, and no matter what the outcome you know you did your best, regardless of how it was handled by those you told.

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  2. There is great peace of mind in that approach. I think that it is a great rule of thumb. However, sometimes people don't care how genuine we might be. They just want us to do what they expect. How might this factor into "delivering the message"? Thanks for the comment.

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  3. Makes me think of a recent situation. A guy at church went to the hospital a few times in one day and didn't stay overnight. He was aggravated because no one from the church had come to visit him while he was there. No one informed us that he was there or called to start the prayer chain.

    What else can you do but explain how we didn't know and apologize. If they want to be mad then there going to be mad.

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