« Return to blog main page
Everyone is a Leader
A pessimist, they say, sees a glass of water as being half-empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half-full. But a leader sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty. –Communications Consultant, G. Donald Gale
Where does it come from, that urge within us to contribute, to serve? We each have a destiny to fulfill. Everyone is needed. . .essential really. And yet somehow people get disconnected from any sense of purpose. How does that happen? That sense of self collapsing in upon itself until we believe that we don’t matter? In this place of not mattering we feel alone and unimportant. Or we struggle to prove how big we are by gathering lots of stuff. . .lots of things around us as if these things, this stuff will give us weight and importance.
Yet it is so easy to matter. Breathe and you have an impact. You are having an impact all the time. One doesn’t need to manufacture grandiose plans to make a difference. One only has to smile at a young child.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for dreams and for the passion to make them real. I’m in the business of empowering people to expand their ability to contribute to the world. And yet in all of our desire to make things better, it’s easy to miss the importance of the moment. At the toll booth this morning I had a little joke with toll collector. I don’t even remember what it was about. . .something silly and we laughed together and had a moment of connection. The person in the grocery store line teased me about all the broccoli I was buying. He implied that there would be a BLAST at my house tonight. I went to my car with a lighter step.
Or the lovely woman who waved me in to the line of traffic as I was coming out of the grocery store parking lot. She saw that I would be stuck there for a while and motioned me to come in front of her, arriving at her destination a whopping 5 seconds later than she would have otherwise.
For me, leadership is not a function of position or title. It’s not really about who is at the front at all. Leadership is a function of RELATIONSHIP, of our ability to connect. . .to point, yes, but more than that to SERVE. I was served today by many and as I received the gift, I served the giver as well.
That capacity to serve is not reserved for a special few. It lives inside us all. In some it shines quite brightly and in others the light is covered, dimmed by some collective knot of life’s experiences. At any given moment in time, the leader within us peeks out or bursts forth, washing the whole of our world with light.
KKH
-
Nick Robinson
-
Kim
Subscription Options:
