What I've Learned about Leadership from Carpooling (Part 1)

Yesterday I was taking our church van to the garage to have it looked at and asked one of our preschool teachers to follow me over there. As we pulled out of the parking lot I took off and just headed towards the garage, which is about a 4 or 5 mile drive down the road. Once I was on the road, though, I completely disregarded the fact that she was supposed to be behind me. I'm sure we've all been there. You're in a hurry to get somewhere and all you can think is, "Why don't they just hurry up!" As I sat at the stop sign waiting for her to catch up, this thought crossed my mind: How many times do we as leaders become so driven to meet our goals that we forget about those that are following? Sure the destination is important, and sure they want to follow us, but are we leaders that others CAN follow?

There are many times that we as leaders need to ease up on the gas. Maybe even sit at the stop sign and wait for them to catch up. Because if we reach our destination by ourselves, what good is that? The very essence of being a leader means that there are others following. Driven leaders can very easily fall into the trap of keeping there eyes so fixed on the prize that they forget about looking in the rear view mirror to those following behind. To be a successful leader you bet we need to have our eyes on the prize! But take the occasional glance back to make sure the trail of cars is still behind you. More on this tomorrow.