I Like Leadership

As someone who has served for many years in a leadership position, in fact, as the senior pastor of three churches, I’ve found that being a leader is usually enjoyable. We don’t use the term enjoyable very often when speaking of leadership. We hear words like challenging, tough, courageous, and bold. However, for the most part it has been an extremely enjoyable experience for me. Yet, it is somehow seen as arrogant or prideful to admit that we like being a leader, so we walk around like it is a cross to carry. We think that we should be the reluctant leader like Moses, or Gideon. Peter, however, was a leader and he (like most the disciples) embraced the mantle, as did Elisha.

We hear a lot about pastoral burnout and about pastors who are leaving the church. At Wal-Mart, the turnover of management positions is extremely high. In other organizations we hear about burnout and about people dropping out of the “rat race.” However, ninety percent of my leadership experience has been great. Studies have shown that it is the ten percent of the leadership that is not great that often leads to leadership disillusionment.

Admittedly, 200 people can tell me what a wonderful job I’m doing and I take it all in stride. I don’t get the big head, or feel too exalted, but let one person tell me that I did or am doing something wrong and that criticism or comment follows me home and haunts me through the night. We need to hear the criticism. If we surround ourselves with yes-men we will only hear what we want to hear, rather than what we need to hear. But it can still be painful to hear. The pain is part of the growth process that helps us become better leaders, and therefore find the job even more enjoyable. So if you are a leader, enjoy!