LEADER

@2010 Leadership Development Resources, LLC

One of the most commonly quoted misconceptions about leadership is that everything rises and falls on it.  'I'm the leader, and if it's not happening, it all comes back to me.'  

Now, nearly every truth also has a half-truth attached to it.  

The full truth is that while leadership is critical, if it were everything, Jesus must not have been a very good one.  Remember Judas?  Remember Jesus asking His disciples, 'Are you going to leave Me, too?'  

What had He done to make everybody start to walk away?  Everything doesn't rise and fall on leadership.  Not everything.

Back in the day, more organizations were named after their founders and leaders - Ford, Sears, J.C. Penney, Macy's, Jones, Proctor & Gamble, Montgomery Ward.  Today, not so much ... Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM.

The shift in thought is that we cannot focus completely around one central leader.  Churches struggle to make that shift.  We still tend to build around human leaders.

Leaders are necessary and vital, of course, but the success of organizations that thrive tends to come - in great measure - from underlying systems and the embedded culture in the organization - not so much from one single great idea, or some god-like visionary with overwhelming charisma.

And be blessed.