Thursday, June 19, 2008

Cracking the Leadership Code - Evil Twin 2

Could it be? My evil twin leader values being followed to higher levels over helping people around him to a higher level. I understand him, oh how I understand him, you know . . . the big ugly, my evil twin leader.

When I am followed somewhere I get all the Gatorade. Me. My favorite subject. When I lift others higher they get all the Gatorade. Shoot, I like Gatorade. All over my head and on my clothes, I love them smell of cool, purple Gatorade. I want to be the hero! Oh wait, not me, my evil twin leader.

We can lead people through manipulation, paychecks, intimidation or positional authority. Most leaders depend on those tools too often. If you lead with an iron hand you are admired by most. However, you and your followers are all underachieving. If you are serving God, He gets the short end of the stick when you force people to follow.

This is one of my newly discovered favorite quotes from Coaching for Performance:

You can make a man run, but you can't make a man run fast!

The longest distance known to man is the few inches between his head and his heart. His head will tell him he had better do something. You and he get the minimum out of that deal. Lead the hearts of people. Think about what that would look like. Coach more. Attempt to help move fences in their minds. Clear the fog. Watch them soar . . . along with Kingdom impact. The Gatorade is great for the moment but over time all you have is sticky skin and purple clothes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great post, Dino. You made me think I had read in John Maxwell's books on leadership. If you want growth, add followers but if you want explosive growth, add leaders :)