So How Did You Get Here?
Like a child on Christmas morning, you are up early. A sense of urgency motivates you! Today you begin a new journey. Today you will grasp and place your foot on the first rung of a ladder that you hope to ascend quickly. You deserve it, you remind yourself. All the time and energy that you spent in office politicking, the accumulation of awards, and schmoozing will now pay off. Today you become a leader! The memories from Friday when you got the call that you had been named a leader man, has swelled your confidence as you prepare yourself for the coronation that in your mind equals the crowning of royalty. While an Elie Tahari dress, or Sheplers work jeans are above your budget, you do pick out the best you own. After all today is your day!
Having spent too much time getting ready and determined to be there early and ahead of anyone else, the clock warns that you must go. You brush off with light acknowledgment the well wishes of your family. You ignore the trash can that needs to be taken to the curb and cut off your neighbor that had been trying to back out of his drive. Nothing else is as important now. This day
is your elevation to eminence!
Getting to work you try to control your anxiousness and zeal. Everything seems to blur out as you look at the desk that will soon be yours. Minutes seem like hours as you wait for the morning meeting in which everyone will be told of your ascension to leadership. Today you have private conversations with senior leaders and enlighten them on all that has been going wrong. Today you will get to tell people what to do!
Two questions. How did you get here? What did you do yesterday? These two questions, whether expressed verbally to you, will have to be answered. The answers will have an impact on your success as a leader.
So, how did you get here?
It has been my observation that in most cases this question is answered in two ways. Using the illustration of getting through a large city or around a metropolitan area can provide the way entrance into leadership is achieved. The best and surer way is through the city called Experience. By this way you have counted the cost, set your heart to serve, and are ready to take on the responsibility and authority.
Travelling first on the street of Humility, you will stay to the right as you veer onto Submission Avenue. Travel may be slow through this area because it will take time to get to the end of these. At the next right you will turn onto Honor Way. Here you will see many important attributes of leadership. You will pass Righteousness, Justice, Compassion and Mercy. Honesty and integrity will be halfway down the block, a good time to pull over and pick up an abundant impartation of both. Continuing along you will come to a T intersection, before turning you will notice Faithfulness and Loyalty on your right. Now you can turn either direction because both will get you to your destination. You will now be on Test Drive. Follow that all the way to your destination, growing in the character that you will develop along your journey. Never lessen the lessons that experience will teach you.
“Experience is the teacher of all things.”
Julius Caesar
But there is another way. It is the expressway of Favor and Privilege. By choosing the expressway over or around Experience, you will suffer loss. Just as an expressway gets you around a city faster favoritism can get you into a position faster, but only character will hold you in that position. Character takes time. It takes experience. And when it comes to experience there are no shortcuts. Shortcuts are often illegitimate and leave you far short of what is needed or necessary. Shortcuts imply impatience. It shows a lack of willingness to learn, practice, or change.
The Bible is full of God’s wisdom on leadership. One notable example of how you get there is in the temptation of Jesus.
Luke 4:5-7 NLT
Then the devil took Him up and revealed to Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. “I will give You the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. I will give it all to You if You will worship me.”
Jesus knew what the Old Covenant prophecies foretold about Him. He knew that He would become, “King of kings and Lord of lords.” He knew that He would rule everything and that His rule would never end. But the devil was offering a shortcut. No more wandering in the desert, putting up with the disciples and the needy crowds that were always showing up. And like a shady used car salesman offering a final, enticing deal clinching carrot, “You will not have to go to the cross.”
Hopefully, you did not take a shortcut. You were not promoted through cronyism or favoritism. Nor because of membership around or in a clique, or simply the next in line. May it not be because you were the first to get your hand up. And you never want to be just the winner of an application process, but to prevail through a crucible or severe testing. More important than a flashy resume, or a compelling interview. It is the answer to this question.
What did you do yesterday?
What you did yesterday, or in your yesterdays is foundational to your success as a leader. What you did yesterday will precede you into a position. Were you submitted and faithful as a follower? Before you can go behind the desk, and sit in the seat of leadership, one must have been properly in submission to authority. It is a good follower that diligently and faithfully performs his duties in the least, and undesirable, which will as a leader bring about success in the greater.
Beyond any professional successes, it will be success in character that will prove you. We do not lead people simply because of position or degrees, it is not the alphabet behind your name, nor the plaques on your wall. Being placed into leadership will change what you do for your organization, but it will have no change in your character. It is why organizations must look to the character rather than ability.