Leaders and Relationship 11/10/16

Leaders and Relationships* Leadership is about relationships. Yet, relationships are hard and, as we know, today relationships are colored by so many cultural issues; gender, race, financial status, family background. Often it is much easier, and safer, to either avoid relationships or to keep them very superficial. Indeed, in our popular culture models of relationships are often dysfunctional, either sexualized or self-seeking. One model that has been lost, except perhaps in rural America, is of neighbors chatting over the back fence who have deep, respectful, lifelong relationships that give assurance of unconditional support. As a leader being a good neighbor is foundational because people will not follow you if they don’t trust you and followers will not trust you if you do not invest the time to get to know them. Some may dismiss this as a Pollyanna (or perhaps Fred Rodgers) thinking and instead put their faith management systems. However people, like sheep-as opposed to cattle, want to be led not driven and will follow a leader even in a dark valley.** *This is a personal reflection on chapter 1 of the book, The Way of the Shepherd by Leman and Pentak – The main points of chapter one are, Know the status of your people as well as the status of the work Get to know your flock, one sheep at a time Engage your people on a regular basis Keep your eyes and ears open, question, and follow through. In the weeks ahead I plan to reflect on concepts from each chapter in this book. If you want to follow along by reading the chapters I think you will find it very helpful. The next chapter offers some suggestions on how to put chapter one into action. ** For a spiritual thought on this reflection you may consider Luke 10: 25-37