Follow the Leader

I'm reading a book by Steven Covey called Principle-centered Leadership. A most excellent book with lot of great ideas and thoughts on how to be a leader and how to get people to follow you. But how does one follow? Few people are leaders in business without a leader themselves. How do you follow that leader? What if the leader does not follow proper leadership techniques? Are you allowed to not perform to your best if the leader doesn't perform in a way that encourages and draws others to work at a higher level? Does knowing that you are capable of performing at a higher level mean that you are required to perform at that higher level, even if hampered by your leader? How do you follow? That would make an interesting book.

Responsibility

What am I responsible for? I have a job description that says I am suppose to do my job. Sometimes I notice that others who do not work for me but work with me may not be doing their job correctly. Do I have a responsibility to correct it? If I notice it after they started doing it wrong, am I responsible to tell them? Am I responsible for not telling them earlier? If I notice something, it is right for me to tell them, but it might not be my responsibility. If it is right to do something, am I responsible to do it? This is why I can't sleep at night.

Mind your thoughts

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. - Philippians 4:8

Our mind is very powerful. It controls our body. The thoughts that we have control our actions. If we let our mind focus or allow certain thoughts to stay in our mind, that is who we will become. When we allow ourselves to focus on things that are not of God, we will soon find that our actions, our being, will reflect that. If we allow ourselves to focus on things that are of God, we will soon find that our actions, our being, will reflect that. Focus on the world and we will remain of the world. Focus on God and we will become one of His children.

Listen to the radio

Drew Kennedy has a song called AM Radio. Anyone who has been driving late at night, spinning on the radio for some music, only to find that the one good station you find faded to static 5 minutes later will appreciate it. In the chorus he says “say a prayer to save me from static, thank God for AM radio.”

In college, I would often drive from College Station back home to Corpus Christi. Just south of the halfway point along the drive was Victoria. In Victoria was arguably the greatest radio station, certainly that I've ever heard, 98.7 KTXN, Steve Coffman's Texas Mix. He called it the 100,000 Watt blow torch broadcasting Texas music up and down the coast. In high school this station came on the air wave and I was lucky enough to have spun across it on the dial. I found that late at night or early in the morning I could tune in this station in Corpus. I also found oddly enough that as I went south on Padre Island that the station came in clearer. Around Big Shell the station came in as if I was in Victoria. One day my Senior year of high school I over heard my English teacher talking to another teacher about a radio station he found that would only come in late at night or early in the morning, but was really good. He was speaking about Texas Mix. Old and young alike would shift their sleep schedule to listen.

On the drive between Corpus Christi and College Station I would look forward to listening to the Texas Mix. I would begin trying to tune in as soon as I crossed the Harbor Bridge out of Corpus and usually could get the station by Refugio. I would spend the next several hours listening until I reached the dot on a roadmap of Swiss Alps, just north of Schulenburg. It was at this point I would lose the station. Jut as I crested a hill by some antennas I would lose the station. My joy of listening to great music would turn to fists shaken in anger a I would spin the dial, trying to find a descent radio station to listen to, only to be met with static.

Run away!

Dr. Tim Walker, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church, once said in his sermon that he found that when he talked to people at previous congregations that they never remembered what the subjects of his sermon's were, but they always remembered his stories.

In one of his sermons, the subject escapes me, he told a story a football coach and how to make decisions. The coach said that when faced with a 3rd or 4th and short situation that he found the best way to call the play was to turn around and get a drink of water and not look at his quarterback. This way the quarterback would be forced to decide the play on his own and the coach escaped having to make the call.

I find that when a tricky decision is needed to be made immediately or a task is about to be handed out that I don't want to undertake that it is a great time to take a coffee break.