You Can’t Lead in a Hurry

As a leader it is possible to be busy and have peace. A leader can carry a lot of responsibility and the natural pressure that comes as a result of that responsibility and still have peace. It’s possible to have a full schedule and a long “to-do list,” and still have peace. The future that a leader is tasked to lead through can be daunting and yet it is possible for that leader to still have peace.

But it’s impossible to be hurried and have peace. You can’t lead in a hurry. You can spin plates in a hurry, rushing from one task to the next, but you can’t lead in a hurry. You can make decisions at a fast pace but you can’t lead in a hurry. Being hurried as a leader is not about pace, volume of work, or the gravity of responsibility. It’s something that happens inside of a leader. When the leader gets hurried bad things happen…

1. Staffing

When you are hurried as a leader your team becomes an expendable commodity to get you where you want to go instead of people to be invested in.

2. Metrics

When you become hurried as a leader metrics and goals become burdens to bear as opposed to benchmarks to celebrate.

3. Fun

When you are hurried as a leader the excitement, passion, belief, and simple fun that you used to have becomes substituted by anxiety.

4. Inner-Life

When you are a hurried as a leader you trade peace for anxiety, anger, disappointment, and bitterness. When this happens the leader is not only a danger to themselves but to the whole organization. Leaders know the longer you lead somewhere the more the organization begins to look like and take on the “personality” of the leader. Their “inner-life” begins to naturally be put on display throughout the behavior of the organization. Everyone suffers when the leader suffers.

So if you were honest with yourself today, are you a busy leader or a hurried leader? What are you willing to do about it? What would change this week if instead of calendaring for what you need to get done you calendared for what kind of person you want to become?

Photo Credit: RobSheppard via Compfight cc