Leaders: We had one job
Hi Leader.
You have one job. I hear you laughing through cyberspace. No, this is not a joke. I’m completely serious. So, what is the one job of leadership pray tell?
After some reflection, I believe the primary duty of a leader is to “Discern the Difference”.
The end. Thanks for reading.
Ha ha, Let me explain further.
Our lives and organizations are walking complexities and the increase in knowledge, the rate of change, the lack of agreement on world views, the deconstruction of societal norms and growing individualism (to name a few) are causing our vision to become extremely blurry. So, I believe our one job is to slow down and to take time and to see… to truly see and to “Discern the Difference”:
Between capacity and ability
Between people problems and process problems
Between dignity and respect
Between serious (life safety, long term relational) and non-serious (non-life safety, short term relational)
Between wants and needs
Between to do list items and projects
Between growth and success
And many more…
In my experience, the lack of clarity and lack of time spent truly ‘seeing’ and discerning these differences lead to confusion, poor decisions, and false prioritization for us as leaders and our teams. Those that follow us are hungry for us to set this pace and to help them see this difference and thus to set our true priorities.
I know it is hard, and I have certainly failed many times at this job, but I also know that as a friend and mentor of mine says, “we have to solve the right problem”. Getting better at this ‘job’ is the right problem to tackle.
Consider the opposite…Merriam-Webster- says Antonyms for discernment are: Disregard, ignore, neglect, overpass, pass over, miss, or overlook…
We often say that we can’t afford to take the time for this job of discerning, slowing down, thinking, praying, consulting with wise-counsel, and climbing up to a higher level to see the situation for what it truly is.
What if we can’t afford not to?
What if this is our only job?
