Lonely at the Top

Every society has its idioms and "wise sayings". The one that says, "It is lonely at the top" is humorous to me. It is one of those things that is true because it is true. You will often hear someone make this statement and those listening will silently nod their heads as if being reminded of some great mystery.

I have to wonder what people expected it to be like at the top. Leadership is lonely. By definition. If you are one of 1,000 "leaders", then who are you really leading?

Of course it is lonely at the top; otherwise you are not truly at the top.

It can also be much less distracting at the top.

We are currently experiencing a bird invasion in Austin. Maybe this is normal for the city and I have just been gone so long that I forgot, but there are a lot of birds here. I am talking Hitchcockian proportions where you move quickly from your car to your house just in case the birds get hungry for human.

Driving around the city I come across little colonies of birds sitting on electric lines; hundreds or thousands of them grouped together. I am sure they find some warmth and comfort from being one of many.

Today I saw something different; one bird sitting alone on the wire. At first I thought, "How sad, that bird is all alone." Then I realized that this particular bird was a hawk, a bird of prey. In the Austin bird world he is likely very near the top.

He was alone and he had to endure the cold, but he was designed for that. He could also do something that the other birds couldn't; look clearly at his surroundings.

I was struck by the difference between the two sights; one of thousands of birds flocking together and all of the energy and seeming chaos that it holds. The other of this lone bird sitting quietly, able to see all of his surroundings so clearly, free of distraction.

Leadership often requires solitude. Solitude can bring clarity. It is only when we rise above the tree tops that we can make out the forest, and the mountains and rivers beyond.

If your leadership is never lonely, then you may be robbing yourself of the clarity that "aloneness" provides, and that your organization desperately needs.

Questions for Further Thought:

1. How often do you or your leadership team get away from the everyday for strategic planning? In his book Death by Meeting Patrick Lencioni recommends that teams meet like that one weekend every quarter.
2. What organization/division do you lead? How comfortable are you with the reality that you are responsible for where your people go? Do you know where you are? Do you know where you are going? What are your first five steps to begin moving that direction?
3. What would it take for you to find solitude on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis? Can you find 5 minutes a day? 30-minutes a week? 1-day a month? 1 weekend per quarter? 1 week per year?

Conference Attending 201

Let us assume that you took to heart the lessons learned in CA101. You have your questions ready, you attend the conference and get the answers you were looking for, and you have begun making you action plans.

Here are a few things to remember while you make plans that will not only affect you but everyone who you lead.

They don't care. Not like you do. They can't because they were not with you at the conference. Without the same experience they cannot have the same response, and you should not expect them to. I see so many leaders who get frustrated when they present a new vision, with great passion, and their followers do not respond with a similar level of passion.

If you want your people to care like you do, then help them experience what you experienced. On a practical level this is often possible by purchasing DVDs of the conference itself and actually letting them get the information first hand.

They think you took a vacation. This does not mean that they are upset or bitter. Hopefully your people love you and are glad you had some time away to think, learn, and perhaps even grow.

If you want them to see what really happened, then show them your work. Show them the questions you were asking and how the answers you received can change the organization. Then show them their part in that change. Again, don't expect them to get it the first time, but paint the big picture and let them see that this was not just a weekend away to rest.

This will take time. Think in months, not days. You have likely been thinking about the issues on your heart for months. Give your followers the same courtesy. If this has not been something that you have already been talking about and working through, then realize that they will need at least as much time to work through the process as you did.

Allow this understanding to affect your scheduled release of your new plan. I have seen many good plans killed simply because they were never given a chance to take root. What the leader blamed on "lack of buy-in" was really a case of his followers being completely overwhelmed. Most people cannot manage a complete shift of paradigm in mere days and be ready to implement the practical changes it demands on their lives.

These truths lead me to encourage leaders not to attend a conference in the Spring to get great ideas for their Easter service. Allow the things you will learn this Spring to shape your Fall and your 2011. Let your people have the chance to get as passionate about the answers you have found as you did, and you will be amazed at how much greater the results can be.

What Power Reveals

There is a saying I have heard often throughout my life, and even repeated at times. It says, "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." It has a nice ring to it, and it is helpful in expressing some of our concerns over government leaders or people who are more wealthy than we can comprehend.

It is also completely false.

Using that logic I would have to believe that God is the most corrupt being in the universe, since He is also the most powerful. Though some might try to make that argument, my personal experience has been that God is rather merciful, good, and just.

I have come to see that rather than corrupt, power merely reveals what already exists in my heart. Let us consider two modern examples.

Rick Warren

Regardless of how you feel about his teaching or ministry positions, there is one thing that is quite clear about Rick Warren; he is a man of good character. Some people believed this before he wrote the most successful hardback book of all time (besides the Bible). It became even more clear when he reached a level of fame, influence, and wealth that is beyond that of any other pastor. What we saw was that he was still the same man; just more so. He became more generous, more passionate about world missions, and more committed to pastors and the church.

He gave back every dime his church had every paid him, stopped taking a salary, and started giving away 90% of his income (he was already giving away 40% or more).

In this case power, fame, and wealth revealed a heart that has been changed, a heart that is more concerned with other than self.

Tiger Woods

Love him or hate him, it is hard to argue against the fact that Tiger could have been the best golfer to play the game. Time will tell whether or not we remember him that way. But, at this point Tiger is better known for his off-course deeds than his incredible golfing performances.

The odds are we are not seeing a new, corrupted version of Tiger. Had he ended up like you and me he most likely would have merely been another closet porn addict, possibly going to a strip club every now and then like other guys.

You add annual contracts over $100million and the title of "most famous athlete in the world" to that and you get a man who leaves a trail of sexual exploits and pain.

You and Me

So, what does power reveal in us? Odds are very few people reading this blog have the kind of power, fame, or wealth as the examples I used. For most of us that may be a good thing. I fear what would have happened had I received millions of dollars in my early twenties. It would not have been pretty; I know that for sure.

More recently I have found that an increase in power reveals a level of pride that I did not see before. It also reveals a sense of entitlement and self interest that I do a decent job of hiding most of the time. I saw that power and position made me more lazy and less motivated; or rather it revealed my desire to avoid work and attain comfort.

The Big Picture

In the end what I find is that power reveals my vision. The key difference between Rick Warren and Tiger Woods is that Warren has a vision that is big enough to handle his status, Woods does not. Being the "best golfer who ever lived" is not a big enough purpose to contain all of the power, fame, and wealth that goes along with it. At the end of the day he is still left wanting; unfulfilled, or so his actions lead us to believe.

I see the same thing in myself, albeit in a much smaller scale, when I am living for a purpose that is too small for me. The cure is to find a vision, a purpose, that is so much bigger than I am that I could pour out all of my life for all of my life and still never see it completed.

What is that purpose for you? Were you given great power, fame, and wealth; every desire of your heart... what would it reveal?