JOEL 3:9-10 (NLT)
“Say to the nations far and wide: Get ready for war! Call out your best warriors. Let all your fighting men advance for the attack. Hammer your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. TRAIN EVEN YOUR WEAKLINGS TO BE WARRIORS!”
Stepping up and away from your peers is not just a secular concept. Leadership is desired at all levels of an organization, a business, a charity, and even within the church community. This leadership comes in the form of formal and informal teams, groups, structure, and/or relationships. What gives a person the authority to lead? Who gives a person the authority to call themselves a leader? These questions are the reason I decided to get into helping people.
I have asked these questions while working with several organizations over the last two years. No matter the location, the organization, the mission or the level of management the people come from, the answers almost always align. What gives a person the authority to lead? The answers included, but wasn’t limited to: education, knowledge, attitude, insight, seniority, drive, perseverance, and resilience. None of these answers are wrong as they represent the personal values people look for in others they choose to follow. These answers vary and are distinct to what they, as individuals, seek. Who gives a person the authority to call themselves a leader? This, almost always, received one answer: the people who choose to follow.