Since being in this leadership class I have learned a lot about myself. We had to do a survey asking our peers and mentors about our leadership. I LOVE receiving feedback. It is hard but I see the most growth in my life through feedback. The other day I was talking to my mom when I was struggling with living in community (which means I was tired of people always being mad at me). She told me I don’t know how you are always receiving hard feedback all the time. She said she didn’t think she could handle that. I think feedback brings so much valuable growth that it would be hard without it. Some people stay away from asking for feedback because they think it will just bring up unnecessary, hard topics to discuss. PEOPLE IT DOES. Heres the thing though in leadership you need that. For me it is so hard to sit around a table and give everyone’s ideas the time of day when I already know what I want to do. But thats not leadership thats dictatorship. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be a dictator. I want people to feel welcome and valued in the places that I lead.
Hearing what people had to say on the survey was hard but I got to hear feedback from people I don’t usually and it was so helpful for me to actually hear what they were feeling. Growth and intimacy comes with saying the hard things. Leadership is a really interesting topic to study. In our society being a leader is looked at as an honorable thing but we are all called to be followers of Jesus. Everyone has their circle of influence but we get to have the honor of following the best leader there is. We need to steward this well and follow well. We need to follow with more then just what we are saying but how we look at Jesus as our leader should be reflected in our actions. Through those actions people will naturally follow you. If you can follow well then you will be leading as well.
