Sometime ago, at a
church in a small village, a crisis emerged.
It was a small monastery and for many years the priests had been serving
that community. However, slowly people stopped
going to church and things had reached an unusual low point where at the last
Sunday mass, absolutely NOBODY attended.
It was frustrating for the Dean, the chief of the priests, who that day
thought he prepared an especially good sermon!
He began to reflect
deeply. Although some of his colleagues
accused other religions, sects and even the television to have stolen the
faithful, he did not believe it. After
all, many places were not affected and crowds continued to go there. Such was the case of a synagogue located in
another town. As it happened, on the
Dean’s desk was a leaflet which invited him to attend a lecture by that rabbi,
so he decided to go.
When time came, he
dressed nicely and went to the venue, which was packed. He listened attentively to the lecture and
even though the Rabbi’s style was different, the Dean couldn’t see much
difference in the actual content in the sermon to what he would also use. Again, the Dean reflected: “Why weren’t people
going to the church at the monastery?” He decided to do something that would be hard
and very daring, but he was sure it would work.
At the end of the
lecture he waited patiently and at last he could talk to the Rabbi. After introducing himself, he summarised the
crisis: low number of people, discouragement and conflict among the priests,
bad financial situation, etc.
The Rabbi listened
with lots of attention, then looked at him and said: “You know what? I think
this situation is not that difficult.
Can I live with you for a while, let’s say, until Saturday? In this way, I will able to understand what
is going on and maybe give some suggestion.”
It had happened that some of the Rabbi’s appointments have been
cancelled and he had some time that was now spare.
The Dean accepted the
idea and without further discussion, he took the Rabbi to stay with them at the
monastery, which had a quite comfortable – and not often used – guests’ room.
It was war! Or almost … after all, the priests’ view was
that their leader had brought a stranger from another religion to their sacred
space. The Dean dedicated himself to the
new guest, aware that some of the other priests would speak harsh words.
The Rabbi was a very
nice guest, being able to appreciate all he saw. Every meal he found exquisite and he treated
everyone with extreme respect. The days
passed quickly and on the last day, the small community of priests has been won
over by the humble rabbi.
When he was about to
leave and to return to his city and synagogue, the Dean decided to ask the
Rabbi, in front of everyone, his opinion about the present situation regarding
lack of church attendance and if he saw a solution for that.
The energy in the room
changed and everyone paid rapt attention to the Rabbi’s words. The man just smiled and said in a very smooth
tone: “I didn’t see anything as a reason of the present crisis, really… But a perception I have had and I must share
with you is that I think that one of you is the Messiah.”
It was as if the Rabbi
had dropped a bomb, and after he left, everyone went about their duties with
that thought in their minds. Of course,
the Dean thought, if that was true it would be Peter, our cook, who is always
working hard. And the leader of the
priests had a few ideas on what to do to encourage people to come. He left and he went to visit some of the
members of his congregation.
Peter, the cook,
thought it should be James, the gardener.
Those roses are fantastic and he does his work with so much love. And like a contagion, everyone started to
feel someone else was the Messiah. And
that day, the food was really good, the garden was extremely tidy and the Dean
came back with a huge smile. No need to
say, Sunday mass was a big success.
On my pathway towards leadership, I found this
tale contained many important aspects pertaining to good leadership: the
responsibility of putting things right, the initiative to look for the solution
and the humility to accept different points of view. Joel Barker
has once said: A leader is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by
yourself. With his statement, the
Rabbi moved those people towards a new place in terms of their attitude.
It is difficult is to be a leader… This was my realisation a few years ago and so,
no wonder many people has given up on the idea of leadership is because it is complicated
to find a leader that does what she or he is supposed to do.
On the other hand, I must say there are plenty of
little leaders, a term I use with the
best of intentions to describe the hundreds or thousands of people who are
doing their best and are bringing change in various sectors of our civilisation. They are moving dozens or hundreds of people
towards a new point in their lives, but the impact in the whole of society or
at least beyond their reach is little or invisible.
But, instead of complaining about the lack of
leaders who create impact and who take people to that place they would not
otherwise go, we could refocus and look into a door opened by the lack of leadership:
the self-leadership path. In other words, as there are no leaders by
absolute; anyone has the capacity to be, and should be a leader. It requires a feeling of deep meaning and
lots of reflection, but it is a wonderful life when there is this realisation and
the practice: I am my own leader.
Warren Bennis who is probably the greatest
expert on leadership used to say that to have a position is just a means to
express and perform a person’s leadership,
and that position may be a CEO of a company, a manager of a charity
organisation or a parent, as they all share the same motto: A leader
is a person you will follow to a place you would not go by yourself.
The basic reason why to be a leader is so good
is not much the position a leader can reach in society or how many people he or
she may influence, but by using that as a leverage, he or she can reach a stage
of self-leadership, a point where
life is a consequence of thoughts, feelings, attitude and awareness.
And this is the Reason Zero why it is so good to
be a leader, the reason present in the tale of the church Dean, in your story
of leadership or mine:
Embrace
what you are and understand the reasons to be a leader, by experiencing your
self-leadership.
(Excerpt from the book 82 Reasons to be a Leader)
