Christ, Carnegie, Leadership, and Me

I am a good guy. I tend to do what I am supposed to do, say what I am supposed to say, be where I am supposed to be, etc., etc. I am a very responsible task-oriented person. I generally get things done, fairly well, and on time. This has all worked out for me fairly well so far, but as circumstances in my life change, I am finding that all of this is not quite enough. I have largely gone through my life managing the necessary tasks as they come. But it appears that if I really want to make the kind of progress I need to, I need to become more of a visionary leader and an expert at human relations. These things are not part of my natural personality. This transition from being more-or-less a manager to becoming a leader seems to be necessary in nearly every aspect of my life. Allow me to explain.

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As a Father

I have been a good father for my young children. In many ways I view parenting young children as a task driven management activity. There are diapers to change, baby food to prepare, feeding, dressing, teaching, entertaining, and on and on. Help them be happy, healthy and safe. Manage these tasks well and you are a good parent. Unfortunately they grow up to be teenagers.

My oldest is now a teenager, and I view parenting a new teenager as a transition from a set of tasks to be managed, to the need for visionary leadership and wise application of human relationship building. Something I feel ill-equipped for.

As a Church Member

I have been a good church member. I do what I am told and manage the tasks associated with callings fairly well. I am consistent in getting things done. I can prepare lessons, do the basics of home teaching, help the cub scouts earn their badges, etc. I have approached similar callings with essentially a task management mindset, and done fairly well with them. As I get older, with more experience in the church, local leadership callings have come my way. I have been asked to serve as a Ward Mission Leader, Young Men’s President, and Elder’s Quorum President in recent years. I have not been as effective as I could be with these callings because I have continued my management approach to them. I sometimes lack the visionary leadership, and human relation skills to really excel in these types of callings.

As an Employee

I have been a good employee. Most of my career I have been a mechanical engineer. I was given certain tasks to complete and I did them well, and on time. I didn’t tend to anger people. I was a very good follower, and I got the tasks done. I was a good enough follower that in recent years I have been asked to become more of a leader. I began getting project management assignments for new product development projects. I was asked to lead teams of engineers in creative new design projects. This has once again forced me to transition from managing tasks and things, to leading people. Again leadership vision and human relations were needed, and it was not something I was naturally good at. Really good followers may not make really good leaders without some help, or without some change to their personality and character.

My employer has decided to send me and a couple of my coworkers to a Dale Carnegie Course on ‘Effective Communication and Human Relations‘. The course promised to greatly improve self confidence, people skills, communication skills, leadership, and attitude. As I have read through some of the course descriptions I acknowledge that it is exactly the type of thing I need to become a better leader. I am hopeful that this will improve my performance as a father, church member, and employee. I am seeking a significant and fundamental change in my core personality and character. It has been nice knowing you. The course starts Monday, October 2nd.

This has made me wonder about leadership being a Christ-like quality. I posted once about Ambition being a Christ-like quality here. Basically I think it is if it is purely motivated. But when Christ says things like: Here am I send me, Come follow me, What manner of men ought ye to be? Even as I am. I conclude that leadership is one of the most overlooked qualities of Christ. Many of us often have this passive image of the Lord. I wonder if we are missing the bold, confident, visionary leader that Christ is.