I wish someone had told me that my legacy was not dependent on trophies, accomplishments, or promotions but was in tandem with the even greater success of those I led.
I’ve held or been in different leadership roles for the past fifteen years. When I first started out leading in high school (which fifteen years later, the statement “leading in high school” seems ironic to me; high school kids aren’t leaders they have no clue what leadership is) I had a list of things I wanted our high school student council to accomplish. I achieved several “firsts” and I forged a way for those to follow after me. By society’s definition it would appear that I was a good leader by accomplishing so much.
However, I led with an iron fist, was resented by friends, and expected everyone else to think and act as I did (I still struggle with this today). I was so focused on what I could do, and what I thought we could get done, that I neglected the relationships of those closest to me.
Seven years later I was given a second chance. For four years, I led about one dozen interns every year to pull off a national conference. I realized that leadership isn’t about leading at all…it’s about being a miner. I had to pan for gold. I had to look for diamonds in the rough. I had to cut and polish stones. Everyone is and can be a leader; it’s just a matter of smoothing those edges and polishing them so that they shine.
No one should ever be discounted, placed into a box, or told they can’t do something. Whenever you make those statements to someone you are removing the resurrection power of Jesus to do something miraculous in that individual. You aren’t looking hard enough for that sparkle and glimmer of life underneath the blemishes and rough edges of a dead stone.
I’ve realized the legacy that I will leave, won’t be sitting on a bookcase collecting dust, but will be alive being lived out in the lives I touched. It will morph, change, and grow beyond me. This is what I wish someone would have told me before I started leading people, that my legacy isn’t about me…it’s about everyone else.