I make my living in the church services space. In other words, I provide good and services to local churches helping their mission and vision become reality. There exists a wonderful community of Christian leaders like myself who provide a variety of these services. One of the absolute best is Bryan Miles. Bryan is CEO & Co-founder of Miles Advisory Group (a parent company to the companies of eaHELP and MAG Bookkeeping) and is blessed to run the company with his wife, Shannon.
Bryan can recognize leadership ability in others. More importantly, he can develop it. Bryan recently recounted a conversation he had with his own virtual assistant. The insights contained below give us all 3 Reasons Why We Should Want To Lead:
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The following thoughts are from my assistant, Paige Atkins. Paige has been my virtual assistant for more than two-and-one-half years. It has been a joy watching her develop as a leader in our business. Recently, I asked her, “Why do you want to lead?” Below are her remarks:
When posed with this question from Bryan, I was actually taken aback. “I want to lead, because I don’t want to follow.” That was my initial response. Probably not what he was looking for. When I tried to explain my WHY, I rambled for about five minutes, and still didn’t have my head wrapped around it.
Ever since high school, I’ve held leadership positions. I am a motivated person and enjoy helping people achieve a higher standard. In college I started volunteering with the youth in our church and have loved speaking into their lives and setting an example as someone who has been-there-done-that. However, I didn’t know why I was drawn to these leadership positions. After sitting down to think about it, I was finally able to articulate my reasoning in a few sentences.
WHY I WANT TO LEAD …
- I want to lead so I can encourage people who are on a similar path that I’ve just traveled. I don’t believe that leadership is something that is granted to anyone who walks in the door. You have to earn it.
- I want to lead because I’ve sat under my share of terrible leaders. These people may have merit and skill but they do not know how to take responsibility for others. Leadership is selfless. I want to be known as someone who puts others first.
- I want to lead because I believe people are better than they think they are. When others on my team are ready to give up, I want to be there to help them see it through. It brings me joy to cheer people on and watch them grow. Ironically enough, this is not something I’m great at. It takes patience and emotional intelligence.
As someone who is an “executor,” I’d rather jump in and take care of it myself. I’m working to refine my leadership skills and this is a major area for me to adjust.
Leadership is not for everyone. There are some people who want to lead in order to dominate, but that is not leadership. That only leaves people terrified and resentful. I want to lead to serve. I want them to have a better experience than I did so they’ll want to lead as well. For those excellent leaders I’ve had the privilege to follow, I want to make them proud.
So there you go, boss. That’s WHY I want to lead. Thanks for challenging me, believing in me, and setting a great example as a leader.
For everyone else, take the time to consider the question for yourself. Why do YOU want to lead?
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