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Leadership Fulfillment Does Not Come From Accomplishments
Brian Kreeger • September 30, 2021
Too many times leaders
search for peace, purpose, and fulfillment in accomplishments within the technical and relational aspects of their job. I contend that these three attributes have at their core something much more basic than the accomplishment of a job description with excellence.
Is your leadership position a compliment to who you truly are?
I interviewed a successful long-term leader of a large nonprofit who also mentors leaders for a leadership development nonprofit. He credits his success to “working within his giftedness”—a reflection that “leadership comes naturally, is ingrained, and is an attribute given to the leader by God.”
As a well-respected, seasoned leader who has decades of leadership under his belt, he has found that peace, purpose, and fulfillment come to him because he is aligned in who he is and who God intended him to be.
Working within their giftedness is a common thread among leaders who are doing it right. This naturally and genuinely allows their life outside their leadership position to be consistent with the life inside their position, therefore creating less pressure to conform and step out of who they truly are.
(This blog focuses on starting a conversation centered on preventing the fall of nonprofit leaders. I write it from a Christian perspective, but all leaders will benefit. Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at
briankreeger.com as well as taking a look at previous blog articles. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the article "5 Early Indicators of a Christian Nonprofit Leadership Fall" along with the Contents, Introduction and the Appendix (My story) of my book,
The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders.)
The leaders I spoke with who found they could be themselves—who were most in tune with whom they are—most naturally fit into their role of leadership. I consider this group to be among the most successful I interviewed. Two things often drove this comfort:
1. Their diligent reflection on, and their accurate identification of, who God made them to be. Their giftedness. (Although it is mainly geared
toward the second half of life, I very successfully used the book
Game Plan by Bob Buford to identify who God
uniquely prepared and designed me to be.)
2. Their ability to make their public/organizational persona consistent
with their identity in their private life. As they do this, it allows them
to be free of the games we play as we switch who we are depending
on the role we are in.
The two points above take us back to the integrity and courage I wrote about in an earlier article, don’t they? We must identify who we honestly are, so that, with integrity,
we can hold true to our own self-assessment and have the
courage to determine that all the roles in our lives are going to be consistent with who we are, no matter the cost.
“Conforming and stepping out of who they truly are” can find a leader on a path to forgetting their true identity. As I also mentioned in an earlier article, this can leave them hollow at the end of the day, which many times can lead to a fall.
Sometimes people are in leadership roles for the wrong reasons. Some of them really don’t even want to lead.
Some people go into leadership because they feel an obligation—for example, maybe they think it’s expected of them because of their tenure in the organization, or maybe they did well in their previous role. They may have yielded to pressure from family and friends to climb the ladder and make more money. Many times, the leader realizes too late how much more proficient they were in their old job and how much happier they were.
They are just not “working within their giftedness.”
In order to compensate for this, they try to learn their way into leadership by attending seminars, reading books, and completing various programs. These are all excellent strategies, many of which I have used to become a better leader.
But they’re much more effective if those strategies are a supplemental learning that goes along with who a leader naturally is.
When a leader is not fully working within their giftedness, it tends to create insecurity, which causes them to work to prove they are someone they are not. This alters their ability to focus on the mission and vision of the organization.
There is also the leader who chooses to go into leadership
because
of a deep sense of insecurity. Leadership is their calling card of success. I made it. Look at me.
They may even find they are proving their worth to themselves.
My concern is that an insecure person can sell out who they truly are to satisfy that insecurity through leadership. That is never good for the individual or the organization, and peace, purpose, and fulfillment are not found there.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that sometimes leaders who make the choice of leadership for the wrong reason do possess the qualities needed to be a fabulous leader. But they need mentorship, encouragement, and guidance to work within their giftedness.
So, where do you stand right now?
Are you encouraged by this article? That was the intention. If you feel encouraged by it, you are probably the leader doing it right, and you are working within your giftedness. You have consistency in all facets of life. You understand the peace, purpose, and fulfillment that come with working within your giftedness.
If you find yourself discouraged, or even irritated, with this article, it may be time for some examination.
Before going too deep in your examination, make sure your discouragement doesn’t have at its core a short-term situation or circumstance. These things happen all the time in leadership and the conquering of these issues, using our unique abilities, can bring us peace, purpose, and fulfillment.
Even if you are discouraged, let me encourage you to take some time to examine who you truly are, and who God created you to be. Take a couple of days. Find some indicators that support this honest introspection. It is possible that you absolutely belong in leadership, but maybe in a different field that is more consistent with your true identity.
And it must be said….maybe peace, purpose, and fulfillment in your career is found in a place other than leadership. I can remember many people in my decades of leadership in the corporate world who lost their peace, purpose, and fulfillment in their work when they went into leadership. Sometimes they went into leadership for the wrong reasons.
There is no bigger barrier between you and peace, purpose, and fulfillment than the wall of “fighting who you truly are.”
It may be time for you to perform a Courageous Ask in your life....
Is your leadership position a compliment to who you truly are? Do all facets of your life consistently support who you were designed to be? Does your profession bring you inner peace, purpose, and fulfillment?
Be Courageous. Be Proactive.
Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at
briankreeger.com. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the article "5 Early Indicators of a Christian Nonprofit Leadership Fall" along with the Contents, Introduction and the Appendix (My Story) of my book,
The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders.
Brian@briankreeger.com
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Executives -pastors or nonprofit executives in our context- are put on a pedestal. It’s not that the typical person necessarily believes they belong there or desires to put them there. But it is human nature that this happens. The general public often places much higher expectations on leaders than they do on themselves. Sometimes it is appropriate, and the leader has put themselves in that position. In some cases, it is simply scriptural. For instance, James 3 points out that those who teach will be judged more strictly, thereby heightening the expectations of those who lead and teach. But what about when we accept, and enact, those elevated expectations and forget the humanity of our leaders? Often a community heaps on a leader the expectation that they are to perform with the perfection of Jesus and not simply be a Jesus follower and disciple just like them, but with a unique calling and heightened responsibility. Too many times when a leader shows human imperfection, the respect we have for them is damaged. Leaders fall under strict judgment, and we forget they are no less fallible than us. The imperfection they have colors any positive experience we would have had with them otherwise. While most of us acknowledge this strict, hypocritical judgment and recognize it as not being how we want to treat our leaders, it is a difficult battle to fight in our own attitudes and minds. No matter who the leader is, they are not Jesus. But please allow me to reverently make some comparisons. (This blog focuses on starting a conversation centered on preventing the fall of nonprofit leaders. I write it from a Christian perspective, but all leaders will benefit. Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at briankreeger.com as well as taking a look at previous blog articles. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the article "5 Early Indicators of a Christian Nonprofit Leadership Fall" along with the Contents, Introduction and the Appendix (My story) of my book, The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders. )
You are the community, no matter what formal role you play in a particular organization, or if you play any role at all. My blog articles typically focus on the roles the leader and the board have in preventing the fall of Christian nonprofit leaders. But I contend that the community that exists around organizational leaders and boards has a role as well. In fact, a community’s role can many times be much bigger. My next few blog articles will focus on the role of the community in preventing the fall of Christian nonprofit leaders. (This blog focuses on starting a conversation centered on preventing the fall of nonprofit leaders. I write it from a Christian perspective, but all leaders will benefit. Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at briankreeger.com as well as taking a look at previous blog articles. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the article "5 Early Indicators of a Christian Nonprofit Leadership Fall" along with the Contents, Introduction and the Appendix (My story) of my book, The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders. )
