{"id":10399,"date":"2012-10-09T08:07:03","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T13:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=10399"},"modified":"2012-10-09T14:41:59","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T19:41:59","slug":"whoops-leading-a-charge-but-leaving-a-dust-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/whoops-leading-a-charge-but-leaving-a-dust-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"“Whoops!” Leading a Charge…but leaving a dust cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ever think you’re leading a visionary charge forward only to look back and find a bewildered crowd who isn’t follow you?<\/span><\/h2>\n

I have, and it ain’t pretty. But, I learned a few things!<\/p>\n

I’m contributing to this week’s new Deeper Leader Blog topic<\/span><\/h2>\n

“Whoops!” How Have You Grown From Your Mistakes in Leadership?<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Deeper Leader SyncrhoBlog sponsored by Evangelical Seminary<\/span><\/a> is running October 7-12th. (A new topic will be offered up for contributions once or twice per month. It’s a great place to read fresh ideas, get inspiration, learn some things, or join in anytime.)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Remember, you too<\/strong>\u00a0are invited and encouraged to add your voice<\/strong> to this dialogue by\u00a0commenting here, or over there<\/span><\/a><\/span>, or linking up your related article if you get a chance to write one. Go\u00a0to this page<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0for more details to get started. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

You’ve probably learned some things through mistakes, please share your wisdom, I’d love to learn from you.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

My “Whoops!” moment happened just when I thought I had some momentum.<\/h2>\n

(I’m limiting myself to\u00a0just<\/em>\u00a0one, but I have hundreds of thousands to choose from.)<\/h2>\n

I was leading a class of adults on the topic of spiritual formation (discipleship). I was excited and shared my knowledge about Christian historical practices of prayer and meditation and silence and sabbath and a bunch of other things. When it came time for the practical part where we engaged in one of the practiced introduced, I saw something I wasn’t prepared for: CONFUSION. A wide-eyed look of paralysis. This wasn’t going to work!<\/span><\/h3>\n

I had gone too fast and charged ahead. While my class was interested in growing spiritually most of the concepts I was teaching were unfamiliar to them. Too unfamiliar. My graduate level education on the topic had sort of given me a blind spot I wasn’t taking into account. I had too quickly and assumed we were on the same page, but we weren’t. In some ways we were miles apart.<\/h3>\n

I had to slow down.<\/span><\/h2>\n

My exuberance had clouded my perceptions too. I thought that a change or some experimentation with a new prayer form would be excited not overwhelming. I realized that I was way ahead of my group, leading a charge for spiritual growth and revitalization but leaving my followers in my dust.<\/h3>\n

I was failing to walk alongside\u2013as long as needed\u2013until everyone was familiar with the new ground and ready to venture out.<\/h3>\n

Sometimes we forget about our potential blind spots. Mine was my over-familiarity with my niche. FAIL!<\/h2>\n

Sometimes we’ve seen it from our view for so long that we lose touch and thereby fail to lead effectively.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When others don’t seem ready or willing to follow you, it might not be a problem with your vision. It could be that those you want to lead aren’t at the same place that you are just yet. Don’t be discouraged, like I have been.<\/h3>\n

Go back to the dust cloud you left behind…and if you can’t see your followers, listen for some coughing!<\/span> Then, regroup, and make a much slower start. Probably far slower than you feel is necessary. That was my lesson.<\/h2>\n

The results may vary, but you may find that with a slower pace, fewer learning points, and plenty of grace for the journey that many will continue with<\/em><\/strong> you. Leaders really aren’t leaders until and unless they have followers, right?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Do you remember a time when you left followers in your dust? How did it resolve?<\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever think you’re leading a visionary charge forward only to look back and find a bewildered crowd who isn’t follow you? I have, and it ain’t pretty. But, I learned a few things! I’m contributing to this week’s new Deeper Leader Blog topic “Whoops!” How Have You Grown From Your Mistakes in Leadership? \u00a0 The … Continue reading “Whoops!” Leading a Charge…but leaving a dust cloud<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5626],"tags":[6019,649,6018,1202,4796,1550,42,6020,3840,4264],"class_list":["post-10399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spark-my-muse","tag-charge-ahead","tag-christian","tag-dust","tag-failure","tag-follow","tag-growth","tag-leadership","tag-lesson","tag-mistake","tag-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10399"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10405,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10399\/revisions\/10405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}