Re-Learning Leadership

I’ve had a driver’s license for more than 40 years, and my driving record is nearly spotless. Needless to say, driving is easy and natural for me. It’s a skill that I have mastered. Or it was until my recent experience with driving in a foreign country on the “wrong” (left) side of the road. It was a big adjustment – almost like being a novice driver again. Leaders (and drivers) go through several stages on the way to mastery. The first is unconscious incompetence – they are unaware of skills that they lack. As they become aware, they move to conscious incompetence. Think of a driver’s first day in a quiet parking lot when they hit the accelerator rather than the brake. This is followed by conscious competence, the stage where concentration is required to perform the task. Think of the driver who has had a license for 1 month. Leaders and drivers may spend a long time in this stage as they move toward mastery. The final stage is unconscious competence, where the task has been mastered and much is done without active thought. It feels good to reach the mastery or unconscious competence stage. Ministry leaders might achieve mastery in their preaching or leading a group or coaching staff. But as good as this feels, it is also where leadership can be the most challenging. Leaders will inevitably enter a season where the skills that they mastered no longer seem effective. This may be due to a change in where you are leading or quite often, broader societal changes. It’s as if you’re in a new country where everyone is driving on the wrong side of the road. In those moments, we each have a choice to make. We can acknowledge that the world has changed and learn new skills. Or we can insist on doing things the same way that we always have. The former means moving back to a stage of conscious incompetence and working toward mastery all over again. But the latter is like driving in the wrong lane into oncoming traffic. It won’t end well. Is it time for you to change lanes? It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>