Good leaders have vision and an idea of how that vision should play out. Despite that wonderful combination, people don't always choose to follow. There are TONS of reasons for this but one specifically has been impressed on me in numerous conversations lately. Because good leaders are thinkers who take action, they tend to not only think their way of getting from Point A to Point B is the best way, it's the only way. And often they are exactly right. So why is this a problem?
The problem is that we are not the only ones trying to move to Point B. There are teams, staff, volunteers, family members, etc who we are asking to go with us, and chances are most of them don't think the same way you do, thus they won't act in quite the same way as you. If we expect those around us to go with us, we have to try to understand their perspective and the way that they tend to think. Chances are, they won't have any trouble trusting you when you say Point B is a better place to be than Point A. But the reason they think that and their responses to it will vary greatly. In order to save yourself from headaches, turnover, and/or lonlieness at Point B, you have to put in the effort to get where people are coming from.
This isn't the fastest way. It takes time learn people and to figure out how to lead them well. But cut chances are, they didn't put you in the position you're in so that you would drag them anywhere. They want to want to follow you. The question is, are you willing to do what it takes to let them choose?
What have you done to learn how those around you think?
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