Follow Me: Timeless Leadership LessonsSample

DON’T WORK ALONE

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”
– Helen Keller

Ernesto Sirolli teaches leadership and coaches entrepreneurs. In his riveting TED Talk, “Shut Up and Listen” he tells about an assignment he often uses to begin a course on entrepreneurship. Students are given the first two pages of Richard Branson’s autobiography. (Branson is a global entrepreneur who has launched a dozen billion-dollar businesses and hundreds of other companies.) The students are instructed to count how many times Branson uses the word “I” and how many times he uses the word “we”. After just the first two pages, here’s the score: I = Zero; We = 32! One conclusion seems obvious: Great leaders don’t work alone.

From beginning to end and on every journey in between, the apostle Paul had people around him. He was constantly expanding his circle of influence, pouring himself into potential leaders as well as leaning on and learning from others. Paul knew that life nor leadership were solo sports.

The logic is solid. The examples are prevalent from the Apostle Paul in the first century to Richard Branson in the twenty-first. Great leaders don’t work alone. They invite others to join them, help them, partner with them, and even lead them. Why, then, do so many leaders tend toward isolation and try to “go it alone”? It may seem easier, quicker, and less complicated to simply do it yourself. There may be a few rare instances when that is the best idea. Far more often, though, the better option is to invite, invest in, and develop others to lead alongside you.

REFLECT

• Think through this past week. How many tasks and projects did you work on by yourself? How many involved others? 
• How can you be more intentional about drawing people in and developing the people around you?