Dream BigSample

One day I was having lunch with a professor of Leadership Development at a major university. This man had been a professor for over 30 years, and in this one particular focus of study. You can imagine that I wanted to pick his brain! 

So I asked him the $64,000 question: How do you make a great leader?

I was fairly young at the time so I already had my own ideas of what he might say. But what he did say caught me completely off guard. Pay attention because it may surprise you too. He replied:

• It’s not done by having them read books.

• It’s not done by having them take courses (now, keep in mind – this is a professor talking!)

• It’s not done by having them listen to lectures.

So, once he had pretty much told me all that was lacking in formalized Leadership Development, I leaned in to get his response as to how it IS done. He continued:

“Bruce,” he said, “you make great leaders by pulling the growing leader out of their safe and known environment and throwing them into the deep-end all by themselves.”

Essentially, you change the size and nature of the task so that it is “beyond them” to do and they will have to learn (by immersion) what works and what doesn’t. You get them to dream & pursue that dream.  

Personal Reflection:

What idea, vision, hope, goal or “dream” do you have in your heart that is “bigger than you?” Take some time to allow yourself to dream – to even dream big! Yes, this may beyond your current skills or even resources to pull off, but for the purpose of this exercise … allow yourself to fully dream. 

Write down as much about these thoughts, visions and dreams as you can. Write it down as if you are already living it out. What would you feel like? What would you be doing? Where would you be living? Write a couple paragraphs below as if this dream has already happened. 

Read Jeremiah 29:11. Who has a plan for your life? What does that plan include?