The Price Tag on Leadership

In A Leader's Journal, I share my personal reflections on leadership at the intersection of faith and work. I pray these articles would serve as encouragement for you, whether you are a young leader like myself or a seasoned one.

To lead is to win – at least that’s the prevailing thought in our modern world.

Forget the business book section at your local Barnes & Noble, all you have to do is open your LinkedIn feed to see a myriad of posts on how to win as a leader or how to become one ASAP.?

It’s as if leading means winning. But is it??

True leadership comes with a high price tag. And, unfortunately, there’s far too many people who want the role without having to pay their dues.

Being a good leader means that your team’s wins are theirs and their failures are yours.?

That alone may dissuade a lot of people from sitting in the captain's chair.

“It’s unfair,” you might think.?

Well, you're the one with the responsibility to lead, not your team members.

If the ship starts sinking, you’d want them to look to you, right? If the answer is "no," then perhaps leadership isn’t for you.

Over the past few years, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to lead many people.

Many people could also be read as many stories.?Because each person comes into a team with their story.

They come with their personality, the person they fundamentally are. They also come with their talents and unique gifts.

Ultimately, they also bring along their weaknesses and challenges – as all humans do, leaders included.

It’s needless to say that all leaders get frustrated at times when their team members fail to listen, fail to blossom in their role, fail to become the key part of the team we envisioned they’d be.

Whether we like it or not, that’s part of the price tag. You’ll invest time and effort in developing people and sometimes won’t see the return.?

But other times, you’ll invest in someone – the person who everyone bet against – and see them grow like you could’ve never predicted.?

Moments like that alone pay the price tag of leadership.

Perhaps it’s time we started reflecting on the price tag and embracing the cost.?

Do our team members feel we’re willing to make sacrifices to help them grow?

Do they think we’ll stay at the helm of the ship during the storm?

If we answer “no” to either of these, then we should reevaluate whether we’re paying the price demanded by true leadership.

As leaders, let's reflect on what Philippians 2:3 says, “Do nothing from?selfish ambition or?conceit, but in?humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

More significant than you, leader. That's the ultimate price tag.