We are designed to lead. From a young age, everyone wants to be the line leader. We all wanted to be first to go. This is our God-given mission from the start that eventually is distorted along the way. This distortion comes in the form of social judgment or lack of willpower that has deteriorated over time, possibly due to trauma. Somewhere along the way, we experience events that dictate our continued drive to lead. This leads to the question, can leadership skills be taught?
Leadership Deterioration
Leadership is hard and leaves us vulnerable to self and social ridicule. To combat leadership deterioration, we must concentrate on leadership skills. There are countless resources available to teach leadership. Most fictional stories include a hero with magnetic leadership ability. The knight in shining armor displays the will to fight, which is leadership in action. The knight saves the day and wins the beauty’s heart.
Varsity Blues
In the 1999 classic Varsity Blues, the backup quarterback “Mox,” played by James Van Der Beek, silently sits on the bench behind the star player. Mox was far more interested in pursuing an Ivy League education post-high school. This was counter-cultural, where football was life in his small Texas town. When a season-ending injury thrust Mox into the starting role, he tapped into his innate leadership ability, ultimately leading his team to a district championship. It may be argued that his intellect and academic pursuits led to field success. His intellectual abilities eventually translated to leadership and victory. Not to mention, he had a cannon for an arm. Ask his Dad’s nose!
There are several examples of leadership within the Varsity Blues cinematic experience. Coach Kilmer is the old-school, ball-busting, win-at-all-cost head coach. His players eventually refused to perform for him. Then there was the primary starting QB Lance Harbor, played by Paul Walker, who was unfortunately injured but coached the game-winning drive from the sideline after Coach Kilmer left midgame.
Locate Times of Influence
Great leadership is often found when we seize the moment. Every moment looks different, and we must acquire awareness to identify opportunities to step forward. It is our leadership radar that helps us to locate times of influence. Your radar initially announces small and brief blips in opportunity. As we acquire leadership skills and educate ourselves on the world, our radar systems become a high-functioning mechanism. We learn to read our environment with all senses.
Lion Tracker
I encourage you to listen to an interview on the Become Good Soil Podcast hosted by Morgan Snyder of Wild at Heart Ministries and the author of Becoming a King. He speaks with a fellow author and former lion tracker, Boyd Varty, who wrote The Lion’s Tracker Guide to Life. Boyd elaborately describes how lion and wildlife trackers read their environment to locate their animals. He draws perfect parallels in how we scan our environment to pursue the Holy Spirit. The more we do it, the better we become, and we subconsciously grow in our awareness of moments where the Holy Spirit exists.
Boyd Varty talks about how trackers will read the grass, identify scratches on the ground, discover paw prints, and look for disturbed brush. As leaders, we must do the same and train our senses to discover the trail where leadership moments exist. Once we identify these, we implement the skills acquired through training and study to maximize our ability to influence others and create positive outcomes.
Leadership is like stalking a lion, as I imagine it, filled with adrenaline, fear, excitement, and patience. These sensations all exist in moments of influential leadership. Choose to go and courageously influence change. We’ll eventually discover that our leadership ability grows with each moment.
Follow the Trail
If you’ve found this blog post helpful, continue your quest of discovery by visiting the Youniversalife Archive. You’ll find additional leadership insight and further your leadership identity.
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