Jul

18

Knowing who you’re not

Post Category: Blog Posts, Leadership, Makes You Think 

“The success of who you are as a leader is to know who you are not.” - Andy Stanley

I’ve been thinking about this quote by Andy Stanley. When we are asked what we do for a living it’s easy to rattle off a list of responsibilities and duties. Who am I? I’m a pastor, father, husband, friend. But our effectiveness as a leader is knowing who we’re not. We should be keenly aware of our weakness and limitations and recognize that we are most successful when we can delegate our weaknesses and build on our strengths.

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  1. Kassie on July 18th, 2007 8:53 pm

    Wow, good blog entry Brad. I went to a class at IPFW last Friday that was all about training adults (but alot about interpersonal skills as well.) The speaker encouraged everyone to “find something you’re horrible at, and DO IT.” She said we’ve all gotten really good at surrounding ourselves with tasks and hobbies we ROCK at, and not enough with things that might really challenge us. Her point was that it reminds us all that nobody’s perfect (or reminds us of who we’re not!) Its easy to connect with a trainee (or friend or whatever) on something you’re good at, but it means more when you can open up and show your weaker, human side and share struggles.

  2. bradruggles on July 18th, 2007 11:08 pm

    Kassie, my post does go against the popular school of thought that says you need to work on your weaknesses. And while there are types of weaknesses you need to work on (temper, language, gossip) I’m referring to areas of talent or ability (singing, organization, writing). A good leader recognizes his strenghts and also his weaknesses. They know who they are and who they are not.

    This isn’t really new. I’ve picked most of this up from reading John Maxwell books. He talks at length on this subject.

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