In his book "Aspire"
Kevin Hall equates the meaning of a “leader” to that of a “pathfinder”. That really resonates with me. We are
all finding our path in life and sometimes some of us inspire others to come
along for the journey. I believe that we are all leaders in our own lives,
first and foremost. We have a responsibility to lead our own personal journey
before we seek to lead others.
Similarly, if we don't find our
own path then we are not taking responsibility for ourselves. If we do what
other people think we should do, or what we feel
they think we should do, we are allowing them to be responsible for our lives;
they become our pathfinders. This so often happens when people do what they think their parents or society want them
to do and they end up on a journey they didn’t want to be on. They are then
ambling down someone else's path.
Some “leaders” entice people to
follow them by instilling fear – in my opinion they are called tyrants. Once in
a while, however, we find people who are journeying down an amazing path they
have found or created. They
inspire us to walk with them, and we do so, without any feelings of doubt,
resistance or friction. In fact we learn much from them. We walk with them
because we are excited to see what happens and where the path is going to
lead. Often these people are
looked up to as THE leader but in
actuality true leaders and pathfinders need other leaders to get through the
jungle.
I often visualize the journey of
life as an expedition through a thick, green, lush forest, with hanging trees
and roots to trip over. It’s an
amazing place full of vibrancy and beauty but, at times, needs to be navigated with
care and diligence. Some people have the vision or knowledge of what is on the
other side and they know what's possible; others are really good with
directions and they are the ones who read the maps, hold the compass and find
the best path. Some have physical strength and experience of the terrain and
know how to choose the right branch to chop aside so the path can be cleared,
and be passable.
So you see we all have our jobs,
within our skill sets, as leaders.
In an ideal world we choose the path we want to go on and know the duties
within the leadership team.
As I see it – we all have a
responsibility to be the pathfinder in our own lives; if we happen to inspire
others to walk the journey with us then that is a privilege and a
responsibility not to be taken lightly.
