Seeing things in others they'd never see in themselves

​I had lunch with a former boss yesterday. I reminded her that she's one of the best leaders I've ever known. I believe that because of her ability to see what the people around her are made of; she often see things in them they would have never seen without her.

I get to do work I love these days, work I'd truly feel lost without. It is also work I would likely have never chosen for myself without a leader who could see that it was work I was capable of doing.

And more than that, really, not only did she see it was work I was capable of doing, she somehow knew it was work I needed to do. Not just for the communities we serve, but for me.

You know, the things we end up being best at in life, the things we discover we are most gifted to do, they are many times not the things that come easiest to us. They are often things we would have overlooked if someone else wasn't looking for them.

Before I began my work promoting trauma sensitive care and healing centered relationships, I had become stale in my job. You become stale when you do the same things over and over, when you do only the things you know how to do, only the things you think you believe you're capable of doing.

Then one day you hear something that sparks your interest, but your fist thought on the other side of that spark is but.

But I have no clue what to do with this spark.

But I've never done what needs to be done with this spark.

But I don't know that anyone else will feel the same kind of spark that I have felt after hearing this.

There are a lot of buts that stand in our way of doing work we are truly built to do. Work we are called to do. Needed to do.

There are a lot of buts that hold us back until a leader reaches in and snatches them up.

Snatches them up and tosses them out right before our eyes and reminds us that the world can't afford for us to grow stale. The world can't afford for us to be overlooking things in ourselves that others so desperately need to see.

Things the leader has already seen.

I talked with a friend last night who was telling me about some intentional practices she and her fiancé have that guide them to better understand who each other are. They are intentional about making sure neither of them overlook what the other is made of.

Leadership comes in all forms. It comes in romantic relationships, in friendships, in peer groups. It comes from pastors and elected leaders.

And sometimes it comes from bosses, whom even after they retire show up and remind you that you are still assigned. You have an assignment I chose for you, and I'm still choosing it for you.

We can all be leaders.

We all need leaders.

We can all be responsible for seeing the things in the people around us they'd never see without us.

We all need to surround ourselves with people who will always accept us for who we are, but will also be deeply committed to helping us chase who we can be.

I believe the world needs more leadership.

I elect us all to fill that need.