Leadership Today

It’s about time. In just a few days our American election will finally come to an end. The rhetoric and vitriol will stop, and the leaders of our country will get back to doing the work of leading, or so we hope.

Leadership is a much discussed topic. There is a massive “Leadership Training” industry today with books to read, videos to watch and conferences to attend. Yet why does it seem to me that we have such a lack of leadership?  Is it possible that today we have forgotten what it means to follow? In the last few years articles have been appearing talking about the importance of “Followership”.

Followership is the capacity of an individual to actively follow a leader.

Veterans Day is November 11. My father is a Korean War veteran and my younger brother served with the Marines in the First Gulf War. Military service, and the expected discipline of following orders, was something that I grew up with and have learned to value. Before 1973 the military draft required a large percent of American men to learn what it meant to follow orders. Today less than 0.5% of the American population serves. I wonder if this could be a reason for our leadership problems. It’s also possible that our focus on “self” as a nation is eroding our ability to both lead and follow, actions that demand selflessness and self-sacrifice along with personal humility.

It was our Messiah Yeshua who said “If anyone wants to follow after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and keep following Me.” Regardless of who wins the election, we can expect continued leadership problems for our nation. Let it not be the same for us as Yeshua followers – let us deny our “self”, and practice humble followership of our perfect Leader Messiah Yeshua!

Forward for Messiah!

Kirk Gliebe

Rabbi & Director