Leadership Economics - Part 2

Yesterday I talked about how leadership is a lot like maintaining a bank account of credibility. Each leader makes investments and withdrawals throughout the course of their leadership. When the leader begins bouncing credibility checks, he normally gets the opportunity to find a new place to bank. 

There's another dynamic in this that I think is important:

Good leaders always know what is in their account. Great leaders are the ones who keep a steady low balance in their account (Assuming the leader is leading in the right direction). 

That is, the very best leaders are the ones who pace their leadership in such a way that they're constantly moving people toward a goal without either hoarding credibility or overdrawing their account. 

Leaders who hoard credibility are destined to lead organizations that go nowhere. Change and progress are impossible to implement because they always require an amount of discomfort and resistance - withdrawals from the credibility account the leader is unwilling to make. 

Leaders who overdraw their credibility account by moving too quickly are destined to lead no one; even if they themselves are headed in the right direction. The graveyards of full-time ministry are littered with youth pastors who had brilliant cutting edge ideas, but lacked the patience to build a balance in their credibility account to make their ideas a reality. 

The very best leaders are the leaders who lead in such a way that that they always keep a balance in their account, but who move and change at a pace that ensures the balance doesn't get too high.