Loneliness

I really resonated with Mark Driscoll's blog entry yesterday about the loneliness of leadership. To me, the scariest part of being at the top of an organizational chart is not the fact that a bunch of people are under you - it's the fact that there is often nobody beside you.

Even in a collaborative environment, there will always be one primary point leader. Every team has a primary person they look to when everything else fails. And when everything else fails (the only time the primary leader really has to use his authority) he is all alone.

Loneliness can cause a leader to do stupid things. We make foolish decisions that are not in the best interest of the organization because we're afraid we'll lose the few friends we have. We're terribly vulnerable to inappropriate and unhealthy relationships because we're desperate to find someone who truly understands. And, we cope with loneliness (as Driscoll points out) by committing sin - often in an attempt to prove to others that we're just like them, as if they did not already know.

This is the precise reason why the higher the leader goes publicly, the deeper he or she must go spiritually. If you are blazing a trail, it is absolutely imperative to find strength in the only One who is already at work ahead of you (John 5:17).