Fully Human
In truth, all human beings are called to be saints, but that just means called to be fully human, to be perfect—that is, whole, mature, fulfilled. The saints are simply those men and women who relish the event of life as a gift and who realize that the only way to honor such a gift is to give it away.
William Stringfellow
from Simpler Living, Compassionate Life, edited and compiled by Michael Schut
All of the good leaders I can name have at least one consistent, common characteristic – self-awareness.
They know what they are good at and can usually identify what Peter Drucker calls the one thing that they should do and not delegate. It’s different for all of us but for all of us it’s the gift we must constantly give away.
A good leader also knows what they are not good at and then finds people who have capability and passion for those things. Another gift.
In both of the categories above it takes a lot of hard “looking inward” work; taking the time and allocating the energy to first just do the work and then mustering the courage to ask for and receive feedback.
Having not done the hard “looking inward” work maybe accounts for why many of us have a hard time both gracefully receiving a compliment by simply saying “thank you” and, considering criticism with an open mind.
We don’t know what gifts we have, or don’t have, and are intentionally unconscious about both of them.
