Eeyore Be Gone

Our journey back from Arizona yesterday turned into a bit of a disaster. We got to the airport and our flight was delayed. Not a problem, until we landed in Chicago and couldn't get on the next flight. That became a bigger deal when their computer indicated that I had a printed ticket, which turned out to be false. We ended up spending the night in Chicago and not our own beds as the schedule originally indicated. To put it lightly it brought out the inner Eeyore in me.

As I was catching up on some old e-mails today I came across a great article about leadership and hope. The premise was that you can delegate a lot of things as leader, but the one thing you can't delegate is hope. When hope leads along with the leader then the group doesn't have to worry about "if" we can overcome our current challenge. Instead they can worry about the "how" we will overcome. The problem is that often the Eeyore's of the world want end up leading and then we focus on the "if" instead of the "how" and we don't get real far. I think that's unfortunate because as people of faith hope really should lead the way. If there is a commodity that we should have in abundance it should be hope.

I confess, though, more often than not the inner Eeyore in me sneaks out. I try to put up a front of hope, but Eeyore lies beneath the surface and that can't be hidden. Or the other problem is that in trying to lead with hope I end up appearing to be blind to the reality of the situation, which isn't necessarily the case but if it is perceived then I think we all know it's reality for others. So it becomes a delicate balance. One that I continue to work on.

So I encourage you as you find yourself in a position of leadership, lead with hope. In the meanwhile, I also encourage you to take a look at the article here.