Leaders Don’t Always Have to Smile, but They Always Have to Lead

Tony McCollum commented on the “That’s Quotable” quote from Susan Whiting that I posted yesterday. I didn’t realize it, but Church Marketing Sucks had a dialogue about that very quote a few days ago.

First off, let me point out that Tony McCollum referred to me as “Terry” in his comment. I think he just assumed because it was a clever, handsome blogging pastor that I must be Terry Storch, the the other clever, handsome blogging pastor. Tony, that was an honest mistake. People frequently make that error. Just remember that Terry has that colorful site with Google-like graphics, and I’m still waiting for someone to volunteer to fix my dull site that needs a redesign and for which I’m more than willing to trade a prominent advertising space to acknowledge your efforts in making my site look cool. I digress…

Regarding the “smile” deal, I think you all completely missed the point of the quote over on the CMS site. The point is that people are looking to the top person for leadership and vision. Whether you realize it or not, everyone is looking to you to fill that key role of chief cheerleader. Sometimes that means a smile. Sometimes that means leading the organization through a difficult time (may even be a time of mourning like we’ve just been through at Granger). Sometimes that means gritting your teeth and saying, “We have to take that mountain.”

And, no matter what size your organization is, people will always look to the top dog for that kind of visionary leadership. I don’t think anyone else in the organization can pick up that responsibility.

We all crave authenticity in our leaders. Even when times are difficult, we want our leaders to cast vision for what the future holds. We want them to define and communicate how our situation will be different tomorrow compared to how it is today. In my opinion, this is the type of leadership that was present after 9/11 but that’s been lacking after Katrina.

Finally, the people that crave that type of leadership more than anyone else are other leaders. People will be watching you as you get off the elevator. They don’t necessarily need a smile, but other leaders will always be looking for you to acknowledge where you are today and where you’re going tomorrow.