This past week my good friend and fellow writer and I have been planning for a meeting where we would be giving the main session information. Feeling confident that we could handle the presentation, we set out to create an agenda.
And then the questions and comments started rolling in: Had we thought about this? Could we explain about that? What about this topic?
These were all questions we had no answers for and did not plan as part of our presentation.
And suddenly our well thought out and planned agenda didn’t seem like enough. Should we add something else? Change the focus?
We decided not to make changes, as many of the comments were too specific, and we wanted to keep our topic more general to accommodate the group at large and not just a few.
And in my friend’s encouraging way she texted me: Jesus is on our side. He won’t let us flop.
To which I responded: Yes. Or we just flop forward.
We both chuckled. But I have since thought about this truth and how it applies to being in leadership. Trying new things is inevitable. Stepping out is a must. And usually the work is done in front of others.
Although growth in leadership can be a good thing, it can also be a little stifling. Not wanting to make a mistake or error in front of others we can be stagnate, afraid to move forward.
But sometimes even the best, well-laid plans can fail, or at least not turn out as we’d like.
We aren’t always successful.
So how can we move past the times we don’t succeed?
We choose to see ourselves as falling (or flopping) forward. We see our mistakes — our errors — as lessons learned: knowledge gained for the future. And we honesty share with those around us, especially those we lead. We don’t hide.
And then we keep moving. We keep trying, even when we’re not sure it’ll turn out as we’d like.
Knowing that even if we fall, we will fall forward.
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