Hiking as a Source of Leadership Lessons?

Last week I had the opportunity to go hiking with my family. While we don't hike very often, it is something that all 5 of us enjoy and since it was a nice day, we took off for the hills. I expected some peacefulness being out in nature, some non-peacefulness having 3 kids bickering, nice views/scenery and a little exercise. What I didn't expect, however, was the opportunity to teach my kids about leadership. This unexpected opportunity came about (and continued to present itself) because my two oldest kids were both interested in "leading" the hike and proceeded to try to pass each other back and forth for this privileged position.

As these struggles for perceived power ensued, I found myself throwing out some truths about leadership which were only meant to stop the power struggle and not necessarily to teach about leadership. Statements like;

• "You're not a leader if nobody is following you"


• "Being in the front doesn't mean you are a leader"


• "If you have to announce that you are a leader, you probably aren't"

I am pretty sure these thoughts on leadership were lost on my kids, but it did cause me to think about leadership. After all, as a pastor, as a boss, as a husband and as a father, I am supposed to lead. But what does that look like? We all can identify bad leadership or rather non-leadership but what about good leadership? I would love to give all of the right answers but instead I will have to ponder that question with you.