An isolated leader is a dangerous leader. An isolated leader won’t receive care and encouragement to continue leading, won’t receive necessary confrontation, will limit learning, and will lead in a way that is divorced from the people and from reality. How do you know if you are isolated leader? Here are five indications:
1. If you are never confronted you are really in isolation.
You have only surrounded yourself with people who are afraid of you or are in awe of you and thus you are never challenged on your blind spots or sin. And we all have blind spots and sin. A life without confrontation is a life without growth. To live without ever being challenged is to live recklessly towards destruction.
2. If you are never uncomfortable you are really in isolation.
Christian community is community that is built on Christ and not lesser commonalities. Thus Christian community pulls in people who are different than one another and are united by His grace. Those differences will cause discomfort, and the discomfort will cause growth.
3. If you never hear the word “No,” you are really in isolation.
No one should only and always hear “yes,” because no one is perfect. If you have built a life for yourself where you only hear affirmations and only hear “yes,” you have chosen shallow community. And you are surrounded with people who will passively watch you self-destruct one day.
4. If you don’t give yourself to your team, you are really in isolation.
Leadership is an incredible privilege and an incredible responsibility. If you aren’t encouraging, serving, forgiving, and praying for others, you are an isolated leader.
5. If you never weep for others, you are really in isolation.
Great leaders love the people they lead. And as the pain of this world plagues those on their team, they weep. They weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. If you never weep, you are going through the motions of leadership and really living in isolation.
