Every adversity, every failure, every
heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. – Napoleon Hill
An old
farmer had plowed around a large rock in one of his fields for years. He had
broken several plowshares and a cultivator on it. After breaking another
plowshare one fall, and remembering all the trouble the rock had caused him
through the years, he finally determined to do something about it. When he put
his crowbar under the rock, he was surprised to discover that it was only about
six inches thick and that he could break it up easily.
As he was
carting it away he had to smile, remembering all the trouble that the rock had
caused him and how easy it would have been to get rid of it sooner. There is
often a temptation to bypass small obstacles when we're in a hurry to get a
large problem solved. We simply don't want to stop and take the time to deal
with it now. Like the old farmer, we "plow" around it.
If you hang
around in leadership long enough you will face more than your fair share of
adversity. It comes with the territory. While adversity is part of leadership,
so too, is our response to it.
The old
farmer teaches us a few leadership principles we should consider as we face
adversity. His responses are not unfamiliar. His choices are ours. When it
comes to adversity here are our options.
Avoid it
I’ve yet to
meet a leader who thrives on adversity. We like to think that our leadership is
such that everyone likes us and no adversity will ever come our way. But that’s
not the world we live in.
Year after
year the old farmer plowed around the rock. It was an obstruction and he
avoided it. Sound familiar? To understand the old farmer and his decision is to
understand ourselves. How often as leaders do we just plow around issues
because we don’t want to deal with it? We don’t want to make the hard decisions
or ruffle the wrong feathers. We know we have an issue but we just side-step
it.
How’s this
approach working for you? Avoidance of adversity doesn’t make it go away. It
makes you miserable.
Confront it
One day the
old farmer had enough. The time for action was at hand. And what he discovered
shocked him. The rock he plowed around for years could have easily been removed
a long time ago.
I am not suggesting
that every adversity you face will be as easily resolved as the one for the
farmer. We know life doesn’t work that way. But until you face your adversities
head-on you will never know. Often the problems we face are magnified over time
and we become the victims of our own imaginations.
Allow me to
encourage you to be like the old farmer. Get off your tractor, lift up the
rock, and find out firsthand what you are up against. Don’t assume year after
year that the adversity you are up against can’t be removed. The truth is, you
will never know until confront it.
Overcome it
What is your
tipping point with adversity? What will it take for you to come off the tractor
like the old farmer and take a crow bar to the rock of your adversity? At what
point do you make your declaration, “No more!”
That is both
the challenge and the test to your leadership. It’s how it works. There are no
exceptions.
How long it
takes to plow through your adversity is hard to predict. Longer of course if
you take no action. But adversity in leadership will always be your companion.
It will always be nipping at your heels. It’s the price you pay.
In closing
let me remind you that on your leadership journey you don’t walk alone. There
is hope and your adversity is making you a stronger leader. Be encouraged by this Franciscan blessing:
May God bless you with discomfort at
easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live
deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at
injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for
justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed
for those who suffer from pain, rejection, and war, so that you may reach out
your hand to comfort them and turn their pain to joy.
And may God bless you with enough
foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in the world, so that you
can do what others claim cannot be done.
© 2016 Doug Dickerson
