Leading while being Led

I have occupied a post of second leadership for a long time; youth leader, Assistant Pastor, a member of a senior leadership team under the incumbent, an Executive Director for a charity and now as an Assistant Curate.  There is a particular knack to being a leader whilst in a team with a senior leader, a partnership in which you are the lead or a set-up with a board of directors.  There are some things that you have sole decision over but almost everything you do is within the vision and strategy of the one leading you.

This project is an exercise in collective wisdom.  A collecting of stories that capture what it means to be led whilst leading:  stories of success and failure, stories where you shine and stories where you learn a lot.  In particular I am interested in stories told by Assistant Curates, who by definition are in a training post, and so under the immediate authority of their training incumbent and know that they are likely to be leaving the post within 3-4 years into a position of incumbent themselves.

These stories can be short or long, can be complex or very simple, can have an obvious end or not, but they do need to be stories that fit into the three categories below.  I am requesting stories directly from assistant curates I know and some I don’t trying to cover a range of traditions and life experiences.  If you feel like you would like to contribute, please comment below.

Categories of stories.

  1. Stories where you are leading a group of people that are clearly following you and you have a clear leadership position.
  2. Stories where you are leading a project or specific situation with a group of peers in which there is no clear senior leader that everyone is following.
  3. Stories where you are under authority and being led but where you end up giving the lead.  These stories can be in specific projects or in more general team life.

As I collect these stories, my hope is to edit them together to form the bulk of a volume on wisdom from the ranks, leadership in curacy.

2009
10/16
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