Solitude and Leadership

“If you want others to follow, be alone with your own thoughts.”

This is from a talk given at the US Military Academy at West Point by William Deresiewicz of Yale. As I read I was struck that this is something church leaders – caught up often in “frenzied busyness” – need to heed.

Here are some of his provocative statements – unusual to present to future military leaders.

• “Leadership is what you are here to learn …”
• “Solitude is what you have the least of here …”
• “And yet I submit to you that solitude is one of the most important necessities of true leadership.”
• “Multi-tasking .. is not only not thinking, it impairs your ability to think.”
• “Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it.”

His whole speech is worth absorbing.

Google the title (above) and his name and you can find it.

Then get alone, read it, and think about it!

Leighton Ford