Solitude and Leadership (Leighton Ford)

“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 for future military leaders to hear:

• “Leadership is what you are here to leave …”
• “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. Click here for a link to read in full.

Then get alone and think about it!

Leighton Ford