everybody does it

Several months ago I was sitting in a large room with a bunch of people watching Bill Hybels interview Bono for the Willowcreek Leadership Conference. As I watched I heard the commentary from the people I was with. Everyone in the room respected Bono for what he has done with regard to third world debt, and the AIDS crisis in Africa. They credited him with influencing them in different ways in their life. They were following Bono.

This is not an unusual phenomenon. People follow other people all the time. It may even be safe to say that if you are living you are following someone. This may be a healthy or unhealthy thing, but all of us have someone who we follow. It may be a religious figure such as Buddha, Muhammad, Joseph Smith or Jesus. It may be a cultural icon such as Justin Timberlake, Jessica Simpson, Brad Pitt or Paris Hilton (does anyone else think it weird that Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton are in the same paragraph as Muhammad and Jesus?).

The problem today is not that people are following. This has always happened. The problem today is few, if any, know or care to know where they are going. It is the blind leading the blind. Much has been made about the twenty-something generation. There is concern from many different people about what they will bring to this world. Some feel that they are a generation that will bring decline (if you are twenty-something and reading, please know I do not agree with the last part, so breathe easy and keep reading).

The divide is caused by two things. First, the younger generations do not want to be led or lead. They recognize that there are followers, but they are weary of leaders, because leaders have agendas. If there is a specific place that a leader wants to go, suspicion sets in. This is why so many teachers, pastors, and politicians have fallen out of favor with the younger generation. They have agendas, and often their agendas reflect the personal feeling of the leader.

I have been told by many young people that they just sit and wait. Even if someone tells them they care about them it is only to get something. They have seen the agenda driven culture of their parents and feel that something is left wanting. They may follow but they are rarely committed to a self-proclaimed leader. Leadership in the mind of many twenty-somethings is tied to corporate, greed driven America. It is a suit-and-tie, slick talking, perfect hair, kind of person that cannot be trusted.

On the other side are those who are leading. I have met few leaders who truly recognize their gift and employ it for the betterment of others. Often there is an agenda tied to them, and that is their ultimate goal, not caring for people. They want to get somewhere so they do everything they can to accomplish the goal. As they move the carnage they leave behind is often devastating.

With both sides feeling this way one wonders, “Is there any hope for leadership?” Well, if people are following, then yes there is hope for it. It is not leadership that has been tainted it is those doing the leading, and the perspective of the follower that has. I do not propose to write a treatise on leading, following, or goal achievement. However, I do believe that both sides need to recognize the innate understanding of following and leading that exists within each person.

It makes little sense to throw leadership out altogether. Where there is following there is leading. We all follow, everybody does it. With this in mind it is time for us to reconsider what leaders might look like, act like and think like. So to my twenty-something friends, let’s begin a conversation as to what leadership could look like for our generation. To my older friends, teach us what it could look like. We may not do it exactly the same way, but we will learn from your failures and more importantly from your successes.