Hope Obermiller (then Gravestock) was the person I would consider my first mentor. She was one of three leaders of the literature evangelism team that I was a part of in 2002 in West Jordan Utah. She was discerning, smart, and wasn't afraid of hard questions so I trusted her. At that point in my life I had spent most of my time in the Adventist subculture and even though I couldn't articulate it at that point, I sensed stale religion and saw a lot of Christians who were just in it for the potlucks. Hope didn't have an Adventist background and seemed like a free thinker but she was still sold out for this God thing so I believed that she was actually the real deal. Her influence was a huge and almost the earliest catalyst for my spiritual journey.
In the colporteuring world they call this mentor/influencer person a Leader. By the end of that summer, I knew I wanted to be a Leader.
I don't remember very many specifics of what I learned from Hope that summer except one thing she showed me in the airport on the trip back to California that changed my life.
Here is that thing: Spider Solitaire is amazing!
The timing of when she pulled out her laptop and told me how to play the game must have been the pinnacle of her influence over my young brain because every time I play, I think of what a great leader Hope was, and then search this pointless card game for the secrets of great leadership. I know they are there, and I've found a couple...so I hope to save someone the wasted hours of mouse clicking by laying them out in the next paragraph or two.
Brilliant Leadership Principal #1:
There will be hundreds or thousands of good ideas/directives, but only a small number of those will really work to be great. I play a large number of games of Solitaire but only win maybe a third of them and it's very rare to win one in few moves or create a cool pattern in the stack of won suits. So in my various areas of leadership I will be cautious with putting all my energy into one single project or direction. I will hold everything with an open hand and if something doesn't work, I will not beat myself up and will either revisit it from a different angle or just learn from it and look for the next thing.
Brilliant Leadership Principal #2:
No matter how dire the circumstances or how the odds are stacked against, there is always hope for a good outcome. I've played a couple games where the playing field is filled with cards and only after I play the very last stack, I find the one card that turns the game around. This has enabled me to find serenity and hope even in the midst of dismal circumstances. I've seen some leaders allow themselves to get flustered when things don't go well and this is counterproductive because negative situations call for clear thinking and quiet space for listening for the voice of God.
Brilliant Leadership Principal #3:
Bad odds or many variables are never reasons to halt a good plan. The obvious plan in Solitaire is to win the game by arranging cards in a specific way but my brain is not currently smart enough to map out my every winning move before I've started shuffling cards around. I can plan two or three moves ahead, but at some point I have to follow hunches and take chances and jump into the unknown. I know the plan is good so I just have to start. If I was too intimidated by the challenges to make the first move, I would just be sitting there looking at cards...and how dumb would that be? This allows me to take action when I see a good goal. (Sometimes to the point of bad planning or not enough communication, but that's not what this blog is about. ;) But taking bold action and dealing with obstacles and issues as they arise is what makes leadership adventurous. Right?
Spider Solitaire is such a simple game, yet so packed with great leadership... I will post more as I discover it.
I also want to write my gratitude to Hope for introducing me to this brilliant game, pointing me back to God and igniting a love for leadership in me.
No comments:
Post a Comment