When are you at your best?
I asked someone who works at Good Shepherd that question this week.
The answer that came didn’t surprise me. In fact, I would likely have said the same thing about him myself.
But asking that question got me thinking about two different-yet-related matters:
1. The role of “people leaders” is to maximize opportunities for the folks who work for and with them to be at their best. Those at their best moments are different for the various folks who work with me: for some, it’s in leading volunteers; for others, it’s assimilating newcomers; for still others, it’s exhorting a tightly knit team. I am at my best if I arrange and encourage them to have as many opportunities to be their best.
2. In terms of my own personal answer to that question, I realized that the answer is very different at 54 with 25 years experience than it was at 34 with five. When I was 34, the answer was much like my colleague said this week: assimilating, visiting, and practicing the ministry of presence for the people of Mt. Carmel Church. These days, it’s much more likely those times when I give expression of the inviting all people mission of Good Shepherd Church to the larger Steele Creek community.
When are you at your best? Professionally, personally, and spiritually? And . . . has that answer changed much through the years?