LEADERS ARE PACE-SETTERSFred Smith wisely points out that “Leaders stay in front by raising the standard
by which they judge themselves and by which they are willing to be judged.”^4 A
leader with longevity must always be pushing himself or herself towards
higher standards. They must always maintain a “holy discontent” with
the status quo. They must always be raising the standard...adjusting the bar
of performance upward...pursuing excellence with more intensity. Only that
attitude will keep them out front. Oswald Sanders says that every leader
must constantly “...resist the idea of “leadership from the rear.”^5 Sanders
goes on to say:
True leadership is always from the top down, never from the
bottom up. It was leadership from the rear that led Israel back into
the wilderness.^6A leader’s desire to stay out front is not motivation by ego or some sick
need to be number one. It is motivated by the desire to lead people in
the right way. A good leader wants people to get to the right destination –
not spend their lives wandering meaninglessly around in the wilderness
of carnality! He seeks to be out front so that he can pull the people in the
right direction. One of the greatest leaders and motivators of youth of all
times was John R. Mott. He was an early leader of the YMCA and the
Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions. He said: “A leader is a
man who knows the road, who can keep ahead, and who pulls others after him.”^7
That’s a pretty good summary of effective leadership, whether of young
people or adults!
“A leader is a man who knows the road, who
can keep ahead, and who pulls others after him.”
(John R. Mott)In setting the pace, a good leader must not get too far out ahead of his
followers. If he does, he easily becomes a martyr rather than a leader!
Many visions have been killed and many leaders have been destroyed by
running too far, too fast ahead of their followers. If a leader gets too “far
out”, physically, emotionally, spiritually, or methodologically, he will soon
self-destruct – and may destroy others in the process! While a leader
must always be a pace-setter, he must also be sensitive to the pace he sets. If
he sets too fast a pace, his followers will not be able to keep up. If he sets