The Tension is Good

I am discovering anew how much of Leadership is the act of managing tension.

If you lead people that are leaders and not just underlings, you will always have strong views, methods, creativity and personalities that naturally create multiple tensions. In one team members pursuit of excellence you run against another’s “get er done” nature. In one’s desire to handle things efficiently, you run against another’s desire to smooth feathers.

Compound that by the internal tension a leader carries when observing and trying to keep the team together and moving in the same direction. Multiply that by the tension each team member feels when they know their way is the right way.

Managing tension is a key distinctive between big Leaders or small leaders. The productive tension is not conflict, but moving the direction of the team while balancing the needs of the individuals on the team. It ain’t easy. It wasn’t supposed to be.

If you want to just fire everyone all the time to get rid of your tension, then you have underlings, not leaders.

And so many do. They end up with small organizations and small churches. When you talk to a large church lead pastor (as I do almost every day), they will talk to you about managing the tensions.

Everyone has to live with the tension, and it is good.

(HT: Last October’s Atlanta Catalyst theme. By the way, if you are going to #CatDallas, let me know via comment or DM on twitter. We are having a party.)