Lessons from the Snow Bank

Wow, did it snow last weekend! It started at about noon on Friday and snowed through Saturday evening. By the time it was over, 19.7 official inches of snow lay on the ground in our area. Throughout the storm I was being reminded of important leadership lessons.

Sometimes no matter how well you plan, you can’t stop a storm. Good leaders try to head off storms through good planning and management of resources. Costs are weighed, risks analyzed and decisions made, but sometimes you can’t stop a storm. For about 30 hours snow fell and nothing could stop it. Well laid plans for a men’s retreat were hampered and Sunday morning services were impacted. Both were events that had been well thought out and planned, but each was at the mercy of the storm. All we could do is let the storm pass and begin to dig out.

Every leader will eventually find himself at the mercy of a leadership storm. A time when circumstances cannot be altered, only faced and endured. Some leadership storms will occur just because circumstances arise. I remember a leadership storm over the qualifications of an elder that blew up at our last church. No one foresaw it coming, but once is began nothing could stop it. All that could be done is face the storm, let it pass and dig out from under it.

Facing a storm is not necessarily a sign of incompetence; some storms simply cannot be avoided. They can be frustrating, a lot of work and they can force us to change plans, but they are not necessarily a sign of failure.
Good leaders know that eventually storms will blow. When they come they are not afraid of the snow.

The Man in the Frosty Window