Wise Leaders Raise up Lead Sheep

ARE YOU A WISE LEADER?

What you don’t see in this picture are the lead sheep.  For the reason that, to a stranger,  lead sheep can’t be distinguished from the rest,  but they are there….right in the front!  Wise leaders raise up lead sheep.  They encourage the rest that crossing a bridge or railroad track is OK.

LEAD SHEEP ARE CRUCIAL

This morning’s 6:00am conversation at the ranch house:

“We are at the shortcut. Have you heard any trains?” …….”NO”.

“Now we are crossing the bridge.  We are  approaching the store. We are crossing the tracks in 30 seconds. Have you heard a train?”   “NO……all is well”

“Alright! we are crossing!”…. two minutes later….. “We have successfully crossed!”

This is the conversation on the business band radio between the ranch shepherd and the flock shepherd. The ranch shepherd has to stay on the ranchland parallel to the tracks across the river; he listens for oncoming trains.  The flock shepherd and her crew,  5 kilometers away,  are  leading the sheep through town and across the tracks.  The perilous moment is when the large flock has arrived at the crossing and the flock shepherd wonders,…. “Is there a train coming?”

LEAD SHEEP ARE INFLUENTIAL

While sheep are great followers, there is no way you can get 600 mothers and their 800 lambs across a railroad crossing without the lead sheep (sub-leaders).  The flock needs to trust their own; sub-leaders in a flock of sheep are the sheep leaders. These  are pet sheep that the human shepherd has bonded to.  As a result, the lead sheep follow their human shepherd and subsequently, the hundreds of sheep trust and follow their woolly leader.  Even more, this is a great visual and allegory for human leadership. I realize  in this picture, we have a human top leader: the shepherd, and sheep sub-leaders while in human leadership it is all humans, but the allegory works.

WISE LEADERS RAISE UP LEADERS TO INFLUENCE

Wise leaders raise up other leaders to influence the human  team.  Those that lead a large group or team or corporation know that their people/employees, will only follow the sub-leaders that they trust.  Therefore, success is based on how well the company trust their sub-leaders. As a result, intuitive leaders make sure their sub-leaders understand and are loyal to the vision.  Also, wise leaders encourage their sub-leaders to bond and have the loyalty  of the group/team that they lead.  Consequently,  the whole company moves swiftly and smoothly as one. The group will  buy-in to the vision  only when they see their sub-leaders  moving in that direction. This is due to the fact that  they trust  the  sub-leaders they have bonded with, not so much the CEO whom most likely,  they don’t really know.

Like the sheep flock, human organizations, institutions and corporations need lead sheep as well as the top leader of the group.

–Karen Moilliet    June 17, 2020