B, thank you for sharing your very transparent story and how you struggled through trauma. Your story highlights a couple things for me.
First of all, it is a story of how we can be broken in leadership. How traumatic events can happen to people we lead, or how relationships can get wrecked, and how our hearts can get broken. By working with people, we will have to walk through difficult times. Leadership is not just about good organizational skills, or processes, but it is about people. And when we work with people, we grow to love them. When we love them, our hearts break when something happens to them. Yet, we lead on, and take care of the others whose hearts are also breaking.
Secondly, it highlights the importance of needing others in our support system to lean on. We cannot just admit our brokenness to anyone. We worry that if those we lead truly knew about our brokenness, they would lose trust in us. We still need to be vulnerable and transparent and tell someone that we aren’t doing well. Ask for help. It’s hard to tell our stories and admit vulnerability. But there is healing in the sharing.
Thanks, B, for being vulnerable and sharing an intimate piece of your story. A significant part that played a role in who you are today. And for reminding us that we need healing ourselves, which we can get from each other.
References:
B. (2018) Leadership story. Thoughts about life and ministry in an urban setting. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/b121/2018/11/my-leadership-story/