a leader’s greatest fear

john ortberg at leadership summit 2007 at willowcreek

we have a fear of failure, fear of mutiny, fear of criticism

“leadership is disappointing people at a rate they can stand”

he talked about us all having a shadow mission. its the temptation to center our lives around something that is unworthy. that sounded typical to me but he made a different point. our shadow mission is usually in alignment with our gifts, passions and wiring. its just 10 degrees off. our shadow mnission is our authentic mission hijacked by our ego and our wounds.

“the higher you rise in an organization, the less truth you are likely to hear”

so it ended up being about our personal shadow mission and a group’s shadow mission.

he tied this all in with the esther story and how we all need a mordecai in our lives, someone who tells us the truth.

“if you are a leader and don’t know your shadow mission, you are the only one who doesn’t, the people you lead do.”

mordecai was willing to name reality & esther said no to her shadow mission (being safe and secure). haman’s shadow mission was perhaps the greatest shadow mission of our society: wanting more.

he also talked about having a chronic soul of dissatisfaction.

a leader’s greatest fear is not that something might happen to us, it’s that something might happen in us.