Organizations needs leaders. If the first name that popped into your head was someone else’s, you’re already missing the boat. 

You see, it doesn’t really matter what title you hold, what level of education you’ve attained, or even how long you’ve been with your organization. Groups, departments, organizations, teams, churches – they need leaders. They need you.

Now, I’m not saying you have to come up with some novel idea or head a project team or even be charismatic and outgoing. What I’m saying is that we need leaders. What I’m saying is that we need you.

We need ordinary folks who will step up and do the hard things. Do hard things like admitting mistakes, being vulnerable, forgiving past mistakes, and building trust. Do hard things like complaining a little less and finding solutions a little more. 

Do hard things – like really taking ownership of the direction of your organization. Too many of us think we can’t do that. We think it’s someone else’s job. We think it’s only the executives that are in charge of that. Your organization is just as much yours as it is theirs. (And really, the sooner you can stop thinking of it in terms of “yours” or “theirs” the better. Think ours.) Want something to be different? Then as someone told me recently in conversation, you need to be the change you want to see in the organization. 

Do hard things – like actually committing to change something in yourself instead of thinking that only everyone else needs to change. Do hard things like being the first in your group or department to change your behavior and encourage others to do the same. Do hard things like looking for the best in people, even though you’ve been burned before.

As I’ve said to many groups I’ve presented to, it’s about ordinary people doing some simple (but not necessarily easy) things over and over again. Before you know it, you’re leading yourself and others toward a healthier group or organizational culture. 

But if you and I want any of that to happen, we need leaders. We need you.

You’ve got to not only be able to see the truth of the reality around you, but also tell that truth to your group or organization. This requires experience, expertise, finesse, and before any of that, a willingness to look for it. 

Lots of folks refuse to acknowledge what they see and know to be true. Some may look around their department at work or their staff at church or their team on the field and know something to be true. Perhaps their department uses a process that has at least two unnecessary and redundant steps (but it was the boss who put it in place). Perhaps their church staff has a pastor far more interested in status than in actually ministering in any meaningful way (outside the pulpit) to the people in the pews. Perhaps their team is stubbornly sticking to a game plan that may have worked previously, but hasn’t for some time now.

It’s not that these folks want to lie to themselves. But they’re certainly in denial.

Often there’s a small group, or even just an individual, who can see the truth; but that group or individual doesn’t want to speak up, because, well, the status quo is awfully comfortable. To say the Emperor is actually naked, after all, could be professional suicide. To question is to be a troublemaker, or so goes the myth you’ve bought into.

Organizations and groups that really get it will seek out someone who can see things for what they are, and further still, will stand up and talk about it. An individual who really gets it will be that person.

Very few individuals, if they're honest, enjoy going to work every day in an environment filled with distrust, political maneuvering, and so many of the other ugly things that characterize too many groups and organizations. And most folks, if you ask them, would say they wish things were different where they work. In fact, a recent Gallup poll suggests that up to 77% of individuals said they were miserable in their jobs. 

So people work places where they dislike the culture. And it's not just some people. It's a lot of people.

Those same people, unless they're gluttons for punishment, wish it were different.

(Do you see the opportunity yet?)

They need leaders. They need people to lead them where they already want to go. It's not like you'd be leading them toward some undesirable state of affairs. On the contrary, you'd be leading them toward a trusting, non-political, honest, healthy, passionate culture, which is exactly what most people want anyway. So if so many people want this, why don't must people find themselves in this type of atmosphere? What's missing?

Easy. Leaders. Unculturers. They need people with a certain angst about their environments, coupled with the desire and drive to do something to make a difference. They need you.