Ed Bacon, rector of All Saints Church, Pasadena, offered some truly useful comments as part of yesterday’s teleconference. Here’s an excerpt from his opening remarks, in response to the question, “Why is staying connected so important for leadership?”
“My recent thinking has focused on making sure that as a pastor and as a friend and just a human being in relationship, I know the difference between a person’s being and doing. Too often leaders get focused on whether or not the people in their system are following them in their doing. Staying connected was a central truth of so much that I learned from Ed Friedman …. A leader can be so much more innovative, courageous, daring, adventurous, calm down the system down, to the degree that the connections are made vibrant and authentic….what is so important in relationships, is that we connect our being to the being of another person, and not have the relationship conditioned on whether or not someone agrees with us. People feel that: when you are together, they feel that they are important to you and you are important to them on the being level.”
The recording of the teleconference is available. E-mail me at Margaret@margaretmarcuson.com, and I’ll send you the link.