“I feel like the air-traffic-control tower at O’Hare Airport,” said the pastor, referring to Chicago’s infamously busy airport. I had just popped into his office to ask a logistical question. Within a few minutes, I watched several others do the same. “Lots of planes taking off and landing!” he remarked.
That’s a decent picture of good leadership: Air-traffic controllers have authority, but they use their authority to enable others to fly.
Or here’s a more earthy illustration I heard years ago from a friend in Christian ministry: “I feel like a fat sow with a bunch of little piglets. Everyone’s sucking me dry.”
I was a young man when I heard this remark. I couldn’t sympathize at the time (probably because I was one of the piglets). Now I have kids in high school and college, and I’ve served for years as a church elder, and I help to lead a Christian ministry — I’m very sympathetic. Sometimes I feel as if I exist entirely to serve the needs of everyone around me. “Jonathan,” my wife remarked with a wry smile and a chuckle, “all of us just need you! ‘Me, me, me,’ we all say!”
