One of the concepts covered in the Master's program I completed a few years ago was the relationship between leadership and followership. The premise is that leading often involves a lot of following. To be a good follower and thus a good leader, one must have a good understanding of the group they are trying to follow/lead. Having that good understanding requires feedback.
I yearn for feedback. Positive or negative, I want to know what people are thinking. Take the land purchase, since we sent out Pastor Scott's letter, we haven't received any feedback. I've assumed that if anyone had an objection that they would have voiced it, but that's not always a safe assumption. I want to know what people are thinking. That's one of the reasons you can leave comments in response to my blog entries.
In some ways this is new for us, we haven't been known to ask for feedback or input. Being new, here's what you can expect from me. In return for your input, I commit to listen to what you have to say. I'm human, so I may struggle at times to listen when the message isn't one I want to hear, but I need to hear it anyway. Granted, I have to weigh the information I receive and discern which to heed. For example, I was working on a document last week and asked multiple staff to review it for content and typos. The document included the following sentence:
Throughout the week, the Pastors and staff pray for anyone who needs strength to make it through the day, the wisdom to make a tough decision or relief from an unendurable situation.
If I don't know, I'll be ineffective as a follower and if I can't follow, I can't lead.
