Flat on the Floor

Recently, we moved from Florida to Tennessee. When we moved out of our home in Florida and into our home in Tennessee many people were involved in helping load and unload the truck. (I am amazed that it only takes a quarter of the time to unload a moving truck as it does to load it.)

If you’re like me, whenever you move you wonder how many furniture or décor casualties there are going to be. Although we were very fortunate to have minimal damage, one of our casualties was an aging bedside table. A few days ago, as we were unpacking, I reattached the legs to the table and everything looked good – no apparent problems. Yet when I turned the table over to stand it up it wobbled for a few seconds and collapsed. The legs and brackets no longer supported the table. I eventually had to throw the table away.

This situation reminded of concept that Tom Messer shared with me a few years ago – He observed that there are four legs to the “Leadership Stool” - Accountability, Instruction, Relationships, and Example. All four “legs” are essential for the stool to be effective. A deficiency in any of the “legs” will render the stool not just ineffective, but useless.

Have you ever sat on a stool that has a missing or broken leg? If so, you probably ended up like my table – flat on the floor. Many of us have likely experienced a similar fate in our leadership experience –When our accountability, instruction, relationships, or example are lacking, our ability to influence or lead is largely diminished. Consequently, to be most effective we must regularly give adequate attention to each of these four areas.