By James Dodwell - Hammers of Hope
Good Morning,
Recently, I read about a phenomenon called the “moth
effect”. There have been studies stating that drivers may inadvertently steer
toward warning lights at night due to an “attentional” preoccupation that
affects their ability to maintain direction in which they were previously
heading. It goes on to say that people may unconsciously move in the direction
of their distracted gaze, whether the object is lit or not and whether they are
driving or walking. Sound familiar? In a crazy way it explains why it is so
easy to get off our life path when we lose focus on what is right and true. We
see it too often, as we “sometime” allow the “eyes of our heart” to look away
and then steer our life in another direction.
This reminded me of a story about a distracted driver, Over
lunch in a fast-food restaurant, a woman was telling her friend about a recent
accident in which a teenage boy had driven into the back of her car as he was
distracted when texting. "The young man driving the car blamed me and
called me every rude, dirty name in the book!” stated the woman.
Inconspicuously seated at the next table two small boys had been listening and
one turned to the other and said wide-eyed: "You mean there’s a
book?"
I know a silly story to illustrate a point of awareness. The
young man driving the car was distracted and unaware he was about to plow into
the back of a stopped vehicle, and the woman was unaware of young ears taking
in everything she said. This reminded me of the four levels of awareness. As
leaders, we need understand leadership has many facets, respect, experience,
emotional strength, people skills, disciple, vision, momentum, and so forth and
so on. Nearly all these skills can be learned but we must understand growing
and stretching our leadership skills doesn’t happen overnight. Thus the levels
of awareness:
The first level Unconscious, Incompetence – We don’t know
what we don’t know. Everyone starts out in a state of ignorance. For example,
when I started working with wood and building construction, I could not read a
ruler. The big numbers on the tape were easy, but the little lines between the
numbers meant nothing to me. I would count the lines and announce to person
running the saw 15 inches and 7 little lines. I did this until someone took the
time to explain these were in 1/16” increments and 7 little lines is 7/16th”.
Once we are on the other side of the learning curve we slowly moved along to
the second level Conscious, Incompetence – We know what we don’t know. I knew
what I didn’t know so now it was just a matter of taking the instruction I was
provided by a knowledgeable carpenter mentor, ask questions, study and read,
work with it daily gaining experience to improve my skill level.
Once we begin to master this part, we are moving onto the
third level Conscious Competence – We know and grow and it starts to show. We
find leaders, who show great skill, when opportunities arise, shine only
because they have paid the price of preparation. This is when we as leaders become
more aware of our abilities and gifts. We are determined to continue developing
our skill set until our actions become a habit, an automatic response to
circumstances that come our way. We move onto the fourth level Unconscious
Competence. We simply go because we know. This is where as stated before, our
reactions and actions are based on our experience and knowledge gained as we
progress into better more qualified leaders. We execute our leadership plan
with greater skill. We see and reward the efforts of others. We remain
teachable, we teach others, encourage them guide them and help them to reach
their potential all the while keenly aware of our walk or position in this
process.
This level of leadership experience allows us to feed our
followers, to cast vision, communicate the importance of teamwork, share our
faith, show our love unconditionally, celebrate joy, and offer hope. Every
effective leader needs time to develop. It’s similar to raising a baby into
adulthood, nurturing, teaching, guiding, guarding, filling them with experience
and knowledge and opportunity to learn more. But time alone cannot make an
effective leader. It takes a willingness to want to learn and to lead. Also, we
need to be aware that if we decide not to work at growing and stretching
ourselves we will remain at level one. Where’s the fun in that, just saying.
I encourage each of us to do something, anything to
challenge us each day to help us continue to grow our skills, stretch our level
of awareness and make a difference in other’s lives. It’s all about adding
value to us and to others. Genesis 39:21-23
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