At LEADERSHIPTEN, one of our core values as an organization is Stewardship – the responsible use of resources.
Stewardship can be interpreted many ways these days. It’s always best, to begin with the root word and the definition:
Steward: “A person employed to manage another’s property, especially a large house or estate.”
(Retrieved from https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/steward. March 7, 2022.)
This definition has caused me to think about stewardship in a different light. When you are responsible for someone else’s property, how serious are you about stewarding it?
My husband and I went on our honeymoon to Glacier National Park, in Montana. If you haven’t been there, put it on your bucket list. You won’t be sorry. The natural beauty is breathtaking. We flew into Missoula and rented a car. It was a compact car. On one of our daily adventures, we saw an unmarked gravel road that looked interesting. The gravel road turned into a dirt road which turned into a pig trail (that’s what we call it in the south). We were bouncing so high our heads hit the ceiling. I’m sure the uneven trail was beating up the undercarriage of the car. We weren’t thinking about our responsibilities or if the ride was damaging the car and we sure weren’t thinking about stewardship, we were just living in the moment.
We weren’t good stewards of that car. A few generations ago a borrower did their best to leave what they borrowed better than it was when it was loaned to them. They thought like stewards. I know that car was a rental and we paid to use it, but should I have thought like a steward?
In today’s world, we rent things because we don’t want the responsibility of ownership. Have we taken this philosophy into the workplace? Do we want the benefits of leading without the responsibilities?
Seven things come to mind when I think of leading and stewardship:
Money, Things, People, Knowledge, Skills, Wisdom, and Experience
At LEADERSHIPTEN our desire to be good stewards with all that is entrusted to us is certainly important to us, but stewarding the knowledge, skills, wisdom, and experiences we have gained throughout our careers is what gets us stirred up. In fact, it’s why we began LEADERSHIPTEN. If you’ve read our story, you know we began with a desire to help young leaders prepare to lead BEFORE they were given the positional authority to lead. We felt compelled to use the opportunities we were given to help other leaders. Experience is one of those things that, by the time you’ve gained it, you’ve missed many opportunities. We want to allow other leaders to benefit from our bloody knees. We want to pass it on. What began as a way to give back has now taken us into the marketplace with our small business and commercial clients.
You may not be a leader in a leader development and coaching practice but there are opportunities for you to use your knowledge, skills, wisdom, and experience to help the next generation, whether you’re a CEO or the newest person in your company. I get to watch my 17-year-old grandson live this out every day. He’s a junior and the captain of his high school lacrosse team. He’s a natural leader and takes that responsibility seriously, whether it’s someone on his team, his brothers, sisters, cousins, or just a young kid in middle school who looks up to him.
Are you sharing your knowledge, skills, wisdom, and experiences with those you lead? Have you identified future leaders and begun to invest in them now?
If you would like to know more about how LEADERSHIPTEN can help you and/or your team steward your most valuable resources, please fill out the contact form below and we’ll reach out to you.
