Magic and Leadership - 'Tribes' Review pt. 4

According to Seth Godin magic and leadership aren't all that different. "Everyone can figure out how to do the cut a woman in half magic trick.  Its in books and magazines and websites all over the world, anyone could do it.  Yet not everyone does.

Leadership is the same way, it has been dissected and written about for ages.  So if its so easy to know how to do, how come not everyone does it?"

Seth answers his own question with this: "Because its less about knowing how the trick is done and a lot more about the art of doing it."

In other words, the tactics of leadership are simple...the act (read art) of doing it is the tricky part.

If you type 'leadership' into a book search on Amazon.com you will get 81,082 results.  That strikes me as an absurd amount.  But it also backs up the premise that doing leadership is a lot harder than knowing how to do it.  If leadership were simple to do there wouldn't be 81,082 books written on it, there would be just a few.  It is because the art of leadership is so tricky that people keep writing and selling books on leadership.

I've seen magicians make whole elephants disappear, and I know that it's a trick, but I'm still impressed that they did the trick and did it well.  I could learn how to do the trick, but I know for a fact that I couldn't pull it off.  I don't have the flair necessary to be a magician.

What I do know is this: whether its magic, cooking, marriage, ministry, or leadership the art of doing is always more difficult and more important that simply knowing the tactics or rules.

The verb 'to lead' is an active verb, you can't lead from the sidelines.  If you have the requisite skills, artistry, and personality to lead then stop trying to figure out the tactics and start leading.

What would it look like for you to start doing leadership today?