There’s something about sitting on a Dunking Machine at your own school Fair waiting to be unceremoniously dunked by a huge line of kids, that is a great leveller. In fact it’s more than that – it’s a great lesson in the need for us all to never take ourselves too seriously.
As I sit there, waiting for the kids to take aim at the target, hoping like heck that they’ll miss, I understand fully that any degree of “seriousness” on my behalf will in no way help me. Instead I understand fully, that if the target is hit, and the bucket of cold, cold water above my head pours over me in an excruciating waterfall that the only way forward is to laugh and marvel at my own vulnerability.
Leadership is essentially one big Dunking Machine. People and actions take aim at us all the time. Most of the time this aim is not vicious or nefarious – it’s good hearted and sometimes tinged with love. At other times it comes with a venom, and you know that it’ll sting.
You have options, that is true, and some of the shots taken will require a lot of patience and dexterity, and even seriousness. Some matters are incredibly serious and need to be handled with great care. But none ever require you to remain in that state – there are times, even in the most serious, that you can find ways to lift the mood.
So, take time to take the occasion seriously, and you might even want to convey to others that you are serious, but you don’t have to take yourself seriously.
Steve