Feeling the heat

By Stanley Arumugam

As part of our leadership Programme in Arusha, we invited a group of traditional dancers and drummers to entertain us in the evening. Before their performance they lit a fire and set the drums around it. I was curious about what they were doing. One of the drummers said “we make the fire to heat the skin of drum to get good sound”.

Leadership work is a performance and we are like the drums. If we are hard and unprepared we may break when the beating starts. To prepare us – we go through the fire process. We are warmed up, stretched out and made ready for our beating. As the Bible says we go through the refiner’s fire.

That night we enjoyed a great performance of drumming and dancing. The prepared drums proved fit for purpose. But not everyone attending the performance witnessed the heating and stretching earlier that evening. Our secret preparation is revealed in our public performance.

This week:                                                                                                                                                                             Reflect on where we are getting heated up in leadership?
What private preparation can help our leadership?