Noisome Leaders

Have you ever heard of a “Noisome Refrigerator?” Some who have may guess it

to mean, “a refrigerator that makes loud noises,” but in reality, it is a refrigerator that

when opened is beyond repulsive and offensive. Maybe you’ve experienced a noisome

refrigerator, sometime in the past, where someone created a “scientific experiment” in

the back left corner on the bottom shelf. You know that time when you reached in to see

what was in the wrapping or container only to find some rancid, smelly, icky goo in the

package that gave you the dry heaves forcing you to determine a way of covering up

the smell or crafting a method and means for disposal, container and all.

That putrid, fetid, mephitic, insalubrious mass became the “BANE” of your

existence until you got rid of it! One would wonder, “how did such a gross reality

happen?” Simple answer is this, some people tend to Balk at, Avoid, Neglect, or Evade

those things they don’t want to deal with. They would rather use baking soda, or some

sort of fragrance cover-up to “quell the smell” instead of dealing with the cause of the

smell.

Sadly, my years of leadership study have confirmed that leaders, like

refrigerators, can become noisome as well. Some leaders have endured experiences

that have cut them deep, leaving scars that hinder their positive growth and

development as a leader and limiting their ability to be a successful team builder/leader.

These leaders join the, what I titled, “Scars to Bars” project where they bury the putrid

memories in “the back left corner on the bottom shelf” of their memory closet, build bars

around their minds and hearts, and work hard at balking, avoiding, neglecting, and

evading the insalubrious mass hidden in the shadows of their minds and hearts that is

killing their ability to lead well.

Battered, bruised, and broken leaders who entomb bad memories soon become

miserably incarcerated and managed by them. These memory “scars” not only motivate

a leader to build “bars” around their hearts and minds but will soon become the filtering

system for their leadership and team building practices. Know this, an insecure,

isolated, or incendiary leader will never lead well because people lose the desire to

follow them. Don’t be a noisome leader; deal with the scars and breakdown the bars by

choosing to change your filtering system and get on with being the transforming leader

you’ve been called to be!