Home Pastors Pastor Blogs Leadership = Dealing w/ Regular Rejection

Leadership = Dealing w/ Regular Rejection

(This post has not been edited for errors.  These are just my raw thoughts!)

If you are going to be a leader, prepare yourself to deal with rejection on an abnormal scale.  It comes with the territory and I’ve never quite gotten used to it.

  • Every day nearly 75 people stop following me on Twitter
  • Every day 10-15 people unsubscribe from my email list
  • Every few days someone writes a negative tweet about me
  • I get hateful and sometimes slanderous emails
  • Every week or so someone writes a blog about how stupid they think something I said was

With that said, as a leader I get an abnormal amount of praise and affirmation.

  • Every day over 100 people follow me on Twitter
  • Every day 20-25 people subscribe to my email list
  • Every day someone writes a kind tweet about me
  • Every day I get beautiful emails of gratitude
  • I regularly have positive blogs and news articles on me and my work

The problem that I have is one that all leaders have – even though the affirmations I receive outnumber the rejection and criticism, it is so easy to focus just on the criticism.  This is just as bad as focusing just on the affirmation.  In the end, leadership takes thick skin and it often means never being very swayed by those that lift you up or pull you down.