Leading from the Second Chair

Last week a friend mentioned a new book she was reading called "Leading from the Second Chair." Today, I received a magazine with several articles from the book. So since I know quite a few people who serve as associates or other secondary leadership positions, such as youth pastor, Christian Ed Directors, and such. I thought I'd let you know about this new book.

Actually, it makes me feel really good to know that someone is finally addressing this issue. As they point out, some of us are in the secondary role temporarily and others plan to always serve in the second chair and, in either case, the role calls for special gifts, abilities and temperments!

Here is a summary of the four things a second chair leader needs to bring to the table:
1. Loyality to the organization and to the first chiar
2. Abilty to build relationships
3. Humility
4. Ability to see both the larger picture and yet be able to jump into the details of the organization.

Involved in this are several paradoxes:
1. Second chair leaders must be bold initiators AND faithful followers.
2. Second chair leaders must be able to know a little bit about everything and a lot about areas that need intevention and critical thinking.
3. Second chair leaders have dreams but they have to be able to make their dreams subservient to those of the first chair.

Of course, all of this looks pretty obvious to me. I hope the book delves more into how a second chair leader can do these well!