What I’ve Learned from Christian Leading

by Admin · February 16, 2016

Leading from the back allows people to grow. Letting people face challenges helps them grow. By Siphesihle Manci

The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu taught us more than 2500 years ago: A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

This had application when I served as a coordinator at St Francis Xavier Orientation Seminary in Cape Town.

The job description I was given by the seminary explained that the coordinator keeps discipline, animates and encourages the brothers on his corridor. He cares for them when they are sick, helping Fr Hugh as an infirmarian.

At St Francis Xavier the seminarians are divided into two equal groups. Those groups are called formation groups. Each formation group has a group coordinator.

This is for the seminarians benefit because it is easier to form people in a smaller group than in one large group.

I interpreted being a coordinator as journeying with seminarians, step by step, in good and bad times and also being a mediator between seminarians and the formators.

Being a coordinator didn’t make me more than other seminarians, but it made me less because if you want to serve other people well, you must make yourself less than them.

This opening quote from Lao Tzu is what inspired me as a group coordinator. I took it as my motto. It made me take a decision to try and lead not from the front but rather from the back.

If you are leading from the back, it is easier to see when people in front of you are going astray or when things ahead are getting tough. Then you help where you possibly can before returning to the back and let people continue going forward.

If you are leading from behind, people do not really see you but they see things going well. They also see problems coming, they try facing those problems. This is when the leader comes to assist, but all of a sudden they realise that those problems have been solved and then they say: We did it ourselves. In that way the leader’s work is done: the problem is solved, his aim is fulfilled and the people he is leading will say, as Lao Tzu wants them to, we did it ourselves.

Leading from the back allows people to grow. Letting people face challenges helps them grow. I believe this is one of the best leadership styles that one can use, especially in a seminary.

The seminary forms us as future priests. As priests we will encounter challenges, but what we have learnt in the seminary will then come into play and help us face these problems.

To me, being a coordinator is another dimension of formation. If used well, that position helps the coordinator to grow and be formed to be a leader in future and priests are expected to be good leaders to truly be able to shepherd the people of God.

Siphesihle Manci is a seminarian from the archdiocese of Durban.