No Body Was Watching

Once there was a young man named David who spent much of his life in places nobody important was watching.

He was a shepherd.

He spent long days in fields caring for sheep.

• No title.

• No audience.

• No stage.

• No one was handing him a leadership award.

But David was learning. He learned how to protect what had been entrusted to him. He learned how to face danger. He learned how to make decisions on his own. He learned how to trust God.

And then one day, Samuel came to David's family looking for the next king of Israel. David wasn't even invited into the room at first. He was still out tending the sheep. When David walked in, God told Samuel: This is the one.

• The youngest son.

• The shepherd.

• The one nobody thought needed to be in the room.

  
  

He was the one God had chosen.

But David didn't become a leader that day. He had already been becoming one.

The public recognition came later. The formation came first.

That's an important distinction. Because leadership is often developed in places where nobody is watching. How you treat people when you don't need anything from them. How you handle responsibility when no one will know whether you did it well.

What you do when there is no applause.

The lesson?

Your title may tell people that you're a leader.

But what you do when nobody is watching tells you what kind of leader you're becoming.

What leadership behaviors have you seen developed long before the person ever received the title?