Photo from Flickr by earlycj5
I turned right onto the street and as soon as I did, I nearly slammed on my breaks. The kid wasn't in the middle of the street, but he was definitely too close to traffic.
He'd taken a tumble on his tricycle and was stuck in an awkward position on the pavement. He was maybe all of three years old, legs tangled around pedals and handlebars, trying to find a way to get out of this mess.
And that's when his brother stepped up.
Riding up the sidewalk on a bike, his six-year-old brother stooped low and moved legs and feet over and around plastic and metal so that his younger sibling could rise again. Ushering him over to the sidewalk, the older brother then set the trike aright and the two of them pedaled back home safely.
This, then, is what leadership often looks like: it's the coming to the rescue, the bending low, the helping, the correcting, the righting of a ship regardless of fault, and the setting off on somewhere new.
We have all been picked up by leaders who could have been too concerned with their own being busy. But they weren't. In fact, they led well because of a willingness to stop what they were doing and help.
May we pass that on to those in our care.