Leadership is like an Oreo cookie

Last Thanksgiving one of the family brought Oreo cookie balls for one of the deserts. I got hooked on them. Since then I have bugged my wife and daughter to make them for me. The recipe is quite easy. You put a box of Oreo cookies in a blender and blend them. Mix in some Philadelphia cream cheese. Roll the mixture into small balls and dip the balls into chocolate. We refrigerate  them so that they will not melt. I am sure by now you are wondering what this story has to do with leadership. But first a little about the study of Leadership.

I was introduced to "leadership" as something to be studied and developed in the 90's. A pastor that I worked for gave me a couple of books on leadership. I am not sure if he was telling me that he spotted leadership potential in me that needed developing or that I was such a poor leader that I needed  help. I would like to think the former. That was my introduction to "leadership" as a topic or discipline. Today, information about leadership has exploded. Hundred's of books and thousands of research articles have been written. More about leadership is known today than at any other time in history.

I got involved in the study of leadership because I did not want to assume that because I was in the position of a leader, I knew what makes a good leader. I felt that there was something about leadership that I was missing--if there wasn't I would be a better leader and my organization would be more effective. I wanted to learn what I had been missing. Maybe I shouldn't have opened that can of worms. The more I learn about leadership, I see how much more there is to learn. Leadership will be a personal pursuit of learning for the rest of my life.

How is leadership like an Oreo cookie? 

Leadership is not like an Oreo cookie, I just thought it was a cool title! However, what made me think of the title was how a simple thing like an Oreo cookie, which I had always taken for granted, could be transformed into one of my favorite snacks. This caused me to compare leadership and oreos in three ways:

1. Leadership and Oreos are simple things, but have great potential.

2. An innovative idea can have transformational effects.

3. Don't assume that we know everything about something. That kills innovation and leads to maintaining status quo.