It’s been another full day. I got the formal confirmation at work from the VP over me of both a raise and a promotion, the latter meaning I’ll have to manage people again, something I’ve—well, avoided would be too strong a term, but which I’ve pointedly failed to advocate for during the last several years, let us say. Today, purely coincidentally, I also listened to an episode of the podcast The Holy Post from 2019, in which Skye Jethani did an interview with Dr. Eugene Habecker on the subject of leadership.

So naturally, I’ve been thinking about leadership off and on the rest of the day. There’s been too much said on the topic, both good and bad (Habecker was pretty good, I thought), for me to have much to add. But one thing I think doesn’t get talked about enough is that to be a good leader—in addition to requiring humility, transparency, honesty, dedication, and so forth—just isn’t very much fun. It’s a lot of work! Worth it, often, but still not easy or—again, often—enjoyable.