Heavenly Father has presented me with a similar challenge over and over again. I have been a Primary President, Ward Activities Leader, Social VP for Seminary and Institute (don't even want to mention how long ago for these two), Enrichment Leader, etc. In my professional life I have been called upon often to manage sales teams. The challenge for me with all of these is this. I am a control freak. A nice control freak, probably one of the nicer control freaks you will meet.
I want everyone's opinion to be heard and noted and then I want to proceed with my original thought or direction. By nature, I am very creative and quick on my feet. When I am solely responsible for making the decisions I have enjoyed great success. When working in committee, I become frustrated.
Last night I lead a meeting that quickly became a runaway train. Myself and 3 brethren, trying to decide on our Stake Helping Hands project.
The three gentlemen (who by the way are better with suggestions that output) managed to take my original proposal and morph it with their own ideas until it looked nothing like the project I had defined.
In an effort to be nice (child of the "good girl" era) I compromised on a few pieces, by the end I walked out angry and smiling.
The kicker was when one member offered to write up the activity to "help me with the workload." I indicated that would be helpful and that he should send it to me. He indicated that he would like to cc: the other two cause they have great suggestions, especially Brother X (note Brother X has not been handling his own responsibilities).
I was recently in another meeting where the speaker talked about the Heavenly Father's leadership style:
Planning
Delegation
Execution
Reporting
I love this. I want to do the planning and delegation as my position would suggest. Instead I often end up with most the execution working on a plan I didn't create or endorse.
Argh!!
Suggestions are welcome