What Snorkeling Taught me about Selecting Leaders
I just spent ten days with my family on vacation in the Bahamas in a condo literally steps from the beach. The snorkeling was dazzling, even better than snorkeling in Hawaii two years ago. I saw over two dozen varieties of fish, excluding the nurse sharks, dolphins, and a giant starfish I found.
My experience with three specific fish reminded me that we leaders must keep certain principle in mind when we select other leaders to serve in our ministries or serve on staff.
One day we took a powerboat trip to a private island in the Exumas, a collection of islands in the Bahamas. The experience included feeding grapes to threatened iguanas and fish slivers to giant stingrays. The highlight was when the tour guides fed grouper carcasses to lemon sharks and reef sharks, as we stood a mere ten feet away.
Schools of triangular-shaped silver fish about the size of saucers swam a few feet from the shore. They kept their distance, though. After our broiled grouper lunch, I decided to try an experiment. I put on my goggles, took two hotdog buns, and waded out into the water. I pinched off small bits of the bun and dropped them a foot in front of me while I was under water. A feeding frenzy ensued reminiscent of a piranas’ attack.
As long as I gave them hotdog buns, they stuck around. But once I ran out, they scattered. Here’s the principle I learned from these fish.
1. Shy away from prospective leaders who just want a piece of you. These people are mostly takers.
I often snorkeled in a reef about two hundred yards east of the beach in front of our condo. One day as I swam there, the reef shelf suddenly dropped from four to over ten feet. It carved the reef into a horseshoe-shaped mini-lagoon. I looked to my left and saw the most beautiful fish I had ever seen, a lion fish about a foot long. Unlike most fish, when I dove down toward it, it wasn’t frightened. For ten minutes I snorkeled about two feet from this magnificent fish. I felt like the fish whisperer and that I and the fish were one. 
When I got back to the condo, I told my daughter what I had seen and she exclaimed, “Dad, I think that fish was a lion fish. It’s poisonous!” I responded, “No it’s not.” I then googled ‘lion fish’ and the picture in Wikapedia (shown here) included this caption: “The lion fish’s attack posture.’” As I read further, I learned that if you touched one of its spines you’d experience severe headaches, vomiting, and difficulty breathing and would require immediate emergency medical attention.
I had been so enthralled with the fish’s beauty that I almost put myself in a dangerous situation because I didn’t know enough about the species. Here’s the second principle I learned from the lion fish.
2. Carefully vet those who dazzle you with the first impression they make on you. First impressions can deceive.
Call me stupid, but the next day I went to the same reef hoping to see the lion fish again. This time I wanted a picture, from a safe distance though. It wasn’t there, but as I floated I noticed a piece of seaweed about the size of those large pencils carpenters use to mark wood. For some reason I kept looking at it and as my eyes focused on this floating ‘seaweed’ I realized it was a fish. From my elementary school days I remember seeing a picture of this species called a ‘trumpet fish,’ a relative of the seahorse.
I almost missed seeing this unique fish because it blended so well into the reef’s background. Here’s the third leadership selection principle.
3. Your best leader may be right in front of you. Often they won’t stand out in a crowd (much like how David didn’t ‘look’ like a king when God told Samuel to pick him).
So, the next time you face a leadership selection decision, consider these three principles.
What principles have helped you make good leader selections?
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