A couple of weeks ago on a hike in the bushes around Cape Town, I found a beautiful cone. It was tightly closed and still very green. After a week the cone started to become dry and opened up and the seeds appeared. They were ready to fly off and find a place to grow and make roots. But the problem was... my cone was stuck in the house. Even if the seeds are full of life, they will never grow into their potential as there is no good soil to make the future tree viable. The same is true with people and the potential of leadership. If we don't allow the emerging leaders to fly out and touch the ground to get experience, they will not grow into their potential. Leaders become leaders while they exercise their leadership gifts. It is useless to keep them indoors in our safe space and to give them even more training or time to prove themselves until they are ready. They are never fully ready until we allow them to fly into the soil to make roots.
