Concept Nine
Good personal leadership at all service levels is a necessity. In the field of world service the Board of Trustees assumes the primary leadership.
Please share your experience, strength, and hope as it relates to Concept 9. The opinions expressed here are strictly those of the person who gave them. Take what you liked and leave the rest. Member sharing on the Member Blog may be used in future Al‑Anon publications.
I am the oldest of 5 children born in a 7-year span. I was encouraged, and I took the challenge, to be responsible for my siblings to help my parents. I have one parent that does not like to discipline or confront the situation and the other parent, after working all day was put in the position to be the leader and was often rigid. My leadership skills developed as a child included control, manipulation, dominance, rigidity, and anger. I was encouraged to read the essay by Bill W. under Concept Nine in our Service Manual. I was a new… Read more »
My concept of leadership, before coming to Al-Anon and even for a while after, was warped. I thought and believed that being a leader meant being a “boss”, leading the troop!! I took it very seriously and never failed to consider myself the “boss” in other people’s lives and in every situation that presented itself. When getting in service, not too long after coming to the program, I started to understand the real meaning of leadership. I discovered that every Al-Anon member had the potential to be a leader, if we respect and consider them for who they are and… Read more »
It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. That works out great, because I don’t especially wish to type a thousand words… I am referring to the picture shown for the Ninth Concept in the pamphlet (P-57) about the Concepts. The picture shows birds flying in the classic “V” formation. This ideally represents Leadership in Recovery. As it happens, among the birds in nature, there is not one designated Leader-Bird, or an “alpha” that is always in the lead – instead the birds take turns and rotate throughout the formation. That is an inspiration to service leadership… Read more »
Leadersip for me, as I understood it before having a serious look at Concept Nine, was all about leading others in doing my way. With time, I learned I now know that I had to be a leader in my own life first. I can personally grow when I am responsible to and for myself, my feelings, my actions, etc. my life in general. I had to learn the healthy rudiments of leadership before I could consider being a leader in the fellowship through service or otherwise. Although I knew the basics, it is in service that I finally got… Read more »
Concept Nine Good personal leadership at all service levels is a necessity. In the field of world service the Board of Trustees assumes the primary leadership. “As individuals and as a fellowship, we shall surely suffer if we cast the job of planning for tomorrow onto a fatuous idea of Providence. God has endowed human beings with considerable capability for foresight and evidently expects us to use it. Therefore, we must distinguish between wishful fantasy and thoughtful estimate. This can spell the difference between future progress and unforeseen woe.” From, Al-Anon Alateen Service Manual 2018-2021, Version 2, Page 197, Copyright… Read more »
Concept Nine talks about good personal leadership. I can have personal leadership, but do I have good personal leadership? This is the question I had to ask myself when I got involved in service. In our literature, one member talks about the qualities one must have to be a good leader: responsibility, stability, tolerance, flexibility, judgment, and vision. My leadership, as I saw it then, had nothing in common with the qualities mentioned. I had to question my leadership as it was then and see what had to be done if I wanted to be up to par with what… Read more »