# Concept IX: what makes a good leader in A.A. service?

**In short:**
- Concept IX says: "Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety" (p. 575), and that the world service leadership once given by the founders must now be taken on by the trustees.
- Bill W.'s answer to the question, mostly from a 1959 Grapevine article he includes in the 1962 essay: a leader is neither a faceless order-taker nor a boss. Good leadership makes plans but consults widely, gives credit, never passes the buck, gives reasons, compromises when it can and stands firm when it must, takes criticism, and thinks ahead.
- The earlier texts already said the core of it. Long Form Nine (1946): "Rotating leadership is the best" (p. 565). Bill in 1947: a leader "can always guide by example or persuasion" but "can never boss" (P-17, Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?, 1947).
- Bill also says the leadership question can never be solved for good: good leaders "can be here today and gone tomorrow."

## The earlier texts first (1946–47)

Long Form Nine (1946) asks for the least possible organization in each group, and says: "Rotating leadership is the best" (p. 565). All representatives "are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole" (p. 565). "Universal respect is the key to their usefulness" (p. 565).

Bill's 1947 essay: some groups elect leaders, but "even with such a mandate each leader soon discovers that while he can always guide by example or persuasion he can never boss" (P-17, Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?, 1947), or he'll be passed over at the next election.

## What Bill's Concept IX essay says (1962)

**Structure isn't enough.** "Good leadership cannot function well in a poorly designed structure" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX), but weak leadership can hardly function even in the best one. Once a sound structure exists, that job is mostly done; leadership has to be found again and again.

**The base is the GSR.** The structure rests on thousands of general service representatives, hundreds of area committee members and nearly a hundred delegates: "These are the direct agents of the A.A. groups" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX). Groups should choose GSRs with care; assemblies choosing delegates should set aside ambition and feuds and ask who is best qualified.

**Choosing by lot.** Some members doubted the Third Legacy method (two-thirds or the hat). Bill says each time it was abandoned, the losing side felt defeated, and "Indeed the second-best man can often be as good a Delegate as the Assembly’s first choice; he may even be a better Delegate" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX).

**The main theme: the trustees replacing the founders.** Bill says he is still advising and finishing leftover chores from 1955, these Concepts among them, but will soon have to withdraw from nearly all world service work. The board ran from 1938 to 1951 without a Conference; that change was resisted but proved right. Now he believes the board's leadership strength must be "considerably increased." "Students of history recognize that the transference of the original leadership of a society to its successors in leadership is always a critical turning point" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX).

**The 1959 article, "Leadership in A.A.: Ever a Vital Need."** Bill offers it for future servants. Its points:
- A.A. sometimes twists "principles before personalities" so far that leaders become faceless automatons; at other times it demands they be practically infallible. Real leaders are in between.
- "In effect, we are saying to them," Bill writes, "Act for us, but don’t boss us" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX).
- If a leader power-drives, members rebel; if he only takes orders, "he really isn’t a leader at all."
- Good leadership originates plans, but consults widely on new and important matters, and "will often discard its own cherished plans for others that are better, and it will give credit to the source" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX).
- "Good leadership never passes the buck" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX).
- A statesman, unlike a "politico," knows that even large majorities can sometimes be dead wrong, and will stand against them when something vital is at stake. But opposition for its own sake is fatal: "When called upon, leadership must always give its reasons, and good ones" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX).
- Give and take: progress comes through "a series of improving compromises," yet sometimes one must "stick flat-footed" to a conviction.
- Criticism: listen carefully to constructive critics, and even to destructive ones, because they may be telling the whole truth or a little of it.
- Vision: the ability to make good estimates of the future. Bill says "One day at a time" refers to our emotional lives, not to refusing to plan. "As a matter of fact, all of A.A.’s Twelve Traditions were at first questions of estimate and vision for the future" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX), and he gives self-support and anonymity as examples.
- Talents differ; choosing the best talent isn't creating a privileged class.

**Twelfth Step work.** Bill ends by applying this to the work nearly every member does: "Every sponsor is necessarily a leader" (Twelve Concepts for World Service, Concept IX). The sponsor in his example is working with "his prospects," a person's life and family in the balance, and must estimate reactions, time his approach and lead "by personal spiritual example." This is the same situation as Chapter 7 of the Big Book, going to a man who is still drinking, though the Big Book's first 164 pages don't use the word sponsor (it appears only in the personal stories).

## What the text doesn't settle

Concept IX says the board's leadership needs strengthening and that the change of leadership "must now be faced." The essay as printed in our copy then offers the 1959 article on personal qualities; it doesn't set out a specific plan for the board's composition.

## What later sources add

P-8 (© 2017) reprints most of the leadership points and adds that GSRs, together in their areas, elect the area's candidates for trustee. P-8 describes the GSR as the indispensable link between the group and A.A. as a whole; Bill calls GSRs, committee members and delegates together the indispensable linkage between the Fellowship and its world service.

## Read it yourself
- Long Form Nine (Appendix I, p. 565), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf
- Concept IX, short form (Appendix VII, p. 575): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicevii_.pdf
- P-17, with Bill's 1947 essay on government: https://www.aa.org/aa-tradition-how-it-developed
- P-8, *The Twelve Concepts for World Service Illustrated*: https://www.aa.org/twelve-concepts-illustrated
- The full essay is in *The A.A. Service Manual combined with Twelve Concepts for World Service*: https://www.aa.org/aa-service-manual (sold at https://onlineliterature.aa.org)
- Related: *What is a GSR, a district and an area?* · *What does Step 12 really say?* · *Concept XI*

## Sources
| Source | Where | Written / first published |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Appendix I, Long Form Nine | p. 565 | 1946 |
| P-17, Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government? (Bill W.) | — | Grapevine, 1947 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Appendix VII, Concept IX (short form) | p. 575 | Concepts 1962; short form 1971 |
| *Twelve Concepts for World Service* (Bill W.), Concept IX, including "Leadership in A.A.: Ever a Vital Need" | in *The A.A. Service Manual*, 2024–2026 edition | essay 1962; article Grapevine 1959 |
| P-8, *The Twelve Concepts for World Service Illustrated* | — | first printed 1986; © 2017 |

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, the Service Manual and Twelve Concepts for World Service, and P-8 are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles and the 1959 Grapevine article are © AA Grapevine, Inc.*