"And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?" [Douay-Rheims]
"And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!" [KJV]
"I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors." [ESV]
"Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers, incline my ear to my instructors!" [NABRE]
Independent of which Bible translation you trust, the meaning is clear: trusting your teachers, masters, instructors et cetera is a good move. In the context of the full passage, the author regrets not listening to said people in authority about matters of adultery*. This implies that listening to leadership figures is usually a good move. But what does this mean for said leadership figures?
It is my opinion that all of you will end up in some leadership position at some point. Think about all the people who inspired you or whom you followed in your life thus far. Either they are formally in charge, or they have been in the job for a longer, or they generally give the impression that they know what they are doing. The odds that you will be one of these things will apply to you before too long. Even more so, if you become a parent, the children will look up to you for a long time. This applies to both men and women, as @ElaineAsh and other lovely ladies on SG confirmed for me.
Next, think about the times a leader or role model turned out to not be good at that job. That sucked, did it not? If basically everyone is going to end up in a leadership position, and bad leadership royally sucks, being a good leader is essential to follow the Greatest Commandment of loving thy neighbor as thyself.
As it happens, I personally end up in a lot of leadership positions, especially considering my age. And I could not tell you why this is. It could be for SSH reasons, or I just hang out with indecisive people, or something else. I truly have no idea why. Either way, thanks be to God, because I have screwed up a fair few leadership tasks. It is my hope and my prayer that my numerous leadership failures, explored below, can make you a better leader when the time comes.
One of the major times when I fail as a leader is in areas where I do not have my act together. The problem is that one leads not only explicitly by direction, but also implicitly by example. If I kind of skip the very necessary stretching before and after a workout, so do the people who look up to me. And then they injure themselves. Is it directly my fault? No. Could I have prevented it by being a better example? Yes. So have your act together.
Another huge thing is sleep deprivation, or anything else that messes with my discipline and self-mastery. The examples are obvious and plentiful. Leading by example goes wrong, because I mess up stuff that I would otherwise be really good at. Leading by direction goes wrong because I make really dumb decisions. I could write about the time I got caught going down the wrong way down a one-way with eight people in a seven-seater, but you get the idea. The solution is simple: get your sleep, your meals, and everything else you need in order, all the time.
Finally, major messes happen when I do not notice that people are looking up to me or looking at me for leadership. Sometimes I am just shooting the excrement because why not and who even cares. Well, people might care. And you might not notice that they are. The only solution is to be on my A-game most of the time.
All of the above sounds like an invitation to be self conscious and nervous about failure. Allow me to offer some consolation. If you mess up, you can clean up after yourself by admitting the failure and seriously resolving to do better, both to God the Father of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and to the people you were leading at the time. It is actually good for people to see their leaders mess up, provided said leaders admit it and fix it.
In conclusion, you will lead some people at some point, whether you like it or not. Heck, you will lead people whether you notice it at the time or not. And it is very easy to lead well. All it takes is to have your house in order and to clean up after failures.
* TLDR for adultery: Cut it out. All of it. You will never regret not doing adultery things.
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