Day 643: A Simple Choice

"You both precede and follow me"

One of the earliest leadership lessons I was taught was to either "lead, follow or get out of the way". Seems simple on the surface but very hard to do. Much of the confusion in the workplace has to do with us not knowing which of the three we should be doing at the same time others are also figuring it out. Many a toe has been stepped on and ball dropped because we are confused on which role we should be playing. Lots of consultants have made a ton of money trying to teach people and organizations on the differences. However, we can all get better at this just by asking the question when we are unsure and then listening for the direction and following from there. We like to make that mistake too in once we hear what role we are supposed to take we fight it and rebel instead of falling into the lane we are supposed to be in and getting comfortable with it. Do you know what role you are supposed to take today on each project or task you have in front of you? It's not always the same and even if you are the boss, you are sometimes meant to follow or get out of the way.

King David describes the One, and the only One who leads and follows consistently each and every day in our lives. How wonderful it is to know that in all that we do that the Lord both precedes and follows us and even more glorious to know that He never gets out of the way even when we elbow Him out. Let's go into today allowing Him to lead and thanking Him for following so closely. In that time of thanks also ask Him what role He wants you to take today with others. Because He precedes us He will show us the way we are supposed to take.

On another note, it is a sad day in that a true servant and soldier of our Lord passed on to heaven last night. Since at 12 years old when I first read his book, "The Cross and the Switchblade", Reverend David Wilkerson, has been a voice in my life. I never had the honor of meeting him but felt like I knew him. In recent years his daily devotional has touched me and his words have found their way into this blog many times over. Please add his wife who was injured in the car accident, the rest of his family and his church into your prayers today.

Reference: Psalm 139:5 (New Living Testament)

day 570: Grateful Leadership

Leadership roles are great! Whether we end up team leaders, supervisors, vice presidents or CEOs, there is nothing like being in a leadership position and helping others achieve a common set of goals and objectives. I love leading and I feel most vocationally alive when I am doing so. But, that said, there is much that comes with leading. Remember, to whom much is given, much is required applies in all aspects of our lives, work included. So sometimes, leading can be such a burden and set of headaches and hassles that we forget what a privilege and gift it is to be able to be a leader. It is important that we not lose our perspective or control of our emotions so we not hurt ourselves or those who are counting on us for our undivided attention, commitment and caring. Yesterday we referenced Moses and the stress fractures he experiences in Numbers Chapter 11. In verses 11-12 Moses becomes an unhappy and ungrateful leader and loses a healthy perspective, "And Moses said to the Lord, 'Why are you treating me, your servant, so miserably? What did I do to deserve the burden of a people like this? Are they my children? Am I their father? Is that why you have told me to carry them in my arms - like a nurse carries a baby - to the land you swore to give their ancestors?" Moses doesn't look or sound like a grateful leader does he? The account we have in Numbers doesn't say if others could hear Moses talking to God or not but if they had, they might have wondered if they were following and being led by the right guy. There is much to being a leader but the bottom line is that whenever we are given the gift of leading, we must do it in a grateful and warmhearted way so that others will follow with all of their heart knowing that we want the best of them and ourselves. Let's approach this day with the grateful heart that God would want us to have and model this to those who are watching.

Reference: Numbers 11-11-12 (New Living Testament)

day 524: Leading By Example

Who do we look up to? Who is it in the company that we pattern ourselves after and would like to be like? Everyone has someone that if we think about it hard enough we will put in this category. Even if we are at the top of company, or a functional leader, there are still bigger companies and more distinguished peers that we can look up to and try and be like. There was a time that even the CEOs of the largest companies across America, when asked, would mention people like Jack Welch as their role model. We all look up. But, what we need to understand is that we may also be the role model of someone else. In fact, it's a pretty good chance that this is true and we probably don't even know that this is so. Just like we may have never told our role models that they are such, the same is true of someone else not talking to us. Wow, this leaves us with responsibilities and accountability that we don't even know about. But, it is does not absolve us of this responsibility. We can't be like certain professional sports athletes who think it is cool to make this counterclaim of not being a role model. It is what it is and we need to make the most of the opportunities provided to us. David talks about this in Psalm 71:7; "My life is an example to many, because you have been my strength and protection." Yes, we are the examples to many and today would be a great day to check in and ensure that we are leading by good examples. If others are watching and patterning themselves after us, then we need to do all we can to be an example to others that we should be. Moment after moment today, those opportunities will present themselves. Now, we just need to watch and lead by example.

Reference: Psalm 71:7 (New Living Testament)

day 393: Strike The Rock

As business leaders in the secular marketplace we are constantly challenged and brought to task by our teams and the people who work around us. I like to say that if you are going to be a leader, it just comes with the territory. I have been in more than one situation in my career where when faced with the fork in the road, or the difficult decision to be made, or the feeling of inadequacy, that at the same time my team and peers were looking at me with the eye of challenge to see if they were going to agree or disagree with what I was about to do. I have never personally faced a full scale mutiny but I have seen it happen to others and when it does it is not pretty. What is amazing about it is that it typically builds up over time and then it is something very small that triggers the team feeling emboldened enough to go to their bosses and boss and register their complaints. Seldom do leaders recover and survive this level of dissatisfaction unless the next level above them intervenes and gives them the authority and the tools/resources to change the course. At my church we are studying Moses and what he went through when leading the Israelites. In Exodus Chapter 17 we read of how the people were about to remove Moses from leadership because they didn't have water. They quickly turned against him and if not for God's intervention telling Moses to strike the rock with his staff to create a flow of water, then Moses may have been done as their leader. I find the similarities striking too. Moses went above himself to find his way out of his leadership challenge and God was there to answer. We should take this lesson and learn from it as well. When we are challenged as leaders or co-workers, our bosses can help, before things get out of control. But even greater is the power and the answers that can come from a level above if we are to go to God for His answers. For Moses God asked him to pick up a familiar tool in his rod. God will give is our own rod and staff to pick up and a rock to strike if we will just ask and then listen and follow through.

Reference: Exodus Chapter 17 (New Living Testament)

day 344: Leadership Steps

It is not uncommon to hear the advice and coaching that we need to step forward and become a leader. All of our development programs and leadership classes are geared towards us stepping into the leadership limelight and taking the mantle from someone else. But what if true leadership was more about stepping back versus stepping forward? How can that be, you might be asking? We have ringing in our ears the words that to be a great leader we must be proactive, take initiative, be better than those around us, set the pace and the example for how hard to work, etc. But that is different than what we can learn Biblically about what true leadership is about. In Matthew 20: 26, Jesus is trying to teach His disciples what it takes to be leaders for Him. Just after the mother of James and John had tried to secure heavenly seats of honor for her sons, Jesus provided some straight talk to His disciples when He told them that being a leader who “lords” over others, might be fine for a king, but for them, they would have to provide a different example and lead in a different way. He says; “But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant…” This is one of the great verses that teach us about servant leadership. To be a true leader in the eyes of God, we are to be servants to others and ensure that we don’t worry about being first, but learn to be fine with being least. Is God trying to teach you this lesson right now? Is it time to sit back and care for others for a season and worry about the leadership position later? There are no shortages of people who want to be led from a place of service, caring, respect and real support. Now would be a great time to begin practicing a form of leadership that seldom will be taught to you in a corporate classroom, but comes from the greatest instruction guide of all time.


Reference: Matthew 20:26 (New Living Testament)

day 297: Follow The Leader

Yesterday in the Children’s Church that I help teach at our church one of the other teachers was talking to the kids about how important it was that we follow Jesus. In the course of her teaching she asked the kids why it so hard to follow Him? One of the smarter and quicker to answer kids said, “Because we can’t see Him”. As I listened to that answer I also heard more than just a child’s response, I heard a business person’s lesson on how to be better at following Jesus in our work lives. At work it is always easier to follow someone who we work more closely with than it is someone who we have little interaction and/or only hear about what he/she thinks or says. I believe this is one of the reasons that all of the management and leadership studies show that our direct and immediate supervisor or manager is the person who we trust most at work. The layers of people above us and the hierarchy that comes with those layers, dissolve the trust, layer by layer. It’s just hard to trust someone you don’t know and it’s impossible to follow someone you don’t trust. If any of us are managers or leaders then we should be aware that we carry a great responsibility and burden as the person who others are counting on and trusting with their work, their jobs, their careers. And our leaders are counting on us to follow them as they do their best to lead. They look to us to fulfill their wishes and support the vision, mission and objectives of the company or their area. When we “fall in line” and follow, they are pleased. When we stray and go our own way, they are not happy with us. The same is true of how we follow Jesus. No, we cannot see Him. No, we cannot expect that we are going to receive a divine intervention or an audible “word” from God telling us what to do. As much as we would love it, we are not going to get the direct words of Jesus like in Mark 1:17, when He said,“Come follow me...” We don’t need those as we have been given so many ways within His word to know how to follow His leadership. At work we are expected to follow a leader, in our life we are expected to follow THE leader. If we can apply the same amount of concentration, effort and commitment to following Jesus day in and day out, as we do to follow a leader at work, we may find that the rewards we begin receiving from being a follower are multiplied many times over. Are you being a follower and living out daily the expectations and desires of God? Would those around you at work know that you follow a larger leader in your life? As we close off this year and we plan for next year, now would be a great time to start thinking about how to improve our following skills.

Reference: Mark 1:17 (New Living Testament)

day 133: Memo To Phil, part 1: Taking One For The Team

Unless you don't work or you work for yourself with no investors, shareholders, or Board of Directors, then you have a boss. Most everyone has a boss. Over the span of our careers most people, at some point or another, also get put in a spot of responsibility where they are responsible for a project, a team, a department, or a person. They then move to being a boss. Being a boss is not easy and we all appreciate it greatly when we get a good one and we are miserable when we have a bad one. So, it is important to try and be good at leading projects and people and also understanding our bosses and helping them be good at what they do. The Bible is full of great examples of leadership and one of the best texts that I follow is the book of Philemon. In this short letter from Paul to Philemon, Paul corresponds to Philemon from afar and if he was writing a business memo or email to Philemon the heading or subject line might have been "Taking one for the team". Paul was asking Philemon to accept a man named Onesimus into Philemon's ministry/organization when it appears that Philemon might have some issues with doing so. Have you ever been in a situation where your boss is trying to get you to work with someone that you really don't want on the team? It might be that it is going to take too much time to train that person, or that they come from a different part of the organization and do things differently, or that you think you can get the job done better and faster if you just do it alone, or that you don't like other people giving you their opinion on how things should get done, or you feel threatened because you think the boss doesn't trust you alone, or maybe you just don't like the other person. This happens all the time. The boss asks you take one for the team, for the good of another person, or for a reason that you don't understand fully or don't understand at all. This is what Paul asks Philemon to do and because Philemon trusts Paul, he does it. But, beyond the trust, it is "how" Paul asks and the words that he uses to Philemon that makes the message powerful and acceptable. Today, you may be asked by your boss, to "take one for the team". She/he may not be as articulate or as caring as how Paul asks Philemon, but the request is there all the same. How will you respond? Will you fight, argue, or acquiesce reluctantly, or will you understand that setting aside your own agenda for the good of the whole and at the request of your boss is a good thing? God gives us these examples and stories in His word to learn and follow. Stay with me for a few days as we go through Paul's memo to Philemon to learn some great leadership lessons. In the meantime, if asked to take one for the team and don't want to and need some help then you can follow in the example of Philemon.

Reference: The Book of Philemon (New Living Testament)

day 21: Leading Is Hard Work

Are you a leader at work or wanting to become a leader? In the work world we are in today everyone has a chance to be a leader of something at some point or another. If not a defined leadership role within the company, there are always task forces, improvement projects, group exercises, committees, representation opportunities, etc., to lead. I have been in the middle of the argument about whether leaders or born or made so many times that when it comes up now, I just stand to the side. It’s not an argument worth leading. :)

However, there are some truths about leading that one should know before they decide to take on a leadership mantle and one of them is that leadership is hard work and it takes the willingness to work hard at it if you want to be any good and succeed. Proverbs 12:14 calls it like it is; “Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave”. Now, I don’t think that we need to take it literally that if we don’t work hard we will be enslaved, but what the verse is saying is that if we work hard we can become a leader and to be a leader we have to work hard. And, we have to work harder to become a leader than how hard we will work when we are not in a leadership position. Why I think this is an important lesson is that there are lots of people who feel like leadership is a right instead of an earned privilege and as such they are not willing to do the work that needs to be done and is expected from those who are being led. Have you ever served on a committee where the leader didn’t work hard enough at it, so much so that is was painfully obvious? What happens? More often than not someone else has to pick up the slack and fill the leadership void. When that happens no one feels good about it and ultimately everyone suffers. Today may be a day that you are offered the opportunity to lead. If you choose to do so, know that you will be asked to work hard at it and give it your all. That is what we are supposed to do. And if we do it, then we again set an example of how it is to go above and beyond for others and to go the “extra mile”. Leadership is a privilege that is so many times worth accepting and stepping up to the challenge. My hope for you today is that if you choose to accept the privilege that you go into it with both eyes and arms open and you give it all that you have! There are others who are counting on you to do so.


Reference: Proverbs 12:24 (New Living Testament)