Lessons for leadership drawn specifically from Scripture

Podcast Episode 20 – Without Compromise (part 3)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article, part three in the series titled, “Without Compromise.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:

Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the ongoing question we are talking about in this series.  Today’s discussion is the third in the series, all of them based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and corresponding to the articles posted each week on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we will be discussing is how you can navigate pressure – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way – without deviating from your values.  It’s really going to be a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins with recognizing how God has gifted you.

In between my freshman and sophomore years of college, I got a job as a door-to-door salesman.  Here’s what happened.  I was paying my own way through college, which meant that during the school year, I had been working about 30 hours a week in a restaurant as a busboy and kitchen helper.  It just about paid my bills, but as a minimum wage job, it did little more than that. Well, sometime in the spring of my freshman year, a company came on campus to recruit for summer work.  Someone talked me into attending the recruiting presentation, and by the end of it, I was convinced I could make a whole lot more with this company than I could working in the restaurant that summer.  So I signed up.  The job I signed up for was selling books door to door for 13 weeks.  More specifically, selling a 2-volume encyclopedia of knowledge and a New King James Version Study Bible.

So, as soon as my exams ended, I loaded my car and drove to Nashville, Tennessee, for a week of training and inspiration. At the end of that week, I was sent to my territory, which was Sumter, South Carolina.  As soon as I arrived, I found a place to live and mapped out my area, the tobacco farmland outside of the side.  I proceeded to get up every morning and start driving from house to house, knocking on doors, and asking people if I could show them these books.  There is an important piece of information in this that you need to know:  I was very much an introverted people-pleaser afraid of rejection.  You can imagine that it didn’t take long before I figured out I was not cut out to be a salesman and began regretting my job choice for the summer.  In fact, as the weeks went on, it got harder and harder for me, and by about the 10th week – I’m being very transparent here – I was calling my dad every single day, in tears, asking him to help me find the courage and discipline to go out and face another day of this.

In the end, I actually did make enough to pay for my next semester of college, but the point of this story is that I learned a very valuable lesson about what I was NOT good at doing.  I had certain skills and abilities that enabled me to do well at some things, but cold sales and knocking on strangers’ doors were most definitely not within my abilities.  I refused to quit – that’s just part of who I am – but I finished that summer with the realization that no amount of money was worth a job that hated and didn’t have the ability to do well.

That’s one of the things we learn from Daniel in Daniel chapter 1.  God has gifted us each with skills and abilities, and we function best when we operate within those abilities.  Now, I think those abilities fall into three different groupings:  natural abilities, those that we have been born with (the ones that are part of how God designed and created us from the beginning); unnatural abilities, which I define as those abilities that are not natural to you but that God has specifically given you for a time and a purpose; and spiritual gifts, which were given to us as part of our spiritual nature when we became a part of the family of God through salvation.  These three groups are designed by God to work together so that we can perform with excellence when we commit and submit our work to the Lord.  That’s what Daniel showed us.

Here’s what you need to take away:  Liam Neeson once said in a movie, “What I do have are a very particular set of skills.” And so do you.  God has gifted you with spiritual gifts, natural abilities, and unnatural abilities, and He has given you those for a reason.  Your responsibility is to accept, hone, and use those gifts to carry out the call He has given you. 

The bottom line is that God has given you gifts and abilities, and He has done so for a reason.  Daniel used his with such excellence in his obedience to God that he excelled above everyone around him.  I would challenge you to do the same.

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Without Compromise, pt. 3: Use Your Abilities

When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon).  When that was done, I started a study of Daniel, and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students.  As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”). 

The story’s underlying basis is this:  In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured.  In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3).  Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20).  But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.  

How did they do it?  One way was by their unique giftedness for God’s purpose.

Daniel 1, verses 3, 4, and 17 together highlight the specific set of gifts and abilities that characterized Daniel and his friends.  Some of those were the required skills and abilities for acceptance into the program of study that they entered (verses 3-4), and some were very specific to these young men (verse 4).  When I look at that list of abilities, I see three categories:  natural abilities (those abilities that were part of how they were uniquely designed and created by God), God-given abilities (those abilities that God specifically endowed to them for a particular purpose), and spiritual gifts (those abilities that they received as part of their spiritual nature).  It is important to note that these attributes are not specific directives of the gifts you have to have in order to succeed or be used by God, but rather their abilities were unique to them and specific to the needs of the circumstances.  Therefore, they serve as a picture of how God will also give you the required abilities for the task to which He calls you.

What we need to take away from this is that God has gifted you and me with talents and abilities that are unique to each of us, and He wants to (and can) use them for His purpose.  He has given us natural abilities, God-given abilities, spiritual gifts, each with intention.  What matters is not that you or I have the best ability, but rather that you and I are true to the abilities God has given each of us and that we use them for the task or purpose to which He has called us to carry out.  In the process, there is value in being excellent, and for that reason, we need to learn to use our abilities in the best way possible so that they represent Christ and establish credibility. 

The lesson we learn from Daniel in this is the Lesson of Ability:  God has gifted you with talents and abilities that are unique to you, and He wants to use them for His purpose.  How will you develop them, and what will you do with them?

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Podcast Episode 19 – Dealing with Your Circumstances (part 2)

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article of the same name, “Dealing with Your Circumstances.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:

Have you struggled with compromise or conformity? That’s the ongoing question we are talking about in this series.  Today’s discussion is the second in the series, all based on a study of Daniel chapter 1 and corresponding to the articles posted on the Leadership Ezra website.  The big idea we will be discussing is how you can navigate pressure – specifically, the pressure to compromise or conform in an unhealthy or immoral way – without deviating from your values.  It’s really going to be a discussion of how to lead and live with excellence without compromising your faith.  And today, that begins with an understanding of how to deal with your circumstances.

When my wife had been married for a little over 20 years, we experienced a crisis point in her health.  At that time, we had a child in college and a child in high school, and her health had been in a state of decline for about 10 or 15 years, but without any clear conclusions or answers about why.  She had seen numerous specialists, and at different times had received different diagnoses with different treatment plans, and yet her health continued to deteriorate.  But then she began to see a new doctor, a general practitioner, who had an investigative nature.  As she started to get a better understanding of Nora’s health and issues, she also started digging for information.  Eventually, she sat down with us and informed us that she believed that Nora had an undiagnosed cancer that might be at the root of many of her health issues.  This doctor started the process of testing and searching, and the end result was the discovery that Nora had neuroendocrine cancer, with a large tumor in one of her lungs, and emergency surgery was scheduled to remove the tumor and most of the lung.  We later learned that this type of cancer wreaks havoc on your endocrine system, and therefore is often misdiagnosed as a variety of other things.  I am grateful for a doctor who refused to accept the status quo and was determined to discover why things were happening as they were.  But let me back up to the moment in time in that process when Nora began to cough up blood, and her doctor scheduled an immediate scan of her lungs.  I can still picture us sitting in the radiology waiting room of the hospital, by ourselves after everyone had gone home, and the doctor calling us immediately to say that Nora had cancer and we needed to do surgery.  At that moment, we had a decision to make on how we were going to respond.

The point of this story is that we often have no control over the circumstances that surround us in our lives.  Those circumstances may have a physical cause (like Nora’s cancer), or they may be caused by our own choices, by someone else’s choices, simply by our environment, or by God for a purpose.  Regardless of the cause, no one controls our response other than ourselves.  We decide how we are going to react and what we are going to do.  In that moment with Nora, as a husband and wife committed to honoring God in our marriage, we made the conscious decision to trust and thank God regardless of whether we understood what was happening and why.  We chose not to let that bombshell blow up our lives but instead to live in faithful confidence that God loved us unconditionally and would use these circumstances for good.

That’s the lesson that Daniel modeled in Daniel Chapter 1.  He had not personally been unfaithful and disobedient to God, even though much of his nation had been.  Therefore, when his nation and the capital city of Jerusalem received judgment from God, Daniel was included as a recipient of that judgment even though he was not guilty.  He was taken from his home and family and carried away in captivity, and he had no say or control in those circumstances.  However, when you read his story, you see that he chose to respond with trust in and obedience to God.  He determined his own response and let God manage everything else. The same is true for you.  Regardless of the circumstances, whether good or bad, you are responsible for how you respond to those circumstances and how you respond to God.  God is responsible for doing what is best with those circumstances, circumstances for which He has a purpose to accomplish.

Here’s what you need to take away:  You have very little control over many of the circumstances that occur in your life.  You do, however, have control over how you will respond when those circumstances occur.  Nothing that happens takes God by surprise, and Romans 8:28 assures us that God will bring good even out of the worst things (note:  that doesn’t necessarily make those things less painful when they happen).  If you believe that God is who He says He is, and that the Bible is true, then you get to decide to respond in complete trust in God’s work in your life. 

The bottom line is that your response to your circumstances falls squarely on your own lap.  When circumstances seem outside of your control, lean into God, trust Him, and let that trust settle your fear, anger, or anxiety.  When difficult circumstances seem like they are going to overwhelm you, as my dad would say, “You can be better or bitter, but better is better than bitter.”

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Without Compromise, pt. 2: Dealing with Your Circumstances

When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon).  When that was done, I started a study of Daniel, and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students.  As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles, that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”).  

The underlying basis of the story is this:  In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured.  In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit, against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3).  Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20).  But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.  

How did they do it?  One way was by seeing their circumstances in the right light.

Daniel was living in a time and in a place in which his nation was rejecting God and disobeying His commands.  God had promised judgment on Israel when they did that, so . . . that’s what happened. God allowed another nation to conquer Judah and take the Jews captive.  Even though Daniel (as we see later) was living righteously, he was not immune to the fallout from the events in his world (as the Bible says, “The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike.”).  One of those effects was the “kidnapping” of talented teenagers, who were to be trained (“brainwashed”?) into a new identity, and this included Daniel.  Little did he know at the time that God was actually orchestrating something.

So then, how do we see Daniel respond when his world was turned upside down? He could have blamed or rejected God, given up on his faith, followed the crowd so as not to be singled out or persecuted, and/or chosen to follow a path of disobedience and sin. Instead, he trusted God even when it didn’t seem fair, remained faithful to the truth, refused to compromise even if it set him apart, and continued to be obedient in the face of great pressure.

What can we take away from the example of his response? There are both good and bad circumstances that occur in your life, and they may or may not be your own fault.  They could be a result of your own sin (bad choices) or righteousness (good choices), a result of someone else’s sin or righteousness, or a result of original sin or God’s favor or His plan. Regardless, in every case, God is working out His purpose for good, and I am accountable for my actions and my response, not for God’s role in the process. For God’s part, He is still in control, has a purpose, and uses people and circumstances – both good and bad – to carry out His purpose (and shape you). I, on the other hand, am responsible to do my part (Prov. 16:9) and to remember that my circumstances – both good and bad – are often outside of my control, but never outside of God’s.  Therefore, I need to answer for how I respond.

The lesson we learn from Daniel in this is the Lesson of Circumstances:  God has an intentional purpose for your life within your circumstances, and you get to choose your response, your trust, and your obedience.

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Without Compromise, pt. 1: The Most Important Thing

When I started a personal Bible study on the book of Ezra several years ago, I wasn’t expecting that I would turn my own study notes into a book about leadership, but that’s what happened (Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon).  When that was done, I started a study of Daniel and never made it past the first chapter before organizing my personal notes into a series of valuable lessons to share with students.  As time has gone on, God seems to be prompting me to do more with it, so I have begun the process of turning my notes into short articles that will then become the basis for chapters in a book (current working title: “Without Compromise: Leading with integrity in the face of pressure”).  

The story’s underlying basis is this:  In the time and world of Daniel, Israel and the capital city of Jerusalem were invaded and captured.  In that process, the most gifted and talented young men were given a “scholarship” [albeit against their will] to attend the most elite private school in the known world, one designed to prepare leaders & experts (Daniel 1:3).  Upon graduation, Daniel and his friends were at the top of the class and were hired into executive leadership positions right out of school (Daniel 1:17-20).  But here’s an incredibly significant observation: In between . . . they refused to compromise their faith, values, and integrity.  

How did they do it? 

The answers are revealed in the first chapter of the book, but the first (and most important) is reflected in what can be inferred from verse 8, which says, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” You see, in this newly placed environment, Daniel (and his three friends) were given the best food on the menu.  It was not for the purpose of ‘seducing” them to the side of evil, or for perverting who they were.  However, they knew what they believed (based on Jewish Law and the Scriptures), so they knew that eating that food wouldn’t be consistent with what they believed.  But they also knew they were far away from home under a lot of pressure. So, Daniel had to make a decision based on his personal worldview and principles, and his resulting response was to stand firm.

His response in verse 8 reveals three things:

  1. He knew what he believed.  He had a standard of morality, a set of values that was the basis of his belief, and he owned that standard as his own. 
  2. He knew why it mattered.  Therefore, he had turned that set of values into guiding principles reflected with integrity in his character and identity.
  3. He knew how he should respond. His standard of morality was translated into his decisions and his actions.

The takeaway for us is this:  It begins with your worldview, your core beliefs.  That’s your foundation.  Then, your beliefs are translated into principles, the guidelines you establish for yourself that show what matters to you.  That’s your framework.  Finally, your principles dictate the decisions you make and the actions you take (That’s your finish).  Ultimately, what you believe and how you behave are tied to each other.   Therefore, you need to know what you believe and why it matters so that it forms the framework of how you will live; just as importantly, your actions and decisions must match your beliefs. When you have done that, you are prepared to face any pressures to conform . . . without compromise.

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Podcast Episode 16 – What Is the Truth About Christmas?

This week’s episode builds on Monday’s article of the same name, “The Truth About Christmas.” Here is the transcript of the podcast:

Have you wondered what Christmas is really about? On today’s episode, that’s the question we are going to explore. In this holiday season of activity and celebration, it’s easy for the real meaning behind Christmas to become lost or buried beneath it all. That makes it important to intentionally step back every Christmas and remind ourselves of what Christmas is all about.

I have so many wonderful childhood memories and traditions surrounding Christmas. Some of them are specific individual memories like the year my parents got us a family gift of an air hockey table. We had so much fun playing with that game as a family. Others are traditions that we repeated every year, like opening one present on Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas morning, opening stockings, followed by eating a big breakfast that my dad cooked, and then opening presents, and finally a Christmas dinner later that afternoon with extended family. My wife, meanwhile, grew up with different traditions, which included a big Christmas Eve dinner (often with extended family), and in addition to Christmas Day, celebrated Three Kings on January 6, a Puerto Rican celebration of the three wise men following the star to find baby Jesus.

When we got married and had kids, we blended some of those traditions together, and created new ones. Over the years, we would typically have a big dinner on Christmas Eve, and open one present before going to bed.  The next morning, we would open stockings and have a big breakfast of homemade Belgian waffles (recipe courtesy of my sister-in-law Lynnette) with strawberries and ice cream, along with bacon and eggs. I also always have half of a grapefruit because my dad always had grapefruit on Christmas morning, and it reminds me of him. Then we finally would open the presents.  Two weeks later, we celebrate Three Kings with our children.

But as meaningful as those things are, they miss the true, underlying meaning behind why we even celebrate Christmas in the first place, which is why we also always read the Christmas story during this season, usually on Christmas Eve before opening that first present.

What’s the Christmas Story? It’s found in Luke 1 and Matthew 1 and 2. It’s the story of when God, the Creator of the universe, sent His one and only Son to be born as a living human being, to live and walk this earth for about 33 years as both fully God and fully man. In doing that, He was able to live as a person like you and me, but live sinlessly in order to be the sacrifice for our sins when He paid the price on the cross with His death, burial, and subsequent resurrection. And His life on earth began as a baby born in a manger in Bethlehem. That’s what we are really celebrating at Christmas. 

What that means for you is that the real story behind Christmas points to the means of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Baby Jesus in the manger is the beginning of the whole story that ends at Easter, and it is of eternal significance to you.

Therefore, here’s what you need to take away. Jesus came as an innocent baby in order to become the perfect sacrifice for you and for me. Behind all the joys of family, gift-giving, and celebration that happen all throughout this season, this is the most important thing that we need to remember.

The bottom line is that we are sinners and, therefore, will be eternally separated from God, who is perfect. But Jesus paid the price so that we could be reconciled to God through Jesus’ sacrifice. My friend, if you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, can I encourage you to take that step? Because that’s the real meaning and purpose of Christmas.

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The Truth About Christmas

I can remember the first time my oldest child asked me if Santa was real. She must have been about 5 or 6 years old, and I am sure she had heard things from friends at school and wanted to know from her parents if Santa was a real person who delivered presents for Christmas. At this age, she already knew that Jesus was her personal Savior, having come to an awareness of her need for Jesus to save her when she was 4 and 1/2 years old. I know that seems young (and it is), but her decision was totally driven by her own questions and her own choice to follow Jesus, unprompted by us as her parents, and was followed at that young age already with the realization of how that shaped her choices.

But, back to Santa. When she asked us that question – “Is Santa real?” – I was faced with a dilemma. Do I lie and preserve the fantasy for a little child, or do I tell the truth and squash childhood imagination? In the end, realized that it wasn’t a true “either/or” choice, and so we chose to tell the truth while also preserving imagination and fun. Because she asked, we knew she was seeking to make sense of the world around her, so we told her the truth – “No, Santa is not real . . .” – but then framed it into a purpose of imagination and joy – “. . . but it’s fun to pretend and imagine the stories of Santa, so we do it just for fun at Christmas time. But the real person we celebrate at Christmas is Jesus.”

Why was this important for us? Because we wanted our child to grow up with an understanding of the difference between fantasy (the Santa Clause we talk about at Christmas) and meaningful truth (the significance of the birth of Jesus). That’s the most important message of Christmas. Not that we receive gifts, or that Santa knows who is naughty or nice, or that reindeer can fly. The real message is that at this time, over 2000 years ago, God entered into our physical realm in the person of His Son, born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph. He did this so that Jesus could live His life as both fully God and fully man (theologians call this the Hypostatic Union), and live it sinlessly, so that He would be qualified to become the perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins through His death on the cross, burial, and resurrection. In doing this, He paid the penalty for our sins and opened the door for us to be reconciled to God. And that’s the Gospel message: that Jesus paid for our sins so that we could receive salvation by trusting fully in His work on the cross.

That’s the truth about Christmas. It’s the season that brought Jesus into our midst, which in turn would make salvation available to all who believe, not in the “jolly old elf” who brings us presents, but in the real, divine person who came to save us from our sin. My friend, if you have not placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, as the one and only means of salvation from your sin and reconciliation with God, I urge you to do that today. Acknowledge your sin and accept the payment of Jesus. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

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First Get the Whole Story

Early in my experience as an educator, I heard my administrator say to parents (tongue-in-cheek), “If you don’t believe half of what your student says happened in the classroom, we won’t believe half of what they tell us happened at home.” Like many humorous comments, this contains a morsel of truth. People have a tendency to represent facts in such a way as to paint themselves in the best possible light, and children are no different. Often over the years, I have fielded phone calls from parents who were contacting me because of what their child said happened in class (things like, “my child told me that the teacher said this in class!”). I quickly learned to redirect their concern to the teacher, so that the parent could hear the whole story. Nearly every time, the parent has come back to me and said, “Now that I have the whole story, it makes a lot more sense.” (And most of the time, the story the child told at home was an effort to cover up or misdirect from wrong choices of behavior made by the student in the classroom.)

There are two particular passages in Scripture that have greatly helped me to understand this idea. One is Proverbs 18:13, which says, “He who answers a matter before he hears the facts—it is folly and shame to him” (Amplified Bible). The Message says it even more plainly: “Answering before listening is both stupid and rude.” This verse was first shared with me by a professor when I was completing a marriage and family counseling internship, as an exhortation to probe and question thoroughly before drawing conclusions in the counseling setting. For quite a while, I literally kept the verse written on a notecard, taped on top of my desk, as a reminder. I have since learned that this verse applies to many circumstances, not just to a counseling session. When you deal with people (and most of us do), you will have the experience of people telling you the story from their own perspective, which will likely mean that it may or may not be true (as I shared in a previous post, “Either It’s True or It’s Not”). It is foolish and stupid to react or respond without first getting the whole story

The second verse is James 1:19, which says, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” As many grandmothers have shared with their grandchildren, “There’s a reason why God gave us two ears and one mouth; we should listen twice as much as we speak!” This verse has been a constant reminder to me to be careful to listen first, although, in the process of my growth as a leader, it was a lesson that sometimes came the hard way.

For example, in one particular organization in which I worked, I made a spectacular blunder that loudly and clearly drove this lesson home to me. I was leading a small group of event planners in planning for one specific event, and everyone in the group (except me) had been involved in that organization for several years. As the leader, I felt that I should take charge of presenting good ideas, so I began the first meeting by telling the rest of the group all of my ideas. My enthusiasm (combined with the fact that I had not yet established trust or relationship) resulted in the rest of the group shutting down while giving verbal support to my ideas. However, over the next few days, I began to hear from others that the entire committee was frustrated with me, and the event was now in jeopardy. I had to go back to the committee and apologize for speaking without listening, and then I had to make it safe for them to talk. When I did that, I learned so much about the history and tradition associated with that event and could see that I had been on the verge of causing damage to the culture. I needed to take the time to listen, understand history, and get the whole story.

The added bonus is that when you take time to learn the whole story, you are much more likely to be able to discern if it is true or if it is not.  In Deuteronomy 18:21-22, Moses provided some direction to the people of Israel to help them understand how to discern this, when he said, “And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.” He made the point that if you take the time to observe and get the whole story, beginning to end, you can tell if it is true or not.

It is easy for a leader to assume that leadership means taking charge and giving direction. However, I believe that these principles from Scripture give us a very different picture: leadership should be characterized by listening. Ask questions. Make it safe for people to share. Validate. And make sure you get the whole story before you react.

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Delegate Like Moses

I am not a micro-manager, nor do I try to do everything.  I have learned (sometimes in humiliating fashion) that there are many who have far more knowledge and much greater ability than I do.  And so I have also learned the value of asking questions and letting other people do what they do well.  At times, though, that has not prevented me from trying to control, manage, or do everything, usually because of the mistaken assumption that only I can do what needs to be done in the way it needs to be done.  The result, typically, is that I become exhausted or overwhelmed, others are deprived of the opportunity to grow and excel, and there are things that get missed, all because I did not delegate.

Exodus 18:13-27 provides a fantastic example of the lesson of delegation.  What’s described in this passage is the story of how Moses, the leader of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, was hard at work doing what leaders often do:  managing conflict.  His father-in-law came to visit and observed Moses’ leadership activity, and this is what he saw: 1) Moses was the primary decision-maker, and 2) it was consuming him (v. 13).  In fact, it is worth noting that he was so committed to the task of ministry that he was unable to tend to his family (verse 2 says that Moses had sent his wife and children to stay with her parents during this time).  When his father-in-law observed this, he decided to step in, paint a picture of what was happening, and provide some counsel to teach Moses the value of delegating.

A verse-by-verse analysis of that passage in Exodus provides a wealth of information that helps us understand this principle of delegation.  First, we see the problem with Moses’ failure to delegate (vv. 14-16), and the resulting impact (vv. 17-18). Moses’ method of leadership revealed:

  1. Micro-management – he was trying to do it all, by himself;
  2. Over-commitment – it was consuming his entire day, to the neglect of other needs;
  3. Self-importance – he believed he was the only one who could do it; and
  4. Spiritual justification – he justified his behavior as an important task for God.

The effect of this method included:

  1. Collateral damage – it impacted the people around him who were trying to help;
  2. Burnout – he was literally wearing himself (and others) out;
  3. Over-burdened – he was carrying too much weight and responsibility, which would make him ineffective; and
  4. Isolation – he was trying to do all this by himself, which left him alone.

Then we see the proposed solution (vv. 19-22) and the expected benefit (vv. 22-23) of changing his method.  A change in leadership style, specifically by learning to delegate, would involve six components:

  1. Advocating – establishing himself as the representative of the people;
  2. Communicating – expressing expectations and instructions;
  3. Selecting – choosing additional leadership, people who were capable, had integrity, and feared God;
  4. Delegating – assigning tasks and responsibility;
  5. Empowering – providing the authority to serve and lead in the assigned roles; and
  6. Regulating – establishing the hierarchy, division of responsibilities, and process of managing and supervising.

The result of this type of delegation would make the work of the ministry much easier.  Because the load would be shared, it would produce these benefits for both Moses and the people:

  1. It would be God’s work, not Moses’ work;
  2. As a result, the direction would be more clear;
  3. The burden would be bearable; and
  4. The customers would be satisfied.

Moses did listen to his father-in-law (demonstrating a teachable spirit) and incorporated these suggestions into his leadership practice.  This passage in Exodus concludes with a description of how he did this, by selecting competent leaders and giving them their responsibilities. They fulfilled their responsibilities well, while Moses continued to manage the most difficult issues and conflicts.  This is a powerful lesson and example for us as leaders.  All too often, under the guise of “serving God,” we do too much and do it by ourselves, believing that this behavior is a mark of spirituality and a servant’s heart.  In reality, it makes us ineffective for God, and most of the time, it damages relationships (particularly those closest to us – our families).  Learning to delegate is a valuable principle and practice of leadership, demonstrated by Moses.  Let’s follow that example.

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The Importance of Story

“Life, you’ll notice, is a story ” (Eldredge, 2004).  This brief statement by #JohnEldredge, at the beginning of his short book Epic, seems to have captured in six words the realization for me that my life is a story.  This was not always my perspective or viewpoint.  In fact, when I first entered my journey into a doctoral leadership program, I believed I was quite strongly a “concrete sequential” thinker with a quantitative view of data and life.  Somewhere along the way in that process, a series of circumstances, events, and reflective moments drew me to connect with the concept of “story,” and led me to much more of a qualitative understanding of life.  My personal growth had changed me to the point that I would now describe my perspective much like Eldredge did when he followed that six-word statement by saying, “Life doesn’t come to us like a math problem.  It comes to us the way that a story does, scene by scene.  You wake up.  What will happen next?  You don’t get to know – you have to enter in, take the journey as it comes.  The sun might be shining. There might be a tornado outside.  Your friends might call and invite you to go sailing.  You might lose your job.  Life unfolds like a drama.  Doesn’t it?  Each day has a beginning and an end.  There are all sorts of characters, all sorts of settings.  A year goes by like a chapter from a novel.  Sometimes it seems like a tragedy.  Sometimes like a comedy.  Most of it feels like a soap opera.  Whatever happens, it’s a story through and through.”

A natural outgrowth of recognizing the emergence of my own personal story was the understanding that “everyone has a story,” and so, in my development as a leader, I transitioned from recognizing the importance of my story to recognizing the importance of story in others, and in leadership in general.  I see this now in the simple way that I will often ask questions of people I meet to draw out their stories, and look for connections between their stories and mine in order to build relationship in a way that will benefit and enhance the effectiveness of my leadership. This importance of understanding each person’s story is, for me, reflected in the research methodology of narrative inquiry.   I have learned from Clandinin and Connelly, in the book Narrative Inquiry (2000), that story, or narrative inquiry, is a very important component of research because it provides the context and history of a circumstance and an environment, which provides meaning to them.  Merriam (1998) describes it as “the meaning people have constructed, that is, how they make sense of their world and the experiences they have in the world” (p. 6).

Over time, I have come to see leadership as a process that occurs within a context.  It seems that many approaches to leadership focus on the attributes of the leader or the relationship between the leader and the followers, but I believe that it is also very necessary to take into account the context of that process.  This includes knowledge of the context/environment in which the leader and followers currently exist (present); knowledge of the organizational history (past); and organizational vision (future).  With this knowledge, the leader engages in the process that is a continuing cycle of analyzing past, present, and future in order to move people and organizations toward a desired growth, change, or direction.  In other words, the leader understands that the story of the organization and the stories of its people are necessary to an understanding of how to shape the organization, which means that “story” is critical for a leader to be effective as a change agent.  Therefore, in order for me to effectively make change within an organization, I must first understand its history, and to understand its history, I must hear stories.  I need to ask questions about the way things are done and why they are done in that way, build relationships with those around me, allowing me to best empower and encourage them.  I need to share the example of my own story, and listen to their stories.

The additional, essential thing that I need to realize as a Christian leader is that my story is also part of God’s Grand Story (to use the phrasing from the organization, Walk Thru the Bible).  God’s redemption story, which centers around Jesus Christ, has been in play since the beginning of His creation, and He has been intentionally weaving people, events, and circumstances into His perfect plan to carry out His perfect purpose.  I have a part in that story, as do you, because God loves us dearly and has a part for us in a chapter of His great story. My story has a role and a purpose in God’s story, and so does yours!

So then, a “plot” in my story, so to speak, is that I have learned the importance of story for leadership.  I have learned that knowing my own story is vital to understanding how I lead and why I lead the way I do.  I have learned the importance of knowing the story of the organization that I lead, which leads me to ask questions and listen before acting, in order to better understand and manage that organization.  I have learned the value of using stories as a tool to effectively teach, mentor, motivate, and bring about change.  I have learned that everyone has a story, and each person’s story, in turn, impacts how that person constructs meaning from life, and therefore – in order for me to influence and develop my followers – I need to understand each person’s story.  And most importantly, I have learned that, as a leader, a teacher/mentor, and a change agent: story matters!

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Eldredge, J. (2004). Epic:  The Story God is Telling. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

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