Podcast, Season 2, Episode 14: Lessons On Leadership From the Life and Times of Ezra (part 14 – The Big Review)

In my thirty years of life and experience in leadership roles in Christian organizations, there are leadership lessons that I learned (and continue to learn) from the life of ministry to which God called me.  Over that time, He taught me lessons based on stories, principles, and truths from the Bible that have been translated into personal application.  This particular series of articles focuses on a set of those lessons drawn from the book of Ezra in the Old Testament, the same lessons that I have published in my latest book. This week, in part 14, I am reviewing all the lessons I’ve talked about in the series. Here is the transcript of the podcast.

In this series, we have been diving deeper into principles and practices that connect biblical truth with wisdom and applying them to the practice of leadership. The purpose of the series, and of the website as a whole, is to connect faith, wisdom, and leadership in a way that will help you grow in your leadership and make an impact. That starts with realizing that God has a plan and purpose that can be trusted, whether or not we can visibly see His hand in it, and He has a part for us in this purpose.

We then spent 3 weeks laying the groundwork for effective leadership, using the analogy of the starting blocks in a race, when all the runners line up and get into position, and the starter yells, “On your mark, get set, go!” The first command, “On Your Mark,” was all about getting to the starting line and in the right place by getting yourself into the right frame of mind and equipping yourself for what is coming. Aligning yourself with truth by seeking and knowing God and knowing where He has placed you, and by establishing your foundational beliefs and values, gives you the capability to lead. The second command, “Get Set,” was all about getting into position in the right form, so that you are best prepared to start well. Performing the actions that set you up to be followed and trusted involves living your life so that your actions and behaviors reflect those beliefs, and that gives you the credibility to lead. The final command, “Go,” is when the starter’s pistol goes off and you start running. That’s when your work begins as you start leading your people and your organization toward your mission, vision, or change. This is hard work and therefore requires someone who is both capable and credible, and that’s why this step must follow the other two. But with those things in place, the race is underway, and what follows are the things you do to maintain your pace and your race. We have already talked about the importance of the ability to see the big picture, giving people a voice in the process and then motivating them, facing obstacles and opposition, the importance of celebrating, the process of strategic planning, and restoration, or what to do if things have gone wrong or you have messed up. Today, as we begin to wrap up the series, we are reviewing everything we’ve talked about.

In my first few years of teaching, I was in a place that had numerous organizational health issues, and the result was that student needs were being affected. Without a lot of support or guidance, I put my efforts into understanding what the students needed, and then figuring out how to meet those needs. Eventually, the head of school approached me and asked me if I would be the guidance counselor, because, he said, “You’re already doing that.” So, I accepted that responsibility and used it to start figuring out more ways that I could use this new official position to do even more. This led to being given more authority. As that cycle continued, I was offered an opportunity to become a head of school in another state, and after much prayer, my wife and I made the decision to take it. I stepped into this new role, like my previous one, having to figure out what steps I needed to take. I had not had formal school leadership training, so essentially, I was learning on the job. God blessed that work, and that school began to thrive. Years later, when I look back, I can see in hindsight the things I did well in my leadership as well as the mistakes I learned from.

One thing I didn’t have that I wish I had was a simple guide to basic leadership skills that would have better equipped me from the beginning, rather than having to learn only by trial and error. That’s what these lessons are for you from the life of Ezra. They are a simple explanation of some of the valuable tools that you can have in your toolbelt to be able to lead well.

I grouped these lessons into three sections, with one brief tangent:

1. The first section was the foundation, the big picture lesson and an overall theme of Ezra, that God’s sovereignty works in in conjunction with my responsibility, in the context and for the purpose of restoration, resulting in relationship and purpose. Therefore, in the application of leadership, it is vital that we begin with an understanding that God has a plan and a purpose that can be trusted, and He is actively involved in the events of our lives, whether or not we can visibly see His hand in it. Thankfully, His plan is not contingent upon or predicated by our perfection, so He doesn’t wait until we are perfect before choosing you or me as a leader or carrying out His plan.
2. In the second section, I talked about the preparation for your leadership, using the analogy of the starting blocks in a race, when all the runners line up and get into position, and the starter yells, “On your mark, get set, go!” This was all about getting to the starting line and in the right place by getting yourself into the right frame of mind and equipping yourself for what is coming, which gives you your capability to lead; getting into position in the right form by matching your actions and your words, so that you are best prepared to start well, which gives you the credibility to lead; and then beginning the race and maintaining the pace.
3. We took a brief tangent to talk about team leadership, learning some bonus lessons from Ezra about the components of a team and how to successfully assemble and navigate the work of the team.
4. The rest of lessons focused on specific tools and skills for your leadership. As I said in the opening of this podcast, these included the importance of and ability to see the big picture, giving people a voice in the process and then motivating them, facing obstacles and opposition, the importance of celebrating, the process of strategic planning, and restoration, or what to do if things have gone wrong or you have messed up.

This was a very short summary of a lot of information. The bottom line is that these lessons provide an instruction sheet or a roadmap that you can use to manage your leadership. They are lessons that you can learn from and apply so that you can be better in your leadership. I have said to my own children that you learn most things from experience, but it’s usually less painful if it’s someone else’s experience. I pray that you can learn from my experience so that you can have a greater impact. If you want more thoughts and study of these topics from the book of Ezra, order a copy of Leadership Ezra, available on Amazon.