Podcast, Season 2, Episode 7: Lessons On Leadership From the Life and Times of Ezra (part 7 – What Do You See?)
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 7, I am discussing one of several lessons on the practice of leadership, this one is about the importance of seeing the big picture (and especially of seeing it from God’s perspective). Here is the transcript of the podcast.
In this series we are 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 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 race. One of those things is the ability to see the big picture.
Early in the doctoral program for my Ph.D., my cohort was assigned a book to read by Margaret Wheatley, called “Leadership and the New Science.” The book was a discussion of leadership principles and ideas drawn from the illustration of Chaos Theory. The author provided some explanation of what Chaos Theory was as it pertained to science, with some of its components and implications, such as a discussion of something called fractals, and then made applications to lessons that applied to how we can lead. I particularly remember the discussion on fractals, because that was a place where I could so clearly see a reflection of God (even though that was not the author’s intent). Fractals are complex patterns that make up the miniscule detail of matter in various ways. At first glance, and in a close-up view, they generally appear to be random and chaotic (hence the connection to chaos theory), but when you expand and repeat the view of the pattern, their seeming randomness is revealed to be part of a greater pattern that makes sense and is very beautiful. [For any Chaos Theorists and scientists who hear this explanation, I know I oversimplified it, but the basic premise is still true.] When I read this in Wheatley’s book, what struck me is how this is a picture of God’s activity in our lives. There is much that happens that may seem to be random, or that we don’t understand, but from God’s perspective, it is part of a large purpose that He is using to create a beautiful picture.
What I learned from this book while in the context of my doctoral program was not just lessons about leadership, but lessons about how my life and purpose were part of a larger picture in God’s purpose. When I began to see my leadership this way, it helped me to get outside of my circumstances and see a greater purpose that I couldn’t see as well while in the middle of it. On one level, the existence of fractals is a lesson on leadership in that it is an illustration of the patterns that are there, that we can identify if we step back and view the big picture, which then helps understand what is happening and make better decisions. But on a deeper (and, in my opinion, a more important) level, it is illustration of how our lives have purpose in an intentional plan that God has for us. We may be too close to the situation or too recent in time to see it, but that doesn’t make it not true.
The point for you is to recognize the same thing. In your organization, there will be identifiable patterns that you can find so that you can anticipate, respond or act in the best way possible. There are patterns and models that you can follow because they have been proven to be true over time, even if there are variations in circumstances. For example, there are certain steps that consistently lead to weight loss, primarily eating a healthy diet with appropriate portion sizes and doing moderate exercise. There are lots of variations in how that can be done, but the basic pattern is the same. It’s the same in your leadership. However, I believe it is even more important to see the big picture from God’s perspective, recognizing that your experiences are part of His design and pattern, and are there for a reason. Embrace that knowledge, and have the confidence that God has a purpose in your leadership.
I have learned to see God’s purpose in all my past experiences as part of the preparation for where He has my today. The experiences in my life, when viewed through that lens, reveal an order in my life that has equipped me each step of the way for what is next. For example, when I had to use much of what I had learned in my counseling background to help individuals heal in an organization that experienced great wounding, I could see the purpose of that background is part of God’s plan to prepare me, even though at the time I had no idea I would need that capability in this organization. So when I can see my life, experiences, and leadership in that way, it brings peace and confidence. The secret to having that lies in seeing the big picture from God’s perspective.
