James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up.
John 3:30 He must become greater; I must become less.
It has often been said that everything rises and falls on
leadership. Effective leaders understand this. They realize that it is their
efforts to lead well that make a difference in how effective their organizations
are. They also realize that if things are not going well, they must look inside
themselves to see what they can do as leaders to make things better. They are
not afraid to admit their own weaknesses or address those weaknesses head on
through additional training and personal growth so they can be the most
effective leaders possible.
Unfortunately, not all those in leadership positions are
effective leaders. It is not unusual for ineffective leaders to be elevated to leadership
positions. It may be that they simply hung around long enough until someone
finally put them into a leadership role, without really considering if they had
the right skills to be an effective leader. It may be that they manipulated
things behind the scenes to get into leadership, and people did not realize their
inadequate leadership style until it was too late. Sometimes, they were the
only person willing to lead, even though it really was not what they wanted to
do. Regardless of how ineffective leaders get into leadership positions, once
they are there, they seldom want to give up their positions. Because they are
ineffective leaders, instead of rising to the occasion and leading their organization
well, they fumble the leadership ball and keep the organization paralyzed. When
confronted with the obvious challenges that come from their ineffective
leadership, instead of looking at their own leadership efforts and seeking to
improve as leaders, they take the exact opposite approach, they blame everyone
else. Even though most people accept that everything rises and falls on leadership,
ineffective leaders find ways to blame other people for their own leadership
failures. They think the leadership rules do not apply to them.
The one thing ineffective leaders are often effective at, is
making their arguments for why it is someone else’s fault, sound really good.
They are able to convince just enough people that it is someone else’s fault to
keep themselves in leadership. But eventually, people get tired of hearing
excuses. At some point people start realizing the problem is not with everyone
else, but the problem is with the leader. Once peoples’ confidence in a leader erodes,
it is very challenging to ever get that confidence back. What was a long slow
decline can quickly become a dangerous cliff the organization is tittering on.
If leadership does not change immediately, the organization is unlikely to survive
the fall off of the cliff.
What does this mean for those of us who are leaders? It
means that if things are not going as well as we would like, instead of blaming
others, we should look ask God to help us to be the kind of effective leader
that moves our organization forward in tangible and healthy ways. We must
resist the temptation to play the blame game and instead look for ways to lead
through the challenges and see the organization we lead emerge on the other
side of challenges healthier and more vibrant than ever. That is what effective
leaders do.
Lord, help us not to play the blame game. Help us to honestly evaluate
our own leadership style and adjust our activities in healthy ways. Amen.
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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett
serves at the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of New England. He
has been a pastor, church planter, denominational leader and author in New
England for more than 20 years. He is a happy husband, a proud father and
adoring grandfather. He is a cancer survivor and believes that God works powerfully
through times of suffering. He writes extensively and you can find all of his
books at:
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