I thought of an important question today.
I am sadly aware of companies and churches faced with the difficult task of letting go workers in an attempt to improve the bottom-line. I understand the struggle firsthand, having once tried to hold a company together while expenses outweighed income. Sometimes leadership requires the leader to make hard decisions for the good of the entire organization.
So here’s my question for all leaders:
Would you be willing to fire yourself if you are the person who needs to go the most?
That’s a tough question, but it is one I have actually faced that a few times in my life. Once in business where I knew, I didn’t have the energy or the expertise to carry the company to the next level. In my last two churches, I reached a point where knew it was time for another pastor if the church wanted to continue to grow. In both instances I was used to help the church grow and God was continuing to show us success, but I knew in my heart I had grown stale, burned out, and I knew the church deserved more commitment than I was giving them.
In the business decision, I waited too long to fire myself and it ended up hurting the company. Thankfully, I resigned from both churches in plenty of time for them to find the right replacement.
In light of where you are personally and where the organization you lead is at, are you the right person to be leading the team at this time? If the answer is no, what are you going to do about it? Should the organization and others suffer while you wait to make the right decision?
I think every pastor should ask this question at least once a year. We need to have the self-awareness to accurately assess our role and the self-denial to be willing to do the right thing. Thanks for this encouragement.
Great question sir. Been there a time or two and have some friends who are there now. Difficult decision, but ultimately doing what’s best for others sounds a lot like Jesus.
Thanks for the challenge.
WOW! Heavy question. Great one to be asking at a time like this.
Wow, that’s a tough question! Excellent post.
I think it’s those kind of tough questions that we need to be asking ourselves as leaders all the time. We need to constantly be looking at where the bottlenecks are and fix them – even if that means WE are the bottle neck.
WOW! that’s a rough question. Awesome question! great question!
Especially for the Church, that’s Kingdom mindedness like I’ve never seen. Thank you Ron!!!