As a leader, I have learned that there are times with the criticism is dead-on and something I need to hear and other times when I need to dismiss it and continue in the direction I feel God has led me to go. Knowing when to accommodate the critic and when to ignore the criticism is a careful balance leaders face often.
I have known so many people who claim to be leaders and are hailed as great leaders in their profession or organization, but who have family lives that are a mess. Sadly this is true in many churches also, which is where most of my leadership focus is aimed. Again, it is a matter of opinion, but I have a harder time celebrating a person as a great leader if they have no ability to lead in their private life. At our church, when we are hiring a staff person, we always consider the person’s spouse and children in the equation. It is not only Biblical, but it is also practical.
In a marriage for example, some people keep bringing up the same issues and repeating same mistakes and so they fail to initiate change. Sometimes a spouse refuses to tell the whole truth and so bad news keeps coming out, opening new wounds each time. The marriage never improves until everything is on the table, there are no more secrets and the bottom is found.
This is hilarious. CNN put together a story working with Career Builder on the funniest or weird things people said during job interviews. What’s funny is that during the nervousness of something like an interview most of us are likely to say something we don’t necessarily mean to say. Hopefully most of us are not this bad.
Bear with me through a little Bible pilgrimage to illustrate a point about grace.
As an avid user of social media in my work, people seem to enjoy sending me negative articles on the rise of social networking and its negative impact on our culture.
Most businesses are being forced to think through and add a social media policy to their human resource policies. The rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking choices means the workplace is being impacted greatly by social media. Individuals represent their organization even during their personal time and that needs to be considered in employee management.
For most of us though, we need better customer service than this. We must train our employees and volunteers to represent the organization well by putting on a smile, leaving personal problems at home, and being ready to assist our customers or clients with a welcoming attitude.
Leaders should not use individuality as an excuse for inadequacy. Excellence should be a standard for all leaders. There are key leadership principles, especially Biblical principles that no leader can ignore, but the goal should never be to carbon copy another’s leadership style. Just as every individual is unique in his or her personality, every leader will have uniqueness in his or her leadership style. Great leaders figure out the style that works best for them to produce the greatest results.
Recently while I was in Lithuania I spoke with some people who want the country to return to Communism, because, as they put it, they feel they are “missing hope” in a capitalistic society. Under Communism, even though most had very little and the same people told story after story of doing without and wanting for more, they at least knew what to expect. That was their definition of hope. I understand that capitalism allows a large amount of uncertainty and risk. There are few guarantees, but that is what makes it capitalistic, the ability for individuals to make a difference for themselves through hard work, risk and speculation.
