The Biggest Leadership Mistake of All Time!
I typically write my Monday blog posts on Sundays and this one is no different. The reason that I lead with that is that it will help the rest of this post make more sense.Recently I have been reading John Maxwell's book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You
and have been reflecting on leadership. Maxwell does a great job of tying each of his laws to historical stories of how he or other leaders have implemented or failed to implement those laws.Then this morning during church our pastor read the entire passion story as he does every year on Palm Sunday. This year it was from Mark 14-15. Now, I have heard and read this story many times in the past but something big jumped out at me today. As you may have guessed, it is about leadership.
And, no it was not about the leadership that Jesus showed in his willingness to go along with the will of God.
What jumped out at me was the lack of leadership shown by Pilate. Pilate gives us an example of one of the worst leadership mistakes that has been repeated over and over since that time. The leadership mistake that Pilate made was to follow the wishes of his people despite his better judgement.
After not being able to find fault with Jesus and realizing that it was out of jealousy that the Chief Priests wanted Jesus to be crucified, he still released a murderer by the name Barabbas. All because that's what the people wanted. Wow! How would you like to have that mistake hanging over your head?
As a leader, we are charged with the duty to do what is right and good for our family or organization despite what our followers may want when what they want is not in alignment with what is right.
A simple example of this is as a parent, it is important to be able to say no to the can of Mountain Dew at 10:00 pm (or anytime of the day for that matter!) despite little Johnny crying and pleading to get his way.
Watch the news about any political campaign and you will see more complex examples of these leadership mistakes.
How do we as leaders...and if you are reading this, chances are you are a leader...make sure we do not make this same mistake?
I think first of all we need to be able to tell the truth. This, by the way is something that Andy Andrews refers to as something we can all agree on. We would like our leaders to tell the truth.
The second thing that we can do is to make our decisions with long term results in mind. Ask yourself, how will this affect our family tomorrow or next week? What will this mean next year for our company? If I decide to allow this, how will that affect future decisions?
What in the world does all of this have to do with working out?
Good question. Check back Tuesday for the answer.
Workout
Warm-up x 1
Mobility
Strength WOD
For Time:
20-16-12
sKB Clean and Press
Toes to Bar
Strength WODS this Week: OHS 3-3-3-3, Push Jerks 3-3-3-3, sLeg Hip Bridges 3x5, and Power Clean 2-2-2-2-2.
5 comments:
Greg,
I want you to know that I had hoped to respond last night after finishing Andrews’ book, but was just too tired as it was nearly 1am! I was very interested in your post here, especially since it coincided timely with what we are discussing in a class that I participate in. We meet once a week on Tuesdays during my lunch period here at the academy. This week, we are discussing “the nature of truth.”
I agree with you that as leaders, we definitely need to tell the truth. It has to be a constant of our lives, a habit that we refuse to break even when inconvenient or damaging to us personally.
I think as good leaders we can’t let it stop there, at simply always telling the truth ourselves. As leaders at any level, we need to be willing to reflect on the truths proclaimed by those both above and below us in position. We have to check what makes it true, or perhaps sometimes, who makes it true. This way of thinking, not necessarily one of outright challenging, but rather an unassuming check on what’s given as truth, is something that a leader must also have.
I say this because as I’ve discovered from the podcast and through further thought and investigation, the “truth” can be truly believed (ironically) by a person, when in reality it is actually not true. This, however, brings into question what we define as reality, who defines reality, and whose definition is right. Perhaps what a person uses to define “truth” or “reality” is different from ours. This doesn’t mean it is right, but they might perceive it as right; and something said by another person in one of my classes (which I believe has some “truth” to it) is that people’s perceptions are their reality. There can be all sorts of things that change a person’s perceptions, such as a lack of information, a “false” interpretation of something, or maybe there’s even something more. Maybe someone’s agenda has allowed them to completely change how they define, or perceive the truth. Perhaps they’ve allowed their agenda to become so important to them that they grant themselves the “authority” to change or add on to what they decide to share as “truths.” Now, I only mention all of this as probing questions. I’m not arguing that any of these ideas about reality and truth are right or okay. I’m just really intrigued and perplexed by the fact that “truth” could perhaps be more complicated than something absolute. In our world today, I think we have to be aware of these many perceptions about truth, especially as leaders. This is why as a good leader (and more often as good followers) we must consciously reflect on information given to us by others, specifically our leaders.
Andrews urges in his book that everyone should practice this willingness to verify and check the truths of those that lead us, and a great point that he emphasizes is that we should do it independently. I believe that this is an insight into another quality that a good leader must have. It is the ability to think independently of others, and evaluate for their own selves what is accurate and what isn’t. It takes shape in one’s willingness to confirm information through his/her personal investigation. This undoubtedly applies to issues of great importance, as Andrews illustrates with his example of national leadership and the need for a healthy amount of questioning of government leaders and policies. Other times, it can be a simple check to make sure what someone has said is true actually is true, such as whether or not a son or daughter really did clean their room.
I also believe that a good leader must be willing to take additional action – first, making the effort to check the truth, but then also later, by making a decision based on the information they independently gathered, and acting on it. With this decision, one either confirms something is in fact true, or discovers the need (as a leader) to act in response to what’s been learned not to be true.
Alright, as you might be able to tell from my writing at this point, it’s starting to get fairly late again… I think I’m going to call it soon and just go ahead and post what I have here. I also agree with your point about thinking more long term, but as it will be another 1am night pretty soon, I think I’ll leave it at this.
I don’t mind the couple late nights though. I find this stuff really interesting and intriguing, and I like to struggle through thinking about what it means and implies for people as leaders and followers. And since your post complemented what I was already thinking hard about yesterday, I thought I’d pursue it more, read the book, and then give you something in return on your original post.
Anyway, I try and check your blog as often as I can. I haven’t been doing those exact workouts, but I enjoy seeing what you’ve got going on. I’ve definitely changed the way I workout since the days of “bulking up” for football!
Keep posting and know that it’s being read!
Clay
P.S. - If you’re interested in checking out what I listened to for class, you can find it at the link below. It’s about an hour long.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction
P.P.S.- Actual time is 12:43am on the 3rd.
Clay,
Great to hear from you. I really appreciate your commenting on this post. I think that your comment about the importance of reflecting on the truths proclaimed by others has never been more important in our history than it is now. Information is easy to put out to the masses whether it be via blog, Facebook or Twitter. Without leaders critically considering these "truths" we could easily get led astray.
It's scary to think of how much more effective the Nazi propaganda machine would have been with Facebook!
Yeah, it's funny how today, in this "information generation," one would think that with so many avenues for people to obtain "news," we would all be more well-informed. Yet, the easiness in getting information out through those means you mentioned has created a mass of instant news, which often times may actually contain little validity or biased slants in presentation.
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