You know this person: they’ve been to leadership conferences, paid big bucks for one-on-one coaching, spew all the current buzzwords. But they don’t care much about the people they’re leading. Their team is there to help them climb the corporate ladder.
Somehow, in all the training, they forgot about the people.
And we can be sympathetic. Leading takes some planning, especially thinking ahead to the goal. There are mission statements, purpose statements, three top goals, daily to-do lists…. and none of this is a bad thing.
Leadership planning shouldn’t isolate the leader from the people.
When I was 12, I put together a play for my parents using younger siblings and cousins as actors. In my young mind, they were chess pieces to be manipulated.
Our stage was our family’s living room and my bedroom was backstage. There was a flurry of children rushing to and fro, through the small entrance door of my bedroom.
The inevitable happened. I rushed through the door as my younger brother came in. He was seven. His head crashed against the door frame as I pushed by.
Did I stop to see if he was hurt? I did not. I had a show to put on. When I returned backstage, he was sitting on my bed holding his head and crying.
Did I stop the show to tend to his injury? I did not. I had a show to put on.
I was focused on the production as I saw it and not on the people involved.
Let me introduce you to Jonah. You probably remember Jonah and the whale from the misty past. But let ’s pull back the veneer on a leader of his day.
What we know about Jonah:
He was successful
His full name is given, including his father’s name. That identifies him as a prophet of Israel. As a prophet, he spoke God’s word to others. He had predicted that King Jeroboam would restore the northern boundary of Israel. When that happened, he was known as a great prophet. There were other prophets int hat time but none were given the job that Jonah was given.
He was called a servant of the king
No play on words here. Jonah wasn’t called a servant of God – although he was known for that, too – but a servant of King Jeroboam. He hung out with royalty. He likely knew the inner court on a first-name basis.
He knew what God could do.
He had seen God save Israel even though King Jeroboam was a bad king. A king dedicated to other gods and not to God. But God delivered to Israel not what King Jeroboam deserved but protection out of God’ kindness and grace.
He was a nationalist.
Jonah was concerned with the things that kings and political leaders are concerned with: boundaries and good fortune for the nation of Israel. He was a blue-blood Israelite and proud of it.
Such a leader would expect to hear from God again.
And Jonah did. But God’s words were confusing, to say the least. God was sending Jonah to a hated enemy to warn them. Warn them why? So the destruction might not come?
Jonah was certain that Nineveh needed to be destroyed. Why should he warn them?
Jonah, the prophet and successful leader in Israel, examined this new assignment and he took off the other direction.
It’s clear that Jonah did not care for a group of people that God did care about. He was a successful leader who had forgotten that leadership is about people. We know there are bumps ahead for Jonah but that’s for another post.
QUESTION: Have you ever overlooked the people you were supposed to be caring for?
Leadership happens in odd and tricky places sometimes.
I’ll bet Aaron Brantley would have been thrilled for someone be a leader as he crawled across a concrete parking lot to get help. Brantley was attacked at a busy Detroit gas station, left with a broken leg. He crawled from the gas pump to the gas station door while people drove and walked past him.
Leadership isn’t just leading others. It starts with you and ripples out. It’s about helping even if others aren’t. Leadership is doing the right thing when others are walking away. Leadership is gathering your resources and working.
I don’t mean to condemn the people who walked away. They obviously didn’t know what to do. They may have been embarrassed or busy or a little afraid. Was this a scam? Was this practical joke? Maybe they really didn’t care.
It’s clear someone needed to step up. A leader.
Leadership doesn’t spring from our brains without any preparation. We need to think ahead. We need to be intentional about goals and plans. We need to talk to others and get some training.
We need examples to help us. Especially as followers of Jesus, we want to find God’s guidance. How do I lead as a Christian? Does that look different than other leadership models?
As followers of Jesus, we often look to the Bible. We’d like to find bullet point to clarify Christian leadership. Highlighted principles would be helpful. Maybe we can find some rules of Christian leadership.
Instead, we find stories.
But stories are good. I’ve seen leadership principles pulled from stories about presidents and generals. I’ve seen leadership points gathered from a book about building a boat. Stories can teach us more than we realize.
What can stories teach us?
Real people in real situations
We’re not told proverbs but get to see the ideas in action. We learn of the emotions of people as they interact with real-life situations.
The good the bad, the ugly
The Bible doesn’t sugar coat. We’re allowed to see mistakes, wrong motives, wisdom. The people in the Bible’s stories aren’t perfect but they have the opportunity to learn. And we can learn along with them.
The context for courage
Would you rather be told “take courage” or be told the story of a person who overcame great difficulty to succeed? Courage is more nuanced than it seems. We can get away from platitudes to real-life scenarios.
Heart of the leader illustrated
Stories bring emotion and depth. We walk with the people, hear their fears and concerns, and understand better how a leader interacts with those they lead.
Engaging
We can hang with a story longer. It has conflict, people, setting, a plot. It’s much more interesting than the bullet points we thought we craved.
Fleshed out truth
Not all principles can be put in a proverb or cliche. Stories help us see the truth in its dimensions and layers.
Mistakes managed
Leaders aren’t invincible heroes. They make mistakes. Sometimes the leader in a story figures out the error. Sometimes God corrects them. Often we see it coming, sometimes before the main character does.
The beauty of human relationships
The interaction between people always enriches leadership principles. We don’t lead in a vacuum. Or we shouldn’t. Stories illustrate that beautifully.
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