Welcome back!
After getting yourself squared away, the next item on the agenda is to learn how to properly treat a team. If you’re still nursing a “me first” mentality, think of it like this: your life is much easier, more pleasant, and your outcomes far better when you treat people right. Here is the utterly sobering power of leadership: you literally hold your team’s well-being and their quality of life in their hands. Take a moment to let that sink in. You have a massive ripple impact on their family and every community of which they are a part. Your reputation accompanies them everywhere they go. They can and do talk about you. Whether what they have to say is positive or negative is entirely within your control. If you’re a jerk, that gets reported far and wide. If families incur medical bills because you’re such a nasty boss that people get sick from the stress, your name appears in medical records as the cause. If marriages are being damaged, kids are being abused, or the family dog is getting kicked because you have driven someone beyond their breaking point, it will be all over social media. If you’re unstable, or a drunk, or corrupt, or a thousand other variations of dysfunctional, that’s getting shared like wildfire. Would you be proud to have your mother or your pastor read the reports on how you’re conducting yourself at work?
Bad leaders made the mistake of not looking beyond the narrow boundaries of their own manipulations. They think they are in control because they are not yet fully facing the consequences of their actions. Consequences are cumulative. Those who don’t make course corrections are not savvy or humble enough to realize that the entire time they are behaving with impunity, there is a large and growing groundswell of disapproval and opposition that will one day knock them off their self-appointed pedestal and out of power. Resistance does not have to be visible to be effective. Some of the most trajectory-altering battles take place behind the scenes with the quiet resolve of those committed to a healthier path. The clock of accountability is ticking whether you deny it’s existence or not.
Until next time, take a serious look at how you’re treating the people under your command and ask yourself this question: will I be happy to harvest the spiritual consequences of how I am taking care of my people?
I’m praying for your wisdom, action, and growth!
