The Leadership Drop Podcast
This is a podcast for Pastors, leaders, and anyone who wants to grow to be all that God has called them to be.
The Leadership Drop Podcast
Mastering the Craft of Leadership: Seeing Before, Seeing More
Ready to unravel the intricate universe of leadership? Ever wondered how leaders create a compelling vision and turn challenges into golden opportunities? Buckle up, because we're about to embark on an enlightening journey exploring these very facets. Drawing parallels from the life of Joshua, a revered leader from the Old Testament, we delve into the critical role of a leader in defining reality and crafting a future that triggers progress. You'll discover how leaders, like you or the ones you aspire to be, transform hurdles into prospects and how their knack for problem-solving strengthens their credibility.
Welcome to the Leadership Drop podcast. In each episode, Pastor Jackie, along with selected guests from time to time, aimed to drop some leadership insights that are designed to help you thrive, Whether you're leading a church, a business, a team, a family or simply yourself. So lean in, listen, laugh and learn as we drop some leadership truth, and watch out for that leadership mic drop moment. Let's go.
Speaker 2:Hey guys, today in our Leadership Drop podcast, we want to talk a little bit about the life of a leader. What does it look like? What's the inside picture of the life of a leader? You may be a leader and you live with these dynamics and these are just affirming to you. You may be on the outside looking at leaders in your organization and wondering what do they live with, what do they struggle with and what are they doing, and so I want to give you, from an Old Testament example, the example of a person by the name of Joshua, a kind of an inside picture to the life of a leader. So let's get started.
Speaker 2:Here's some leadership thoughts concerning the life of a leader. First of all, leaders live with this weight that is required of them to define reality and constantly paint a preferred future. Joshua in the Old Testament certainly had to do that. He had to let children of Israel know I know you like it in the wilderness, but it's not as good as you think it is and there's something better out there. I think the baseline level of leadership is we have to constantly be defining what is and painting a picture of what could be, so defining reality. Sometimes we just get to the place that we live with the status quo. We like it where we are. In the children of Israel's story in the Old Testament, as Joshua was taking over leadership from a great guy by the name of Moses, he had to say hey, listen, guys, time out. God didn't call us from Egypt to live in the desolate land of the wilderness. He called us to go into a land flowing with milk and honey. And so, in the organization that you're leading, you may think, well, it's okay, but it's not great. I'm currently working on a sermon series and even have a little book idea in my head about living on the right side of the river.
Speaker 2:And many times we find ourselves as organizations living on the wrong side of the river. I mean, we're getting by, we're paying our bills, we're meeting our low expectations of profit margins, but, man, we're not excelling. Nobody's writing stories about us and we're not being talked about around the water cooler on Monday morning. So let's understand that incumbent upon us as leaders is to define the reality. That means we have to be blatantly honest with ourselves. We have to say, listen, the organization we lead is okay, but it's not where it needs to be, craig Crochelle said many years ago, I heard him say that I used to say our people wouldn't do this. But after I've been there long enough, I have to say I haven't led our people to do this. And so you're the leader. You determine the direction of the organization. Are you living as an organization on the right side of the river? Are you living in the wilderness, just getting by, or in the promised land, the land flowing of milk and honey?
Speaker 2:I'm from the great state of Oklahoma. As we record this podcast, we're getting ready to play the University of Texas in the Red River rivalry. In Oklahoma, we think we live on the right side of the river, we live north of the river and we live where college football championships abound At least they used to. But one of the things I appreciate about my home state is the license plate of our home state. For years, I think it probably still says this. It says Oklahoma is okay. I always laugh when I see that it's like I love my people. They know we're not great, we're not amazing, we're just okay. And it could be that you lead an organization right now. That's just okay, and you need to define that reality and then you need to start painting a preferred future. Also, with that, think about the life of the leader.
Speaker 2:The leaders are the ones that define vision and then they defend vision. My job as the leader of the organization I lead is to define the vision. Here's the next mountain we're going to climb, and then, when you define the vision, there'll be all kinds of people that want to attack the vision. It was true, in Joshua's day there were people who said we can't do this. We should stay where we're at. The giants are too big. They're too large. We can't take the land. And Joshua, under the leadership, I believe, of the Holy Spirit, define the vision. We're going to conquer the land. And then he had to defend the vision. We're going to do it at all costs. Your vision for where you are going should be greater than any adversity that you face. Let me say that again a little more clearly your vision for where you and your organization is going should be greater and stronger than any adversity you face. You should be as the leader, this insurmountable or inmovable force that you are. You are a movement of God and you're taking an organization from where it is to where it ought to be.
Speaker 2:Leaders also see obstacles as opportunities. This is huge. Joshua came on the scene and he had a problem to solve. They were on the wrong side of the river. They needed to get on the right side of the river.
Speaker 2:Everybody needs to understand that leadership is just one problem away from success. I often tell guys that come into organizations or come into churches and they're leading and immediately there's opposition, or maybe not opposition, maybe there's just a problem. They've got a building problem, they've got a financial problem, they have a problem to solve. Can I tell you, as a leader, a problem to solve is a gold mine for a leader, because when you solve that problem, you earn leadership points that you can pay forward for the next mountain that God wants you to climb in your church, your organization, your team, your school. Mike Tyson said famously everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. I get it. We get sometimes, as leaders, punched in the face, but we encounter problems. Problems are our friends if we see them as an opportunity to overcome an obstacle and prove ourselves as leaders.
Speaker 2:Leaders define reality, paint a preferred future. Leaders define the vision and then they defend the vision. Leaders see obstacles as opportunities and leaders understand the importance of systems and structures as you study the life of the nation of Israel, you'll find that they started to put the plan together. I mean, that wasn't haphazard. They decided who needed to go first through the Jordan River. Let's send the priest with the Ark. They decided which tribes would follow. They decided a strategy for defeating the city of Jericho, which they thought was insurmountable. It was an odd, strange strategy Walk around it, you know, seven days and shout, and the walls would come down. But it was a God given strategy and they had a system and a strategy for success. And as a leader, it's incumbent upon you to have a system, a structure and a strategy for success.
Speaker 2:So let's delve in a little deeper now into the life of a leader. First of all, what does the leader need from God? I think that's an important question. As I'm leading my business, as I'm leading my organization. What do I need from God?
Speaker 2:Joshua and Joshua 1, verse 6 and 9, let me just take the time to read it here from the scriptures. It says be strong and courageous, for you will distribute the land I swore to your ancestors to give as an inheritance. Above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction. My servant Moses commanded you Do not turn from it to the right or left, so that you will have success wherever you go. This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth. You are to meditate on it day and night, so that you may be carefully observant of everything written in it, for then you will prosper and succeed in what you do. Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go.
Speaker 2:As a leader, I need two or three things from God. I need a divine purpose. I need to God, for God to give me my marching orders, and God did that for Joshua. You will distribute the land I swore to their ancestors to give as an inheritance. So I need marching orders. I need to get a word from God. I need to get along with God, get a word from God and have a divine purpose. Men, as I step out and as you step out as a leader, you need some divine promises.
Speaker 2:Verse seven and eight says, above all, be strong and courageous. To observe carefully the whole instruction. Do not turn to the right or the left. Meditate on God's word day and night. I need to lean and trust on those divine promises that God has in his word, promises that God has for all of us that we can do exceedingly, abundantly. Above all, that we think are asked that my God is able to provide all our needs according to his riches and glory, according to Christ Jesus. That the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of the Lord Jesus. All of these are promises that we need to bank on, that he gives us in the word. But perhaps the most important promise and the third thing that we need, as a leader from God is not only divine purpose and divine promises, but while we need his divine presence.
Speaker 2:I love how verse nine ends. It says for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go. And so, as a leader man, you can trust God to make the big changes. You can trust God to take the big risk. You can trust God to step into the river when it's flowing and believe that God will stop the flow of the water. You can trust God that when you walk around the walls of Jericho, which seems insurmountable and impenetrable, that God is gonna be with you.
Speaker 2:And in the lonely times and here's the thing about leadership the more successful you become as a leader, the more isolated you become. It seems contradictory, but it's true. The larger your organization is that you lead as a leader, the more isolated the primary leader becomes, and it's just part of the life of the leader. But know that you're not completely isolated, that God is with you, that you have his presence, and so, as we look into the life of a leader kind of an inside picture what does the leader need from God? But when he also had to ask the question, what does the people need from the leader In our organization?
Speaker 2:As we look at our staff and our people I'm looking at a couple of our staff members right now as we're filming this and taping this podcast what do they need from me as a leader? First of all, I think you'll look at Joshua one. I think they need direction. I think they need direction In verse 10, it says and Joshua commanded the officers of the people go through the camp, tell the people get provisions ready for yourselves, for within three days you'll be crossing the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land the Lord, your God, is giving you to inherit it. They need direction. People need okay. Here's the plan and here's what we're gonna do, and here's how we're gonna do it.
Speaker 2:It's not many times. It's not that the people in our organizations don't want to do what we want to do, it's that they don't know what we want to do. Leaders I say this often, but leaders see before and they must see more. Write that out. Leaders see before and they must see more. So the leader of the organization he always sees before it happens. That's called leadership, and then they also always see more of the possibilities of what can happen.
Speaker 2:One of the curses of leadership I say to our team often this as well one of the curses of leadership is we can never afford to just live in the now. We have to always live in the next. And so I'll give you an example. This past week at our church, we hosted the first annual SB awards. It's a spin off ESPN's SB awards. It's excellence in service performance yearly and we're celebrating the amazing, awesome volunteers we have in our church, and our team did an extraordinary job pulling it off. It was amazing. We had custom tennis shoes made for the winners of each award. We created some traditions around some people, the heroes that we created and celebrated. The food was amazing. We had a harpist there that played, the atmosphere was like spot on. Our team did an incredible job, pulling off the first annual ESPN's, and the only thing rolling through my mind on Sunday night is how in the world are we going to do this better next year?
Speaker 2:Because, as a leader, I can't afford just to live in the now. I'm already thinking about the next, and that's part of leadership. And so your people need you to be out front. What do your people, what are the people in your organization need from you as a leader? They need direction, and we talked about this in a recent podcast and if you haven't listened to it, I hope you'll go back and pick it up, the podcast on delegation. They need you to delegate. They need you to say okay, here's what I want you to do, here's what I need you to do. And then they need from you dependability, and they need you to know that you're going to be there with them, that you're going to not change the goalpost in the middle of the game. They need dependability.
Speaker 2:Finally, as we delve into the life of the leader for just a few moments, what the leader needs from God, what the people need from the leader, but also what the leader needs from the people. Look at verse 16 of chapter one of Joshua. Just listen as I read. It says they answered Joshua, everything you have commanded us, we will do. I love this as a leader. Man, this is gold. Everything you have commanded us, we will do and everywhere you send us, we will go, we will obey you. It says. Man, I love that. I love the fact that the people were supportive of a leader that was worthy of their support. I get it.
Speaker 2:I understand not every leader in every organization is necessarily worthy of the supportive people. I get it. I understand that some people say well, pastor or preacher or boss, I'm not going to be a yes man, and I understand that we want healthy conflict and opposition to ideas inside our team. But I also say you don't need to become known as the no man or the no woman on our team. Also, it's okay I heard this recently it's okay to ask questions. If you're in the organization, as you're relating to the leader, it's okay to ask questions. Listen to this, though it's not okay to have a questioning spirit, and you know the difference and we see it and we identify it.
Speaker 2:So I like to say don't be a hater, be an elevator. You know, don't pull down the leader. Lift up the leader. The leader is going to need your loyalty. He's going to need your prayerfulness. It says in verse 17, we will obey you just as we have obeyed Moses and everything. Certainly, the Lord will be with you, as he was with Moses. I think that we're praying God be with Joshua. We're praying for our leader, we're supportive of our leader. But also the leader deserves to be accountable.
Speaker 2:The Bible says in verse I think verse 18 says anyone who rebels against your order and does not obey your words in all that you command him will be put to death. I have that on a wall in my office. I show it to our staff often. If anybody does not do what I say, he shall be put to death.
Speaker 2:I'm joking, but the principle here if we kind of scan out and look through the New Testament lens, the principle is here is that the people have a responsibility to be accountable for their actions and for their work and for what you do inside the organizations, and leaders must be accountable to those who have authority under them and above them. I like to say if you're too big to take orders, you're probably too big to give orders, and so there's a mutual accountability. Leaders must be to those they aspire to be like. They must be to those who they aspire to be like. And so if I want the people in my organization, if I look in the life of myself as a leader, if I want the people in my organization to be accountable to me, I need to be accountable certainly to God, but in our context, I need to be accountable to our elders. I need to be accountable to a peer group that can speak into me in a healthy way to hold me accountable and listen.
Speaker 2:I hope you've kind of enjoyed kind of a strange look at leadership, kind of peek into the life of a leader, and I hope that this has helped you, both as a leader but also as someone who has a leader over them in their organization and how you relate to them, what the leader needs from God, what the leader needs from the people that he leads, and what the people need from a leader. It's been a great time. It's been a great moment. We always look for those leadership drop hashtag might drop moments in the leadership drop podcast, and so until next time.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the leadership drop podcast. Be sure to like, subscribe and share. In case you missed it, here's our might drop moment.
Speaker 2:I say this often, but leaders see before and they must see more. Write that out Leaders see before and they must see more. So the leader of the organization, he always sees before it happens. That's called leadership. And then they also always see more of the possibilities of what can happen. One of the curses of leadership I say to our team often this as well One of the curses of leadership is we can never afford to just live in the now, we have to always live in the next. This is the second. Thank you guys doing great. Great week, mike prayer.