Four Ways to Improve Your Leadership
Paul in his first letter to the church of the Thessalonians leaves final instructions. In these final instructions, he urges the leaders to take four actions: to admonish, to help, to encourage, and to be patient. These same actions are relevant to leaders today. Sadly, these actions that can rarely be seen today in the executive suites of leading companies. These actions should be followed by not only church leaders and executives, but by leaders of any field, at any level. One doesn’t need a formal position to be a leader. These actions can and should be applied to everyday life.
1. Admonish the idle. Another way of saying this is “to caution the lazy.” We were not meant to sit around idle. W sometimes sit around waiting so long to find God’s will for our lives, that we become paralyzed into inaction. Kevin DeYoung in his book, Just Do Something, reminds readers that God’s plan for our lives is to love Him with our whole hearts, obey His word, and after that, do what we like. Augustine, said, “love God and do as you please.” How can this be so? If we are rightly loving God, engaged in our spiritual disciplines, not practicing sin – then our hearts will merry up with God’s heart for our lives and our will for our lives will be His will for our lives, freeing up us to do the work of which we were created for. The work that will bring glory to God. As leaders, we must not be fearful to challenge those under our care to get to work!
2. Encourage the fainthearted. Attending Ranger School taught me a personal mindset that becoming a Ranger was not being weak or fainthearted. Those lessons were necessary and of value then, but now I realize that there are many that are fainthearted and if we are honest, we (Rangers) can be tempted to feel weak and faint of heart. The key is in our times of feeling faint of heart, that we do not stay there. We ought to reach out for help. As a leader to do make a habit of finding those whom you lead that may be faint of heart to encourage them.
3. Help the weak. A team is only as strong as their weakest link. As leaders come across people that are weak, it is not time to criticize them. It is the time to build them up. One practice that has served me well as a leader is to criticize in private and praise in public. Following this practice, leaders will soon find those that were once weak on the team beginning to lead others well.
4. Be Patient. Finally, leaders ought to be patient with all these people. This requires two types of effort. We must be patient with the idle, fainthearted, and weak, but also, we must be patient in the process of admonishing, encouraging, and helping.