Leading With My Ears
My school year is almost done...more importantly my rookie year as a leader is at its close. I cannot believe how much I have learned, how much leadership was/is more than I expected, and how much inner work truly goes into this role. The list could truly go on and on.
During a particularly trying part of this new chapter of leadership I was reading a passage in I Kings 12 that so resonated with my everyday that it truly revived my prayer life and stimulated me to act with such courage and confidence. It was when King Solomon had just died and his son Rehoboam has stepped into his place. The people of the successful nation that Solomon had built came to Rehoboam and essentially asked him, "How are you going to lead?" He asks for some time and then consults with the elders that served his father. Those elders told him to listen to the people, speak kind words to them, and become their servant. Then he went to his buddies and they essentially told him, "Do not listen to those people; tell them and show them how tough you are going to be." Rehoboam listened to his buddies and not to the needs of the people he led. The people in turn did not listen to Rehoboam and left. His leadership was subsequently riddled with conflict and failures.
Millennia removed from Rehoboam's terrible leadership decision, how needed is the lesson of "leading with my ears" even today? What if leaders were to lead with their ears; listening to the needs of those who follow? Further, what if we as leaders were to go, counsel with righteous people (as Proverbs tells us "there is wisdom in the multitude of counselors") and listen to that counsel? Talk about transformational leadership.
When I went to work this same morning the Holy Spirit gave me a renewed heart to listen...to lead with my ears. In conversations and meetings I asked for feedback, then listened to it, and honestly experienced a higher level of success, buy-in, and team-work in the process. May it be a regular occurrence that we lead with our ears.
During a particularly trying part of this new chapter of leadership I was reading a passage in I Kings 12 that so resonated with my everyday that it truly revived my prayer life and stimulated me to act with such courage and confidence. It was when King Solomon had just died and his son Rehoboam has stepped into his place. The people of the successful nation that Solomon had built came to Rehoboam and essentially asked him, "How are you going to lead?" He asks for some time and then consults with the elders that served his father. Those elders told him to listen to the people, speak kind words to them, and become their servant. Then he went to his buddies and they essentially told him, "Do not listen to those people; tell them and show them how tough you are going to be." Rehoboam listened to his buddies and not to the needs of the people he led. The people in turn did not listen to Rehoboam and left. His leadership was subsequently riddled with conflict and failures.
Millennia removed from Rehoboam's terrible leadership decision, how needed is the lesson of "leading with my ears" even today? What if leaders were to lead with their ears; listening to the needs of those who follow? Further, what if we as leaders were to go, counsel with righteous people (as Proverbs tells us "there is wisdom in the multitude of counselors") and listen to that counsel? Talk about transformational leadership.
When I went to work this same morning the Holy Spirit gave me a renewed heart to listen...to lead with my ears. In conversations and meetings I asked for feedback, then listened to it, and honestly experienced a higher level of success, buy-in, and team-work in the process. May it be a regular occurrence that we lead with our ears.
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