Lead Strong: Leadership Lessons From The Bible - Part 3Sample

Leaders Are Owners We will all make mistakes. It’s inevitable. Regardless of how hard we try, we are going to fail. In fact, here’s a short list of mistakes that I’ve made in the last week or so: · I refused to show gratitude to someone who had loved me well. · I gossiped to one staff member about another staff member because I wanted them to know they had hurt my feelings. · I lost my temper with my kids because they dripped sweet tea on my newly mopped kitchen floor. · There’s a chance I might not have been honest when asked about leading a committee at my kids’ school. I have a friend who says, “Sometimes life is going to be trial and error, so you just have to learn from your trial and learn from your error.” And isn’t that the truth? We don’t always have all the answers. We have good intentions and yet still give into temptation. We hear God speaking to us and sometimes ignore what He is asking. However, as leaders, we must own our mistakes because leaders are owners. In the midst of failure, how do we own our mistakes? 1. Admit faults – This is so hard. Typing my mistake list above was so hard for me. All those mistakes I’ve made recently make me wonder if someone might judge me while reading them. But what I’ve come to learn in leadership is the mistake, regardless of how innocent or unintentional, matters to the one we have offended or hurt. 2. Accept responsibility - Eve got this right. She might have made the first mistake, but she admitted “And I ate it.” The simple words “I’m sorry” carry a lot of power. However, often when it comes to accepting responsibility and apologizing, we feel we need to build a case, defend ourselves and our actions, or explain our side of things. When what we really need to focus on is building a bridge between ourselves and the offended. When we offer a simple, no-excuse apology to someone we’ve hurt, it goes a long way. We aren’t perfect. Leading well through our mistakes is what will be remembered and talked about, not the mistake itself. How well do you own your faults and accept responsibility for your actions? Allow God to show you where you need to grow in this area. By Brandi Wilson