You Probably Can’t Trust What You’re Hearing

on April 12th, 2009

Thinking about the power of community in leadership this week – how a leader who stands alone is in a dangerous position. When all you think are your thoughts and your passions crowd out others, you could soon find yourself in a situation where you’re leading, and no one is following. Very few leaders truly see the big picture of their organization completely honestly, our perspectives are skewed by the passions we have and the burdens we carry. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – churches are often earmarked by passionate leaders in specific areas of influence. But a good leader hears other perspectives from trusted counselors and weighs them against their own.

You probably can’t solely trust you own perspective. You are the leader for a reason, but don’t lead alone.
You probably can’t always trust what you hear. You will hear what you want to hear, and people who agree with you will be the most vocal.
A good leader might have to dig up and draw out a holistic perspective.

Let me explain the idea with examples:

  • If you’re evangelistic by nature, you’ll always be thinking about reaching the next student and not thinking about growing the ones you already have. Like me, balance will be difficult for you.
  • If you’re a traditionalist, you’ll hear mostly from people wanting to remain traditional. When someone does have the courage to speak to you about change, you have stacks of mental notes already against the idea because you’ve stored evidence that supports your position. You fight against change or easily dismiss it altogether without another thought.
  • If you’re a worship pastor, you lean toward more experiences and expressions of worship naturally. Also, you’ll hear from people like you who love to express their heart in singing and have to fight to think outside of the song box.
  • If you’re a numbers person, your default will often and quickly be “no” because of the cost. Leading in community weighs the cost and the return and occasionally gives the green light to a ridiculous-but-God-idea.

A leader must serve in community to be able to hear many voices, and staff around him or her the passions that they don’t posses naturally. Proverbs 15:22 says, “Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.”

Don’t believe everything you hear, think or feel. Trust your leadership in community.

JG


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Comment (1)

josh at 2:52pm April 13

I would argue this is one of the top 5 most important messages a leader needs to hear. I think about this truth all the time … it’s why I enjoy working with a team so much.