The Most Excellent Way To Lead |  |
Day 7 of 7
Am I Loving The People I Lead?
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is writing about spiritual gifts, leadership, and the importance of embracing your gifting. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul continues this line of reasoning as he talks about leaders sounding a clear call.
But right in the middle is 1 Corinthians 13, commonly known as "the love chapter." If you have ever attended a Christian wedding ceremony, you have most likely heard a verse or two quoted.
For years, the placement of 1 Corinthians 13 puzzled me. Then one day it hit me like a brick in the face-1 Corinthians 13 is a chapter on how to lead, not how to be a great spouse.
Leaders cannot effectively lead people we do not love. If we applied 1 Corinthians 13 to our leadership, would it describe how we treat the people God placed under our authority? Consider what love is:
1. Love is patient.
Am I giving others the same room to make mistakes as I want them to give me?
2. Love is kind.
Do the people I lead actually like being around me? If you want to know the answer to this question, just ask yourself how much they ask to hang out with you outside of work!
3. Love always protects.
Do I have my staff's back? It's discouraging to work for someone who demands loyalty but will not extend it.
4. Love always trusts.
Do I believe the people who lead their assigned areas can make day to day decisions without my input?
5. Love always hopes.
Do I always automatically assume the worst or the best about people? It is amazing what can happen when the leader believes in the people he leads.
6. Love always perseveres.
Am I quick to give up on people after they make one mistake, or am I willing to teach them through it?
7. Love never fails.
Do I have a high turnover or a low turnover in the number of people who work with me/for me? If the number is high then maybe it isn't the people failing.
People will not remember us for what we accomplish. But they will remember how we made them feel and what we helped them to accomplish. This leadership style is guaranteed to see results. 1 Corinthians 13:8 says love will not fail. Leadership by love is the most excellent way.
What's Next:
Who have you encouraged lately?
Are you more interested in who your staff is becoming or what they are doing? 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 KJV
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. |
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