Leadership Killers
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Lecture-7
Before starting lecture, let me make sure again that you have to have lecture notes and print it out before starting lecture due to differences in how lecturer and students pronounce certain words;
I. Fellowship & Leadership
People tend to think of leadership as a subject of great interest and excitement.
We see so many schools, programs, and books with catch phrases “Raising the
leaders of the next generation.”
While they all claim to grow leaders, they do not pay nearly enough attention to
The reason why we face so many problems in today’s world is not because of lack of , but rather because of lack of followership.
Everyone wants to lead and no one wants .
It is a no brainer why there is so much confusion in our society.
Jesus rarely mentioned in the Bible, but he constantly mentioned
followership. “Follow me; and I will make you fishers of men.”
This means that we must learn how to follow the Lord completely in order to become the leader who leads others.
“anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
This also means that to follow is just as difficult as to lead. “whoever wants to
become great among you must be your servant”
A spiritual leader must be the first, in other words, it is a servant
Leadership like Jesus did.
What does this teach us?
We must become the person who completely obeys God, who completely follows God, regardless of our social status, our experience, our education, and our abilities.
This is the only way we can have a true authority.
“The man or woman who is wholly or joyously surrendered to Christ can’t make a wrong Choice / any choice will be the right one.”
- Qualities of a good follower:
It is easy to think that a follower is just someone who listens to the and do
what he’s told. But we must break that stereotype first.
The word “follow” meaning help or patronize.
So we can define “follower” as someone who a leader cannot survive without, someone who helps a leader.
Therefore, the relationship between these two word, “follower” and “leader” is on
an footing like both side of coin. We can image if we have only one foot.
Let’s look at some of the qualities of a good follower
1). Commitment:
A good follower is not loyal to an individual, but commits himself to a mission or a .
Many charismatic leaders try to make people follow them, and tend to mistake the loyalty of his followers as a loyalty to himself as a man, but that’s wrong 100 out of 100 times.
A good follower only follows only when he is convinced that the vision pursued by his leader comes from .
A good follower does not follow a man unconditionally.
A group that has followers committed to a and a group that has followers
committed to a man are as different as a day and night.
2). Competence and focus:
No matter how committed they are, if the followers are not equipped with the competence and focus to complete their , the commitment loses its strength.
That’s like a captain giving out an order to go, but sailors not knowing how to work their parts to make the ship move.
Excellent followers must continue harnessing their skills in order to be the best at where they are.
Especially in a society like today’s where there are so many networks and changes taking place every minute, every team leader must be a mini-CEO.
Each follower must be able to think and carry out the decision based on “If I was the leader, what would I do in this situation?”
3). Honest & wise evaluation:
Follower must continually evaluate himself and evaluate whether the leadership is moving in the right direction. When we think of being evaluated, we tend to think our authority being challenged.
However, better student you are, you will welcome tests as that’s the only way you’re
will be acknowledged.
One of the executives of a construction company in Singapore said that it is easy to do business in Singapore since the only thing he has to do is to follow the rules.
The high quality can only come from setting the highest standards.
The purpose of evaluation is to the leadership and lead the organization to
success, and is not to and bring them down.
II. Qualities & ability of a leader
An organization called T.P.G. Running System, known for its studies on leadership,
conducted a survey asking two questions:
First question was “What do you think are the qualities your leader must possess?” and the second question was “what are the qualities you want out of your colleagues?”
Both poll questions showed that they want “ “first and foremost. Whether it is their leader or their colleagues, they regarded honesty more important than any other qualities.
Two questions showed different answers, however, after honesty.
*Thomas Elliott lists as essential qualities of leadership
- H : a basic principle that binds everyone in a close-knit society where each one is given certain rights
- P : wisdom to decide what to do and what not to do; it not only refers to the ability to concentrate on the issue at hand before carrying out your decision, but also the ability to control yourself and to avoid rushing into a decision
- M : the ability to control oneself; if a leader rules with reason, his ability will become a virtue; if a leader rules with instincts, emotions, and passion, his ability will become a vice.
- C : to make difficult decisions is a must for leaders.
- E to dignity; wisdom to know whether a certain action is appropriate for himself or for the others. It consists of merciful heart to give away what you have earned for yourself.
III. Communicating as Leader
The reason why we need to address this topic is that one cannot stress enough how important it is for a leader to be able to communicate his thoughts well enough.
To be leader,
- Writing,
- Speech, (The tone and flow of your voice is just as important as the content of
your message itself. Only 7% of the people concentrate on the message itself,
while 38% focus on your voice and the remaining 55% looks at non-lingual
expressions.
This means factors other than the message itself are just as important, if not more)
- Letters, (this is very important)
- Gestures,
- Image,
- Manner,
- Appearance, (it is often said that the right looks can give you 6-8% more votes
than the wrong; in case of women, it is more than 10%.
Whether you use more words or gestures can change the results of an election.
It tells us how important it is for a leader to have the right looks),
All are important points as leader.
Robert W Wood, a former CEO of Coca Cola became famous for his quote,
“What is flowing through my body is not my blood, but .”
The ability to communicate as a leader is that important, as a message can equal leadership.
I like this address of Robert, because I can confess that “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me ad gave himself for me”(Gal 2:20) Amen !
IV. How does a leader lead oneself to the right path?
You must realize that you are the most difficult person to to the right path, and take
various measures to escape the trap.
You must remember the following 3 principles and work hard to lead yourself to the right path before trying to do so for others.
3 principles
1). Learn .
Bishop Fulton Sheen said, “When authority is given to those who have yet to learn to obey,
the civilization has always been put in danger.”
Only leaders who have served their know how to effectively lead.
In order to be a good leader, you need to know where your followers are.
You can only effectively communicate with them when you think from their points of view.
Therefore, leaders who have served their leaders know what it means to be under certain
and understand how that authority should be exercised.
On the other hand, those leaders who have never served other leaders or obeyed to the
authority are arrogant, unrealistic, stubborn, and prone to fall into being a dictator.
King Friedrich of Prussia was taking a walk outside the walls of Berlin and met with an old
man walking in a straight posture.
King Friedrich asked the old man,
“Who are you?” The old man answered,
“I am the king”. King Friedrich started laughing.
“You are the King? Which kingdom do you rule?”
“I rule myself.”
We are all kings ruling our .
Therefore, we must be able to take responsibilities for our actions and decisions.
You need to have character and to make the right decisions and to act
appropriate to the situation, and not to do anything you would end up regretting.
Without that, we cannot adequately control ourselves.
So we end up doing something we regret right after, and blow chances given to us.
The fools want to conquer the , but the wise want to conquer .
2) Be patient
Leaders have tendency to be anxious. Leaders look ahead, think about the future, and
want to move forward.
If we take one step at a time with this mindset, we can be great leaders.
However, you must avoid being .
If you try to take 50 steps all at once, you will be martyred.
It is extremely rare that you get something valuable in life overnight.
You cannot become great and mature overnight.
We are used to instant coffee, Hand phone pictures, and microwave popcorns, but no one
can become a overnight.
You can’t expect patience out of a microwave popcorn type leader.
Leadership is like a steamer, slow cooker.
It takes time, but the outcome of it is always rewarding.
The role of a leader is not to cross the finish line the fastest.
You must be able to encourage and lead your to cross that finish line with you.
You also must be able to constantly communicate with your people, encourage them and
provide support for them to reach their goals.
How can a leader do all these if he is running ahead of everyone else?
3) Have a sense of accountability/responsibility
Those who manage themselves well know that they cannot trust themselves.
Great leaders know that power is a temptation, but they also know that they can make .
Leaders who deny these simple truths are prone to put themselves and their organizations in
danger.
When you read books about leaders who failed ethically, you can see that all thought it would never happen to them.
They did not think seriously about the pitfalls of having the .
They never even dreamed of hurting themselves or others.
Many think that explaining their actions proactively is equivalent to having the sense of responsibility.
However, it starts even before we take any actions.
Furthermore, it has to start from the time you ask for from other people.
The willingness to seek advice and accept them is the indication of a responsible leader.
If we ask for advice before taking action, the possibility of missing the target will be greatly
reduced.
In other words, it is because we are not responsible enough, the undesirable outcome comes about.
A former CEO of IBM, Thomas J Watson said, “There is no stronger evidence of leadership than the ability to manage on a day to day basis.”
The smallest organization we must lead is ourselves, but it is also the most important.
When we manage well, we can learn the right to lead a larger organization.
V. 7 things What Leaders Must Know
- 3 Reasons not to send ducks to eagle school.
1). If you send ducks to eagle schools, it will only disappoint .
You must look at the reality as it is. Ducks can’t be eagles. They don’t want to be . Everyone has their place in society. Ducks have their own strengths and should be judged by those strengths. They can swim well, can work well within the framework of team, and can travel long distance well. However, if you ask eagles to swim or travel thousands of miles, they wouldn’t know what to do.
Leadership is an ability to place their personnel at the right place at the right time to
their chances of success.
A leader must understand what he has and let people do things that can maximize their strengths. You shouldn’t blame ducks. You should never demand ducks to fly high in the sky and hunt. Ducks are not born to do that.
2) If you send ducks to eagle schools, you will disappoint as well.
People feel most at ease if they see similarities amongst themselves.
Eagles don’t want to be friends with .
They don’t want to walk around in your front yard and swim in your pond.
To eagles, ducks mean nothing.
Those who are used to move quickly and to fly high will be frustrated when they are put in the same room with those who aren’t.
3). Sending ducks to eagle school will disappoint too.
Have you ever led an organization that performed below your expectations?
Have you had anyone who didn’t succeed, even after you motivate them, train them, provide all the necessary resources, and give them more than enough chances?
That is very common.
They may not be the only problem.
You may be the cause of the problem.
In story of “Mother Goose”,
“Kitty, Kitty, where have you been?”
“I went to London to meet the queen.”
“Kitty, Kitty, what did you do there?”
“I surprised a mouse hiding underneath the chair.”
Why did the cat chase after a mouse after going all the way to London to meet the queen?
It is because he was a .
What else do you expect a cat to do?
Cats do what cats do and ducks do what ducks do, and eagles do what eagles do.
If you bring in ducks and ask them to do the work of eagles, a leader is to blame.
The role of a leader is to ducks to better ducks, and eagles to better eagles.
In other words, putting people at the right and the right so that they can reach their potential is the real of a leader.
As mentioned above, you should never repeat the mistake of trying to turn a into an eagle
It will not only disappoint them, but it will also disappoint .
It is difficult for anyone to succeed in an area where you have no in.
Why is that?
Let’s look at this in more detail.
In an area of our choice, the potential growth is almost infinite.
Attitude is a choice; responsibility is a choice.
On the other hand, talent is not a choice; it is a gift of heaven.
We can only choose whether we develop that talent or not.
Even if we decide to develop a talent we are not given, we will not likely to see great growth
Therefore, if you have someone within your organization that can swim and run around well, send him to a duck school.
No matter how smart or proactive he is, he can never be an .
You won’t see too big of a change regardless of how hard you try to develop a talent you are not given.
There are those who have talent for teaching, talent for praising, talent for serving…
Leader must be able to find someone most suitable for a particular task.
For the good of an organization, there is no more important role than this to a leader.
If you need eagles, it is your job as a leader to find an eagle that has characteristics you have seen in other eagles.
Look carefully for an eagle.
If you can’t find it within your , you have to look elsewhere.
If you need great eagles for your organization, get out there to find them.
That is the only way to groom him to a great.
You can’t replace it with a duck just because you don’t have too much time.
No matter how hard you train him, you will not hear anything else but ” “
Don’t send a tone deaf-person to praising team of church.
- Why do people leave?
1) They leave leaders who do not know their value to an .
When leaders underestimate the value of their employees, they tend to do whatever they want with them.
In other words, they start treating them like objects, not as a human being. It shouldn’t be that way.
2) They leave leaders who they cannot .
Have you ever worked with someone you can’t trust?
If you have, I am sure it must have been horrible.
No one wants to work with someone they can’t trust.
There are reasons why leaders lose this trust:
*They talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk.
*They are after individual gains, rather than those of the .
*They do not share information
*They lie or tell half the truth
*They are narrow minded and cowardly.
If this is broken between the leader and his followers, the outcome is very similar to a broken mirror.
When you throw a mirror against a rock, the mirror will be shattered. You can gather the pieces, put them back together, and restore the mirror to a reasonable level, but you cannot hide the fact that it had been broken.
The worse the damage was, the more distorted the you will see on that mirror.
When you lose that faith in a human relationship, it is very difficult to recover from that.
According to the report by Manchester Consulting, the surest way for a leader to instill faith and trust to his followers are as follows:
* They are faithful and honest
* They let their goals and values honestly.
* They think of their follows are equal partners and respect them.
* They focus on the goal of the team, than that of an individual
* They act justly, in spite of personal risk.
3) They leave those who are incompetent
4) They leave those who lack self-confidence.
Discussion
- Do your followers trust you?
- 2. How do you treat your followers?
- Do you express your gratitude to your followers?
- Who is the most difficult person to lead to the right path?
Someone asked me what the most difficult thing for me was as a leader.
My answer to him was “It was to lead myself to the right path; many years I’ve spent
as a leader, there was nothing more difficult than that.”
No matter what organization you lead or what goals you pursue, all leaders are the same.
When we think of great leaders mentioned often in history, we tend to think that they had everything.
But when we look at their lives more closely, we can see that they struggled to keep
on the right path.
King David, George Washington, Winston Churchill, there was no exception.
For this reason, the most difficult person to the lead to the right path is always the leader himself.
Walter Kelly said in his famous satire, “We always meet our enemies and they are always
Our selves.”
Whenever I acknowledge the difficulties in guiding myself to the right path, there is always painful memories of failures.
Failures in my leadership was always my own personal .
How about you ?
- The true leadership comes out at the time of crisis/sufferings.
I think these critical times are turning points in our life.
They give us to change directions in our lives and to look for new destinations.
Therefore, these critical times are also chances to make .
At this time, we must make a choice.
Our choices at these times decide our .
Which way will you choose?
No matter what your choices are, that is a new and it determines our future.
For these reasons, you will never be the after these critical times.
These are not always positive.
I’ve had to go through so many difficult situations.
However, I was able to stop everything and change through these
experiences
‘.. we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance ; perseverance, character, and character, hope”(Rome 5:4-5)
We remember Job’s suffering
“But he knows the way that I take when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold”(Job 23:10)
- Prepare for the moment that will decide your future.
John Maxwell said in his book “Today Matters”,
* Attitude: I will to have the right attitude every day and act based on that.
* Priority: I will my priorities every day and act accordingly
* Health: I will set principles to my health and follow them.
* Family: I will attention to my family every day and spend time with them.
* Thoughts: I will to think good thoughts and practice them.
* Responsibility: I will appropriate amount of appointments and keep them.
* Finances: I will make every day and manage it appropriately
* Faith: I will foster my faith every day and according to that faith.
* Relationship: I will work hard to establish and good relationship with
fellow human beings
* Generosity: I will set to be generous every day and set good examples
* Value: I will good values every day and do something valuable.
* Growth: I want to grow and every day and will do that eventually.
Because I already set these principles ahead of time, I do not need to worry about
these things in times to make critical decisions.
I just need to focus on the at hand and make a based on my principles.
Group discussion / Meditation:
- What type of critical moments have you experienced so far?
1) In what circumstances
2) What decisions did you make and what reactions did you show?
What was the outcome?
- How did you make decisions?
- Think about what your decisions will do for your future.
- Principle of 80/20
* 80% of traffic jams take place in 20% of the roads
* 20% consume 80% of beers
* 20% of the students contribute to 80% of class discussion
* We wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time
* 80% of our problems come from 20% of our employees
* 20% of information leads to 80% of decisions
This means that 20% is much more productive than the remaining 80%
If we are to simply life and increase productivity, we must focus on that 20%.
I realized two things while learning about this.
One is that I am doing too much work and the other is that I am doing something totally
unnecessary
I can’t help but be ineffective.
I decide like:
- I decide not to be about everything
- I decide not to try to about everything.
- I decide to have who can take my place.
- I decide to on my strengths, and not my strength.
- 12 ways to control, but not lead
1). They use superior biblical knowledge to oppress the .
2). They distort the true meaning of the Bible to use as tools for their personal .
3). They show signs of immaturities such as getting angry, screaming, etc to make others uncomfortable.
4). They threaten to if they don’t have their way
5). They secretly other elders to have their positions supported
6). They insisting on their ways until everyone is so tired that they just raise their hands in defeat.
7). They do things people’s back.
8). They their decisions before appropriate departments make their decisions; that way, they have no other choice but to follow that decision.
9). They rebuke their opposition during .
10). They use their , saying, “The Lord told me to do it this way.”
11). They come up with every answer and every , and just tell people what to do. They do not people chance to think, make suggestions, or participate in making plans.
12). They lead all meetings by themselves. They do not allow anyone to speak during those meetings. They do not anyone to pray, read the scripture, or speak for these meetings.
In other words, they do not allow any chance for anyone to be .
IIIV. Standard of leaders
The best way to interpret the Bible is to do so not based on other books or doctrines, but based on the words themselves
When I was in the middle school, my father wanted to build a fence around the house.
It was important for each board to have a little bit of space between them, so that
wind still could flow through them but steady enough to protect against natural hazards.
“Son, we will be putting up boards about 3 inches thick, in 2.5 inches interval.
So first, cut yourself a measuring stick and use that to mark all the other boards.”
“Okay, Dad. I think I can do that.”
“Good; we need about 200 boards, so we’d better get to it.”
As my dad showed me, I marked the board and cut the measuring stick.
Then I used that to mark the next board and cut it; then I used the new stick to mark
the next board and cut it.”
That went on for a long time.
But I didn’t realize that the sticks got a little bit longer every time I cut a new piece
from the board.
This small mistakes became increasingly noticeable as the number of boards
increased.
Can you imagine what happened?
It became lunch time, so we decided to go inside, have our lunch, and continue
working in the afternoon.
Before going inside, my father looked at all the boards cut all morning.
He was too busy putting the fence together that he didn’t have the time to look at
He stood back a few feet and looked at the fence. His face started cringe a
little bit, and said, “Oh My Goodness!”
“What happened here?” Then he took his ruler out and measured the size of the
last piece he nailed together.
It was closer to 4 inches rather than 2.5 inches as originally planned.
He was not a happy camper here.
“What did you do? How did you cut these?”
He exploded!!
“I told you to use the first stick to measure all the rest of them!!”
Countless Christians make the same mistakes.
Once they notice they are off the track, they always go back to their favorite
author, or favorite speakers, or the denominational doctrines.
They are all very good resources, but God never based his words on those.
The Bible must be the standard by which everything is .
The Bible is the greatest leader to lead all leaders and human being as well.
In authority of Bible, we recognize/ realize clarity of the Bible, purity of the Bible, adequacy of the Bible, and man’s manual.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful to teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness/ so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2Thimo3: 16-17) Amen !
Assignment:
- What is a follower’s qualities ?
- What is a leader’s qualities ?
- Why does a leader has to have follow-ship ?
- What is differences in leadership between Nehemiah and Jesus ?(5-6 pages).
- What kind of leadership do you have in your areas as spiritual leader?(5-7 pages)
- Explain of Moses’s leadership(it is your option to get extra points of grade)
Final Exam
Final exam will take place after all lectures and assignments are completed.
Rev Mapendo will make an announcement on this on a later date.(within 2 days)
Distance Learning Rules:
You need to print all lecture notes before listening to the lecture audio files;
2. Underlined parts in the lecture notes are questions; write your answers to each; and turn in your answer papers to Rev. Mapendo
3. To reiterate, I want you to say that you may need to listen to the lecture at least twice as the quality of audio may not be optimal and there may be differences in how lecturer and students pronounce certain words;
4. Each audio file is 40-60 minutes long but to complete assignments required for each lecture may take 4-6 hours. Assignments are due the day of the lecture, therefor you would need to continue working until finished;
5. 7 audio files and lecture notes are for 7 days;
6. the assignments need to be sent to Rev Mapendo, who will compile and send to me for review and grading;
7. Final exam will take place after all lectures and assignments are completed. Rev Mapendo will make an announcement on this on a later date.
Appendix:
- Leadership of JOSHUA
- Language of a Leader
If we are opening our mouths and speaking, we are expressing who we are.
Language is like the house of a human existence.
Jesus said that we can find out who he really is by his words (Luke 6:44-45).
In his words, his existence lies and his thoughts reside.
In his words, we see his character, intelligence, beliefs, attitudes, and more
importantly where his heart is.
Through his words, we see his state of mind.
Because:
Words are like life. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who
love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21)
Words are like seeds, but just like life becomes active, life becomes active in
our words.
When we sow the words, those words become life and bear fruits.
What’s important is what kind of words we sow.
If we sow words of death, then we reap death; if we sow words of life, we reap
life.
- We must not use words to criticize (Numbers 12:1-2, 4-11)
- We must not use abusive words (Numbers 13:32-33)
- We must not use words of resentments (Numbers 14:36-37)
- Words that leaders must use
1). Words of faith that instills confidence (Numbers 13:30-31, Philippians 4:13)
2). Words of conviction (Mark 11:23)
3). Words of thanks giving (Colossians 3:17)
- Attitudes of a Leader
1). Leaders must leave their images of the past.
We may have scars in the past that we have not and will never be able to speak of
to others. We may have bitter experience of complete and utter failures.
We may still be groaning from the mistakes and sins we cannot speak about. But if
you believe in Jesus, the past should no longer be an issue to you.
Jesus has forgiven our sins and tells us that he would never remember them again.
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
(Hebrews 8:12)
Whatever you have done wrong in the past, lay them before the Lord and walk
away.
Sincerely repent your sins. Jesus will forgive your sins, if he hasn’t already.
And he will no longer remember them.Therefore, stop living in the image of a
sinner.
Live in the image of God’s children. Live courageously.
Do not let the sins of your past stop you from living your future.
Paul is a prime of example of those who left his place of sins and led a
successful life afterwards. Paul was a murder killing many Christians.
He was the one who killed Stephen. But when he met Jesus, his sins were
forgiven and buried under the ground. He might not have been able to erase
the memories of his past, but mistakes and failures of his past did not stop him
from doing God’s work.
Paul said the following in order to overcome his past.
‘Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is
ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has
called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”(Philippians 3:13-14)
What does he mean when he said “forgetting what is behind?”
It means he is neither influenced nor controlled by his past.
We must have the decidedness and determination to severe the ties to our
past
in order to move forward in the future.
Let’s assume that Paul remained slaves of his tragic past of killing Christians.
He might have been able to cry over his past, but he would not have been able
to do anything constructive.
Who is holier? Is it a man who’s mourning over the sins of his past? Of
course, you need the time for mourning.
However, a holy man lives every day of his life thinking about the grace of God
and the blessings of the cross fully convinced that his sins have been forgiven.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and
the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
2). Leader must overcome his fears In order to overcome his fear, he must know clearly what he fears.
There was a time when cholera struck Europe. Everyone was fearful of this
epidemic and the fear of cholera swept across the continent. A writer wrote
this satire on people’s fear of this disease.
One day, a farmer was driving his wagon towards the city. A lady raised her
hand asking him for a ride.
So a farmer let her get on the wagon, and had her sit right next to him.
She was hiding her face with a veil, so he could not see her face. A farmer
asked her.
“What is your name? What are you from?” But the lady did not say a word.
As the sun set, a farmer started feeling creepy and scared. He kept asking
questions, leaving the lady no choice but to respond.
“Do you really have to know my name?”
“I want to know; who are you?”
The lady opened her mouth and said, “I am cholera.”
“Why would you go into this city? So many people have already died because
of you. Don’t you know that? Please get off my wagon.”
A farmer pleaded with her to reconsider, and the lady said.
“I will only kill 10 people this time; please allow me to come with you.”
“No, please get off the wagon.”
A lady said, “Really, just 10 people; and I won’t kill you, so don’t worry about it
and let me come with you.”
After a while, the farmer changed his strategy.”You must only kill 10 people
then.”
The lady promised and they went on to the gate of the city.
But there were so many corpse lying at the gate. The farmer became angry
and said, “Damn it, lady!! You promised to kill only 10 people!! What’s with all
these dead bodies?”
The lady said, “I haven’t even killed anyone; they just died just hearing about
me coming.”
Fear has so close a connection to our life. Fear will not only make life
miserable for us, but it will hinder with our future.
We must understand our fears, overcome them, and conquer them. We must
be able to convert this great energy called fear into something constructive.
But in order to conquer our fears, we must understand the influence of fears.
Influence of Fears
- We lose our chances because our fears:
Those who fear cannot make a decision; they are indecisive.
The indecisive are always torn between two choices and are never able to
make a decision. Leaders are decision makers. Of course, you must be careful
and wait for the right time to make them, but you must also be able to make
decisions when you need to and push forward.
The reason for indecisiveness is fears. Because of fears, people become
indecisive. Indecision will get you nothing.
“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is
like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not
think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man,
unstable in all he does.” (James 1:6-8).
Those who are indecisive lose their chances. Not to choose is also a choice.
Not to do something when it is time is also a choice. By not making a choice,
you choose to fail. Life consists of choice and decisions.
Because of their indecisiveness, people lose precious chances in their lives and
just wait. They may have another chance along the way, but these are not the
choices you really want; they are just leftovers.
Abraham Lincoln said “Those who wait may have their chance, but those are
just ones left behind by those who have already made their decisions.”
- You become a coward because of your fears 10 spies that went over to
Canaan were afraid of those they saw there. They were afraid of the castle
built in the land.
So they became cowards. If you are afraid, you not only become a coward, but
you also become overly critical of others.
“But the men who had gone up with him said,
“We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”
32And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had
explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the
people we saw
there are of great size. 33We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak
come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and
we looked the same to them.”” (Numbers 13:31-33)
God wanted them to be the giants, but they refer to the people of Canaan were
the giants.
And they referred to themselves as grasshoppers. They said they could never
conquer that land.
What made them like this? It was their fears.
Fears made them want to go back to Egypt. Fears blocked their path to the
promised land.
Leaders must know what our fears are and must conquer them. The most
formidable enemy is within us, and that is our fears.
It makes us smaller, it makes us lazy, and it makes us indecisive.
It makes us scared and play down the gifts of God. These are all fears doing.
In order to become a spiritual leader, we must conquer our fears that are
ridiculing us from within, like Goliath.
The opposite of fear is faith. Our courageous faith comes from believing in
God.
It comes from believing in the word of God. When fears come knocking on
your door, you must respond with faith. “So do not fear, for I am with you; do
not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will
uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
- We become lazy because of fears:
The reason for laziness comes from fears.
Fear of failures, fear of criticism for trying new things. This will make us lazy.
When I was asked to take on the position of dean at Uganda Seminary, I kept
hesitating. What if I make mistakes?
What if I get criticized for doing things wrong? It was because of fears within
me.
Do not bury your God given talent and chances because of your fears.
In the Parable of Talent, a servant who received one talent just buried it under
the ground. He was lazy.
The master came back and got after him. He said he did it because he was
afraid of his master.
“Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I
knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and
gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out
and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest
where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?
If you are in the habit of procrastinating, you must think seriously about what
is making you do that, what is making you so lazy.
In order to create new history as a spiritual leader, you must act.
Do not be afraid of failures.
What you should be more afraid of is failure to try, rather than a failure itself.
Those who do not even try cannot accomplish anything. They cannot learn
anything. Failure at least tells you of your mistakes.
Through failures, you learn that you need new knowledge, new approach at
least.
You grow through that process.
- Managing Oneself – Do not manage time, but life itself.
“What’s worse than losing a well trained employee is to make them work without training them.” (Zig Ziglar)
Time can never be an object of management. You can’t control time in any way. No matter what we do, time goes by. Whether that taxi is moving or standing still, the meter will continue running up.
Everyone is given the same amount of time in one day. No matter how powerful you are, you cannot carry over an hour to the next day.
The greatest scientist can never create a minute of time.
Even if Bill Gates gives up his entire fortune, he cannot have more time than what he’s given. We can never buy more time. We sometimes ask people to give us some time, but that would be the most unreasonable request in the world. 24 hours is all we have.
We cannot manage time; then what can we do?
We must manage ourselves.
What separates the successful and not-so successful is how they utilize their time. The successful are the one who realize that time is the most important resource in the world.
It is those who understand how the time flows and passes them by.
Therefore, they constantly analyze how they use their time and ask themselves whether they are utilizing their time in the most effective way.
There is no one who does not know the finiteness of time, but in my opinion, most people do not understand the value of time adequately.
Charles Spezzano said in his “What to do between Birth & Death: the Art of Growing” that in the strictest of sense, we do not buy things with money, but with time.”
Let’s just say that I saved my money for 5 years to buy myself a vacation home. After that, I get to relax a little bit. In other words, I paid the cost of 5 years for that vacation home. 5 years is about 1/12 of the time you have as an adult in this world. From now on, think about the value of the house you want, the car you want in terms of time and think about whether this is something worth investing that much time.
Those who cannot manage themselves typically have these 3 weaknesses.
- They underestimate themselves and do what others want them to do.
Poet Carl Sandburg said, the most important asset in our life is time.
You, only you can decide how to use that asset. Be aware of others abusing your assets.
When I first started out as a leader, I lost a lot of my time doing others’ work. I was really
busy, but I really didn’t get much out of it. I could not do what I really needed to do, and
kept myself too busy trying to satisfy the expectations of others.
- They do not reach their potential doing things that aren’t very important.
Essayist Henry David Thoreau said, “It is not enough to keep yourself busy; the real
question is what’s keeping you busy.”
How do you decide what’s worth your time and attention?
John Maxwell said that the following formula helped him manage himself more effectively.
Phase 1: Based on the degree of importance, grades are given to each task.
Very Important – 5 points
Necessary – 4 points
Important – 3 points
Helpful – 2 points
Not Very Important – 1 point
Phase 2: Based on the deadline, he evaluated the urgency of each task
By this month – 5 points
By next month – 4 points
By this quarter – 3 points
By next quarter – 2 points
By the year end – 1 point
Phase 3: Multiply the points you get from Phase 1 and 2.
Example: 5 (very important) x 4 (by next month) = 20 points
After that the following standards are used to give final grades to each task.
A = 16-25: It is very important task that needs to be completed by the end of the month
B = 9-15: It is an important task that needs to be completed by the end of this quarter.
C= 1-8: It is not an urgent task that just needs to be finished by the year end.
What we need to focus on is that there are no tasks that must be completed by the end of
that day or that week. Why is that?
It is because I always try to set my schedule about a month ahead.
Leader must be able to look further ahead than anyone else within the organization.
If the leader responds spontaneously in the face of crisis, he can put himself, his followers,
and his organizations in danger.
- They start things without getting necessary advice or training, so that they never reach their potential.
If it is of value, it is preferable to do it better than everyone else.
I am just shocked whenever I see people jumping into a task without asking for any advice
or wisdom from the people who have already walked that path.
When you are advised and trained well, you can bring about a much better outcome with
the same of time invested.
Robert Zensky and Susan Shaman of UPenn studied 3200 American companies to draw
the following conclusion: 10% increase in capital expenditure will bring about 3%
improvement in productivity while 10% increase in employee training will bring about 8.5%
improvement in productivity.
Therefore, if you want to use your time the best way possible, you must use yourself the
best way possible.
Find those who can help improving you or your employees.
“What’s worse than losing a well trained employee is to make them work without training
them.” (Zig Ziglar)
Life management starts with awareness of time.
It also starts with realizing what decisions must be made in order to manage and use their
time.
Group Discussion
- Am I not wasting my time?
- Am I getting the help in areas I need help?
- How am I spending my time? Do I have a daily schedule set?