Leaders

Any kindergartener knows the importance of being “the line leader.” Now, it’s a coveted post. It means that you are the one showing the way to the rest of the class following behind. It may even mean that you get to walk next to the teacher. For that one day – you’re the “top dog!” Anyone can be a leader, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is a “good leader.” Whether it’s in the realm of politics, leaders in the church, or bosses at work – we all know some who, lets just say – didn’t need to be put in such a place of leadership.

Leaders must have the wisdom to analyze what worked and/or didn’t work in the past. Bosses need to know their staff and know how to best use them to the best of their abilities – for the staff personally and also for the company. Taking care of your people is the first step in being able to move forward. That’s why it’s important for politicians to come home and travel through their district. They need to know what their constituents have on their minds. Leaders must be able to rally the troops together when hard times hit, with everyone knowing that the leader has their back.

Last week, I was thumbing through an article on leadership and it said, “Praise publicly, correct privately.” All of us appreciate hearing others speak well of us. Hearing someone brag about you makes you feel proud and it puts you on “their” side. Yet, being corrected in public is not only embarrassing for that one, it lowers the morale for all. (If they’d do that to so-and-so, they’d do it to me!) This reminds me of Aquila and Priscilla when Apollos came to town. He is described as an eloquent man – a good speaker, but he didn’t know all of the truth. Aquila and Priscilla could have stood up in the middle of one of his sermons and confront him in front of everyone. Instead, Acts 18: 26 says, “And he (Apollos) began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly (carefully). From then on he was “publicly, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ (Acts 18:28). Because of their leadership, Apollos became a great leader in the church at Corinth.

Great things are hard to build. May we praise publicly and correct privately, so that together, great thing can happen. Simply blessed, Courtney