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In this week’s edition of Leaderview, I want to share with us something that has been titled: Costly Leadership Assumptions, and we are just going to be looking at three of them in this episode.
Listen to Podcast: Costly Leadership Assumptions
#1. To Assume You Don’t Need God to Help You Lead Effectively
God is a leader and one of His responsibilities to us is that of leading us. In John 10:3-4, the Bible says: “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” From this account, we can see very clearly that God leads us.
Every leader needs the leadership of God in order to succeed. Leaders would always encounter difficulties in leadership for as long as they assume that they don’t need God in their leadership assignment. A leader who doesn’t see the need for God’s wisdom in leadership would soon get to a point where nothing seems to be working. I am of the strong opinion that every leader need God, irrespective of your level of leadership, to succeed. Let see a case of Solomon in 1 Kings 3:4-9. The Bible says:
“Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?” 6 And Solomon said: “You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7 Now, O Lord my God, you have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. 9 Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
Solomon couldn’t turn to no other for help to lead effectively and God helped him in that regard. To assume that we don’t need God as leaders is tantamount to inviting difficulties and challenges onboard our leadership train. Solomon had peace in his reign as king and there was no single battle that he fought, not because of lack of enemies, but because God helped him in securing his leadership.
#2. To Assume That There Would Be No Consequences for Your Actions Because You Are the Leader
This particular assumption is both weighty and deadly at the same time. It is the reason why we see leaders commit all manner of atrocities all in the assumption that they could get away with anything. It is the reason why leaders steal from the collective wealth of the people; it is the reason why they kill and commit all manner of arsons on the people that they lead. Now, it is important that we tell ourselves right now that this is not always true, and that leaders don’t get to escape from facing the consequences of their actions. For every evil atrocity you commit while hiding under the authority of your office as the leader would one day catch up with you.
David did not escape the consequences of unjustly killing Uriah even though God forgave him when he repented. The Bible says in 2 Samuel 12:7-15:
“Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! 9 Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. 10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’” 13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” 15 Then Nathan departed to his house.”
Even though God forgave David, but the consequences of his actions he needed to live with it. And mind you, everything that God said would happen to him did happen. So, the point is this: your actions as a leader would not be excused. If you perpetually hid under the umbrella of being the leader and continue to perpetrate evil, thinking that you would get away with your actions, it will not happen. It may appear that you get away with it in the short term, but in the long run, those consequences would eventually catch up with you. That is why there is a saying that goes like this: “the evil that men do lives after they are gone.” Even if you escape the consequence of that evil action, your generations after you may not.
#3. To Assume That You are above Everyone Because You Are the Leader
Being the leader does not make you above everyone else even though many uninformed leaders assume that is what it is. Being a leader is only a privilege to serve. You would agree with me that within your leadership sphere, there would be those who are better than you, who could get the job done better than you but who aren’t fortunate to lead. So, leadership is better seen as an opportunity or a privilege to serve and not that of being dictatorial or being above everyone else. This is why Jesus taught His disciples the concept of servant-leadership showing us that a leader is actually a privileged servant.
So, the moment you begin to see yourself as being above everyone else in is only an invitation to your downfall in leadership. Haman in the Bible is a classic example of this. If you read that account in Esther 3, the Bible recorded that Haman was promoted and because he was never in good terms with Mordecai, he sought an occasion to wipe out an entire Jewish race from the kingdom. To Haman, his assumption was that he was above the Jewish race, he didn’t see them as people to be led but people to be exterminated. Even though Mordecai (just one of them) had refused to give you honor, it is not an occasion to kill the entire people because of one man. So, he sought an occasion to eliminate the Jews.
But because his motive was not pure, his plan did not work. Instead of killing Mordecai and the entire Jewish people, he became the victim of his plot, himself and his entire household. It was such a pathetic ending for Haman, his family and his leadership. So, never assume that you are above or superior to everyone else because you are a leader. Always be humble enough to know that you have been made a leader in order to serve. I believe you have learnt something!
This is where we are going to draw the curtains on this week’s edition of Leaderview. Please don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends, drop your comments in the comments section and let me know your thoughts on what we have shared with ourselves today. Till next time on Leaderview, I remain Abiola Obayomi; stay blessed and God bless you.
[Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
