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How Great Leaders Utilize Limited Resources for Unlimited Results
Every resource you have at your disposal as a leader is meant to do one thing: advance your leadership assignment. This means that for you to be able to achieve all that you would achieve within the timeframe of your assignment, it would be largely dependent on how you utilize the available resources that you have been given.
Listen to Podcast: Eliminating Waste in Leadership
Two key words are very important to us in this podcast. They are waste and resources. Waste in this context means not adequately or judiciously using the resources within a leader’s disposal for the purposes that they are meant for. This is what waste connotes. And resource on the other hand is defined as: a stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively. So, from this definition of what a resource is, we can deduce that money (whether in the bank or cash at hand) is a resource, any form of material that would aid your leadership productivity is a resource, people are a form of resource (human resource), assets (lands and buildings) are resources. Why all these? It says: to function effectively.
It then means that there will not be effective functioning if all that is required to function as a leader, is not provided. For example, just imagine a nation without a civil service. How do we expect the president of such nation to carry out his or her duties? Or imagine an organization without people to work with the leader, how will such a leader succeed?
This clearly shows that resources are a vital requirement of success for any leader. Now, if adequate care is not taken, it is possible for these resources to be wasted or misused. And that is why we are looking at eliminating waste in leadership. Our world is filled with how leaders misuse, mismanage or waste limited resources. We have seen how funds are being stolen, humans are being misused, materials misallocated, etc. when this is the case, such an organization or entity is on a ticking time bomb. One of the very key function of leadership is in the elimination or reduction of waste when it comes to handling resources.
There is an account of Jesus that we will use to discuss what we are really talking about today. John 6:1-13. The Bible says:
“After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. 3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. 5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” 6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. 7 Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” 8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, 9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” 10 Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So, the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” 13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.”
John 6:1-13
In this story, we saw clearly that Jesus had limited resources. He needed to feed five thousand men beside children and women with just five loaves of bread and two fishes. The first thing Jesus did was that He multiplied the resources. The first lesson here for leaders is that you must know what to do anytime it seems as if resources are not forthcoming (Verse 6: But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do). Jesus knew what to do even before the resources was supplied. The second lesson is that you must have a formular that would help you multiply the resources that you have been given (Verse 11: And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted). Jesus’ formular was that of giving of thanks, your own formular may not be giving of thanks, but you must have a way of multiplying the resources that have been given to you. The third lesson is that Jesus was not wasteful. He didn’t tell them to throw the fragments away. He said to them: “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” That tells us that as leaders, we should never be wasteful in our approach of using resources.
If we are not going to be wasteful as leaders, then it means we must ready to be accountable for every resource that has been given to us.
I love this accountability story in 2 Kings 22, and that is where we are going to stop for today. 2 Kings 22:3-7 and 9, the Bible says:
“Now it came to pass, in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of the Lord, saying: 4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people. 5 And let them deliver it into the hand of those doing the work, who are the overseers in the house of the Lord; let them give it to those who are in the house of the Lord doing the work, to repair the damages of the house— 6 to carpenters and builders and masons—and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. 7 However there need be no accounting made with them of the money delivered into their hand, because they deal faithfully.” 9 So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying, “Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work, who oversee the house of the Lord.”
You see, part of eliminating waste in leadership is that leaders must deal faithfully when it comes to handling resources. When you are faithful with what has been allocated to you to execute your leadership assignment, then you wouldn’t think about wasting it. The reason why some leaders mismanage resources is because they are not faithful; they are not faithful men and women, and this where the problem lies.
In summary, this is what I have been trying to convey to us:
– If you are a leader with massive project with little or no resources at hand, think about what you would do. The Bible made it clear that Jesus, when He was faced with similar situation, knew what He would do.
– As a leader, you must have a formular that can multiply your limited resources in such a way that it would be enough to achieve the purposes that they are meant for. Jesus formular was that He gave thanks. Your own formular may not be giving of thanks, however, you must have one.
– As a leader, you must never be wasteful. Jesus told His disciples to gather up the fragments, He didn’t tell them to throw them away. Never give room at all for waste of resources in your leadership.
– lastly, if we are not going to be wasteful with the way we handle resources as leaders, it means we must be ready to be accountable always and be faithful in handling those resources.
Alright! This is where we are going to draw the curtains on today’s episode of Leaderview. I believe you have learnt something. 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, stay blessed and God bless you.
Article Source: [Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
