Choose To Seek the Positive and Be Positive

Servant-leadership: CONTROL YOURSELF: Integration of Body/Soul/Spirit

Preparing for January 6th – Epiphany (a Christian Feast Day)

We are now finished with the Christmas Season – well sort-of: On Sunday (January 4th, 2010), in liturgical churches, Epiphany was celebrated – a celebration to remind people of the Incarnation, the visit of the Magi and, for many, Jesus’ early life – baptism and turning water to wine at Cana. Epiphany means “appearance,” “manifestation” or “showing forth.”

Got me to thinking about the new year and just what it means to be people who serve a risen Savior – and that’s a key. If Christ is not risen, than all this stuff about leadership and positive thinking is interesting, may be motivating, but not ultimately important. Christians celebrate a Risen Savior. It changes things.

An email from a friend today reminded all it readers (one of those kind of emails) that we can choose to be joyful or not.: and scripture reminds us that “…whoever goes hunting for what is right and kind finds life itself—glorious life!” That kind of life is a manifestation of the Supernatural. It will be attractive. We each can become an “epiphany” by how we respond to life.

Positive people attract. It is certainly easy to hunt for the wrong and wicked – so much out there to find. Hunting for the right and kind takes discipline; it takes intentionality and a willingness to forego the “junk going on in your life” to find the beauty in life and in others.


Is your life a manifestation of Christ in you, the hope of glory?


Copyright ©2010 by P. Griffith Lindell

Servant-leadership: CONTROL YOURSELF: Saying the Right Thing at the Right Time

Proverbs 15:24 (AMP) A man has joy in making an apt answer, and a word spoken at the right moment--how good it is!

Giving voice to thought – now, for me, that sometimes is very hard to control. As the Apostle Paul noted “…and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

The mind matters. Its thoughts must be taken captive – for a purpose. Why? Because out of the mouth flows the intents of the heart. The one follows the other.

Controlling both our thoughts, and our voice takes intentionality – in other words, CONTROL. You want to practice servant-leadership, get control of your thoughts and your talk.

The result of that control is “joy.” Giving a right answer. Building up: not tearing down. Encouraging. Providing advice. Saying the right thing at the right moment. The fruit of our words should be sweet and tasty – delightful to the ear. That’s not always the case for me. Tonality. Body language. I’m working on it – all the time.


How about you? Got the talk down? The timing right?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Servant-leadership - CONTROL Yourself: Integration – Body, Mind, Spirit in Sync.

Proverbs 4:20-23 (MSG)

Dear friend, listen well to my words; tune your ears to my voice.
Keep my message in plain view at all times. Concentrate! Learn it by heart!
Those who discover these words live, really live;
body and soul, they're bursting with health.
Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that's where life starts.
Don't talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip.
Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions.

The first important step in “controlling self” is to have a process for keeping congruent your body, your mind and your spirit. As a leader, what marks your journey to develop the “soft side” of leadership - sensitivity to the qualitative aspects and character issues? For example: Are you expecting your sales team to produce revenue to the exclusion of integrity – white lies, exaggerations, manipulations, “dealing,” etc? Or, do you reward both results AND character?

How do you go about nourishing your body, your mind and your spirit? At work, do you allow your team to actually take real vacations – or are they on call 24/7? Not only is that probably a violation of the law, more importantly it is a violation of God’s law that rest is good and important for his creation. Just as you do not take a drink of water only one day a week, neither can you nourish your mind and spirit for two hours on a Sunday morning. You nourish your body by drinking liquid every day: how are you treating your spirit and your mind? (The Biblical term “heart” is a unique combination of both.)

What about your mind? Did school teach you all you needed to know? What the latest leadership book you have read – and studied (meditated upon)? How are you nourishing your mind with more than technical data about your products/services, the industry or the marketplace?

What of art, music, fiction, poetry, gardening etc. provides nourishment for your mind and spirit?

The “heart” fuels the engine of your mind and body. How do you practice reflection to keep your heart pure? Motives pure? When you look at the results you have produced at work, home or even play, how do you reflect upon them to change behavior to produce a different result? What is your experience with apologizing – recognizing that the results you just produced did not honor God, or other people?

Integration of body, mind and spirit takes work. Do you have a work plan?


Copyright ©2009 P. Griffith Lindell

SERVANT-leadership: Control Yourself

CONTROL SELF: Integration (body/mind/spirit congruence); Proficiencies (acquiring skills needed); Behaviors (capitalizing, moderating and supplementing behavioral patterns).


Proverbs 4:4b "Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live.

Solomon, writing as a father, recalls what his father taught him. It is the same instruction that our Heavenly Father taught back in the Garden. The corollary to, “If you eat (of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) you shall die” is if you obey, you will live.

Ancient advice. Repeated over and over again by wise people. CONTROL YOURSELF! The decision is yours. Always yours. Despite peer pressures, or the childhood trauma. Regardless of the missing nutrition/education/medical care, the decision remains a personal choice. Humans must always make a choice to “lay hold…and keep” those commands that are meant to help shape our character and allow us to live, not only a productive live here on earth, but an eternal life in fellowship with our Creator. If the catechism still rings true, “the chief end of man is to glorify God (by keeping his commands) and enjoy him forever (the promise of obedience),” then learning discipline is critical to not only leading, but also following.

This, the second phase, of leadership development, while having its genesis in Scripture, is being symbolized by me with Aristotle – the great thinker and teacher who taught: “What it lies in your power to do, it lies in your power to not do.”

In a society, which accepts “blaming,” as a reasonable standard of explanation for behavior, effective leadership does not. The leader, in touch the on-going process of knowing self, this leader, if they want to be effective, to inspire, motivate and ultimately serve, must also learn to control self. This is the “walk the talk” phase - the hardest phase of leadership development by far.

Leaders must have an open heart. Take advice. Be open to change. Receive constructive criticism. Learn from results – all results. Above all, do right – not some wishy-washy, feel good, in-the-moment right, but right behavior that finds its source in our Creator, Redeemer and Friend, Christ Jesus, who said,

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (John 14:23-24)

Can’t be much clearer than that.

Control Yourself: Got a handle on that?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Servant-leadership: KNOW YOURSELF – a Summary

I have posited that to become an authentic servant-leader, one must begin with “knowing self” and that knowledge is the result of integrating your understanding of ultimate purpose (your relationship with God), your ethical framework (how you treat fellow humans) and your teleology (your worldview that combines purpose with ethics to understand the past, respond to the present and to build for the future).

The fundamental question is: Were you created, the result of a supernatural, self-existent, all powerful being who made matter, energy and time and also made you in His image? Or, are you a developed being, the result of a random, materialistic process, that, somehow, in a vast amount of time, not only organized your physical substance to make you human, but also your mental and spiritual identity? Your answer shapes your understanding of self and how you go about living an “examined life.”

Understanding what it means to “know yourself” is not about “self-enlightenment.” I would go so far to say that it is a concept that is antithetical to today’s view of self. It is not becoming a lover of self - satiated with self, encouraged by a society that accepts “me” as a nominative case pronoun (“me and John went to the store….”). This is not a trivial grammatical error – it demonstrates the shift in culture that has permeated our thinking with a self-hyphenated language (self-awareness, self-actualization, etc.)

The great philosophers of the past (like Socrates who said: "The unexamined life is not worth living") understood the fundamental nature of this examination of self. All of our interactions with nature, with the spiritual world and with each other begin with a true understanding of self. God says that the effects of sin is death and that man, created in His image, was fully intelligent, capable, creative and controlled their environment developing what was needed to life successfully.

Man did not emerge from some animal-like state to the supposed current evolved intelligence. Humans, Scripture demonstrates, have moved in the opposite direction from their original created state. Humans are less equipped today to deal with the environment, each other and their own natures than Adam and Eve.

Examining your life, moving from where you are at birth (dominated by a sin nature Rom. 3:23) to where you need to be to have fellowship with your Creator is found in God’s revelation to his creation: 2 Tim. 3:16-17 "All Scripture (not some, not the ones you want, this is not a menu!) is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Knowing your self is not an exercise in “self-esteem” but it is a journey of humility. It must be noted that nowhere in Scripture are we told to seek “self-esteem;” rather we are warned repeatedly “not esteem ourselves highly” in relationship to others whether the ruler or the ruled- Deut. 17:14-20; 1 Kings 19:3-18; Proverbs 16:19; 25:6,7; Luke 14:7-11; Luke 16:15; - Romans 12:3.

A person at peace is better fit to lead. A person at peace with themselves is a result of having a deep peace with their purpose. They are at peace with others – their ethical framework works to benefit others and them. They are a peace with a troubled world because they have a clear sense of God’s sovereign control. As Daniel Schuman points out:

“The Scriptures speak of fixing one’s thoughts on the positive too, but it is not simply replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. Instead, the Bible indicates that for one to experience the benefits of the peace of God, that person must first experience “peace with God”. Romans 5:1-5 reveals this truth. It states: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in the our sufferings, knowing that our suffering produces endurance …character…hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Daniel Schuman © Website: www.renewABQ.com)

Are you really at peace? Do you know yourself, God’s way?



Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Leaders Are Always Learning

Proverbs 1:5 (NASB) A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel…

Life-long learning is an attribute of leadership – especially of those seeking to hone their skills as a servant-leader.

From recorded history, wisdom has been institutionalized, and with good reason. The wise were about sharing, training and producing wise people. We learn from history. We learn from the imbued wisdom of intact teams who have been with an organization for years.

Leadership foresight is an attribute of Greenleaf’s servant-leader and is the result the synergy between the lessons of the past and the realities of the present. These are connected in such a way that the potentials for both intended and unintended consequences in the future represent the right thinking at the right time and in the right manner.

Note the parallel construction in the second phrase in Pr 1:5 The word counsel is used only in Proverbs and Job and means to guide, and direct with the attributes of right thinking and experience in decision making.

Increase in learning. Acquiring counsel. Are you a life-long learner?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Power of Your Words

Proverbs 18:21 (MSG) Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit—you choose.

Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so he is. (Publilius Syrus)

Our words, written or spoken, have power. More power than we often realize. Beyond the obvious meaning of choosing words that feed and nurture a person, as opposed to words that destroy a person, there is a subtly that is sometimes missed.

The leader who is full of jest, quick wit, “in-your-face” retorts or even IYF humor must develop the discipline to know when that kind of confident, carefree speech is appropriate. It would be well to remember what Plato said: Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.

Especially in this day of 140 character “speech” on social networking sites, something written with jest -- not because one has something to say, but because one can say something -- can easily be misunderstood because of the law of unintended consequences.

Developing the proficiency to speak in such a way that one limits the unintended consequences is a skill leaders must continually develop. I know how easy it is to quickly say what I’m thinking instead of thinking before I say.

For the Christian leader, your words have eternal consequences: “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” –Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:36-38)

Remember, that the words we say will teach if we practice what we preach.

What do you “preach” by your life and your language?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

The Power of Servant Leadership

Proverbs 27:2 (NIV) Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.

The personal application of this verse is a powerful command to those who would practice servant-leadership – or the art of being other-oriented.

Self-adulation is seldom the intent that precedes self-glorifying behavior; often it flows naturally from a heart that is all about self. The heart change of humility is foundational.

The problem for us humans is that this humility is like a slippery watermelon seed: once you get your fingers around it, and you think you have it and it just slips away.

It is a great paradox that in the world of Christians that it is the walk of humility that leads to glory.

Are you on the right path?

For Further Study

Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Leaders Know What’s Precious

Proverbs 7:3 (NKJV) Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye.

The idiom in this verse literally means the “pupil of the eye” but has come to mean, “that which we hold most precious.” Remember the words of our Servant-Leader model about what is precious:

“Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."” Matt 22: 37-40 (MSG)

God’s laws, like principles of leadership, are fundamentally about two issues: personal integrity and the value of others. Robin S. Sharma in Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari put it this way: “The greatest privilege of leadership is the chance to elevate lives."

Robert E. Staub - (The Heart of Leadership: 12 Practices of a Courageous Leader) - reveals that those who purport to lead - but fail - do so because they don't understand who it is they're trying to lead. Sometimes, evaluations of the team are based upon the wrong criteria – they may well be the right “people on the bus” and leaders miss it because they are not holding the skills possessed as “precious.”

According to Jim Collins, “The good-to-great leaders understood …[a] simple truth….if you begin with “who,” rather than “what,” you can more easily adapt to a changing world.” What I have learned is that working on developing the “who” is a rigorous process and takes competency, intimacy, integrity, and passion.

Leaders know what is precious: It not the stuff that must be done; rather, it’s the people who team with them to get it done.

Who is (and/or is it “what is”) most precious to you?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Leading in a World of Darkness

Proverbs 6:23 (MSG) For sound advice [that had come from Wisdom] is a beacon, good teaching is a light, and moral discipline is a life path.

This chapter in Proverbs is on living skills and, in the section on warnings about sexual morality, comes this gem about the qualities of a leader who provides sound advice, good teaching (Biblical) and moral discipline.

Life is not simple and neither is leading. Business is in constant flux. Capital gets depleted. Priorities change. Boards demand progress. Individual contributors are often driven by self-centered motives painted in the texture and hue of team effort.

Complexities arise very often fraught with gray areas that take special wisdom.

The ability to discern truth and righteousness demands, of leaders, something beyond their natural skills. Being known as a Christian business leader should have an impact on the lives around you.

It is about being a light. Light has a way of revealing. Christian leaders must distinguish right from wrong even in the face of what might be "legal," but not righteous, in God's eyes.

Is the “light” of your life revealing Christ in you?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Influential Leaders Listen…Well

Proverbs 5:1 (NIV) My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my words of insight…

Whether you are leading a small business, a large company, or a team, listening is a skill that has direct impact on your ability to be an influential leader. Listening, learned and applied, is priceless to the person to whom you are listening.

If listening simply means gathering and making sense out of information, and information drives effective communication, then we need to be intentional about developing effective listening skills.

Research indicates that fifty percent of our time is spent listening, but our real attention consumes only twenty five percent – the other half is spent thinking about what to say next. We lose our ability to listen at an alarming rate – in first grade, we heard 90% of instruction and by ninth grade that percentage plummeted to 25%.

In life and in business, the more effective your listening skills, the more you learn about what the prospective customer really needs; what the current customer considers as exquisite service; and what your staff thinks is needed build a team focused on growing revenue or profitability. As one writer states, “The time and money you save by listening effectively can make the difference between success and failure.”

Scripture tells us that developing a “the hearing ear,” or teachableness, results in happiness. Imagine that: a skill we can learn, if diligent, results in something just for us that make us appealing. Leaders who have developed that ear will attract followers not only because they are heard, but also because the leader, who is really listening, is not full of self and is…happy.

We all want to be heard. God does to: Are you listening?

Copyright © by P. Griffith Lindell

Contentment and Leadership

Proverbs 30:7-9 (NIV) "Two things I (Agur) ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.


It was the first century Roman philosopher, Seneca, who observed, “Poor is not the person who has too little, but the person who craves more.”

Our society has built commerce on carving more and more. The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), and the US Government drove the kind of behavior the allowed people who could not afford housing to fulfill cravings for housing. The result has been nothing short of catastrophic.

Today, woven throughout modern secular literature on leadership is the thread of the importance of character in leadership - especially the literature on servant-leadership. The nature of character of contentment – often couched in terms like “finding wholeness” yields behavior that reaches goals but not for purely self-serving motives.

The contented leader is a concept that addresses personal core values and has nothing to say about achieving profitable market share. The later drives a business: the former drives how the leader leads the people who “do the business.” Agur’s prayer – like the Lord’s Prayer – recognizes the truth that living is to be a daily experience.

There’s an old prayer, that I was taught as a child, that might illustrate: “God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for ______.”

How are you filling in the blank?


Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

The Boldness of Leaders with Changed Hearts

Proverbs 27:19 (NIV) As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.

Once they knew that their Redeemer lived, the hearts of the earliest church leaders changed from fearful to focused, becoming bold breakers of cultural and religious barriers. They faced the world with new hearts and became models of leadership to follow.

Consider the place of women in this community. At the first recorded prayer-meeting, women were present; incredibly, praying with the men. Unheard of in the Jewish synagogues, this was a radical result of the leadership of the Great Servant-Leader. The gender-barrier broken, ethnic barriers fell, and these leaders ultimately changed the diet of the early church. These, and other barrier-breaking behaviors, were lived out in deeds - not just motivating words and were born of hearts broken of self and filled with the Lord of the Universe.

From their lives (especially seen in the book of Acts), we learn that a heart committed to life of significance is educated through a commitment to prayer, enlightened by reading and meditating on the Word, and ultimately empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The result? Even in the workplace, as you work to break down societal and cultural barriers, your heart, reflected in your countenance, will attract followers who want what you have – the beauty of becoming a magnet of meaning to those seeking meaning.


What do you see reflected when you gaze into the mirror? Do you have the heart to break barriers?



Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Servant Leaders

Proverbs 16:2 (NLV) All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the thoughts of the heart.

In the forward of Insights on Leadership: Service, Stewardship, Spirit, and Servant-Leadership, Stephen Covey posits, "the power to cultivate servant-leadership comes from the individual. It's an inside-out approach."

And therein lays the real problem.

“Google” servant leadership and you may find as I did 1,160,000 results. A topic that drives some interest and not all are in agreement with the concept. The reason may be quite simple: the “inside” of humans must be changed before an authentic servant-heart emerges.

When the “going gets tough,” for those with hearts unchanged by their Creator, self-serving behavior drives decisions. Motives can be hidden except from the One who will judge the living and the dead. When what we do is about us and not about Him, our motives are wrong. Hard for us to “weigh” that one: our scales are weighted in our favor.

What motivates you - really?


Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Easter: Counter-cultural Leadership

Proverbs 9:10 (AMP) The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding.


Today’s culture demands that we read this verse privately, personally. After all, they say, it is simply an expression of subjective values - for the individual belief only. This thinking posits that accepting it has nothing to do with objective reality: and it certainly does not speak to how you lead in a business context. The educated opinion-makers would grant that believing this verse might be OK for you, but it is not truth, per se, and is not central to a business leadership construct.

As we approach Easter this weekend, we have to ask: are the Incarnation and Resurrection historical facts? If our answer is “Yes!” then the dichotomy that defines our culture is false – relegating “values” to personal and private issues and placing science, math, etc. to objective reality.

To believe both is a contradiction. God-fearing leaders hold that the Creation, Incarnation and Resurrection are objective Truth that speaks to our purpose and destiny including how we work, live and lead.

Christian leaders must begin to shape our culture – not succumb to it. Christianity offers a “unified, integrated truth” whose source is our Creator who, when He lived among us, molded servant-leadership to a group of men who could not grasp the concept until after He rose from the dead. Serving first, then leading, yields true happiness, contrary to what the world, which is centered in pride and selfishness, thinks.

Who are you going to believe: Our culture or our Creator?


Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Servant-Leaders Are Present

Proverbs 8: 34 -35 (AMP) Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoever finds me [Wisdom] finds life and draws forth and obtains favor from the Lord.

Connecting; active listening; intentionally being present in business conversations: these are three qualities of a servant-leader. Leaders who really listen to follower’s problems, who do more than “nod” and expresses thanks, are leaders will inspire her/his community of followers.

More importantly, however, is being present in the process of letting God superintend your life and your work. This concept is found in two words: “watching” i.e. being diligent every day to connect with the Lord, and “waiting” as being eager. Both are attributes of servant-leadership: eager to learn from our Creator and eager and diligent to learn from people around us and from results of our actions. Life-long learning.

The if/then quality in this proverb (“finds” “draws” “obtains”) are not motivations to get on God’s “good side,” but define a group of consequences that flow from watching and waiting. The Christian leader who practices these principles will receive favor from both the Lord and from the followers being led.

Leadership is not about wealth, power or prestige – it’s about influence. Kingdom-building influence begins with the simple process of diligently and eagerly listening to the Word and then drawing what you need to impact your world.

Do you model being “present” in your communications?

Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Sincere Leadership

Proverbs 26:23 (MSG) Smooth talk from an evil heart is like glaze on cracked pottery.

Why, in 2009, am I struck by this verse? Could it be all the smooth talk filling the airwaves?

The image in the verse is striking and apropos. Adding glaze, as fill, was the old trick used to hide blemishes. The Greeks marked their fine pottery after inspection with the word from which we get our word sincere – meaning unmixed or pure.

Leadership that builds trust, that is original, innovative, focused on people works best when it originates from a heart that is pure in motive. The antithesis is Machiavellian leadership. People want to be lead, not manipulated. That’s all about heart – motive.

The leader’s prayer must daily be the Psalmist prayer, “Create in me a clean heart, Oh God.” This is heart “surgery” that motivates followers and magnifies the leader’s Leader.

Are you willing to have daily heart surgery?


Copyright (c) 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Leaders Know For Whom They Work

Proverbs 23:4-5 (NLV) Do not work hard to be rich. Stop trying to get things for yourself. When you set your eyes upon it, it is gone. For sure, riches make themselves wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.


Former President Bush (43) warned Congress in 2001 that what “looked good” at Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, was not. He was ridiculed. Ignored. The reaction of those in Congress reminds me of the mythological story of Icarus who, in his exuberance with successful flight, flew too close to the sun and melted the wax in his wings, falling to his death. Our economy, riding on the back of our Icarus-Congress is falling also.

Working hard and achieving success is generally good. However, according to J.L. Badaracco, Jr., a professor at Harvard Business School, in his book Questions of Character he writes, "The basic problem with the flow of success is that life can look very good when it really isn't.”

Working hard for the right things is always best. Work – no matter the job -- is really a mind-game; it is an attitude that must flow from seeking “first the kingdom of God" to living life with the core value of stewardship, not ownership. Like the example of Abraham of old, who possessed nothing, not even his son, stewardship must define how we think and act about what we have.

The daunting challenge for many leaders is, paradoxically, the very thing we aspire to achieve - a successful life and career and all that comes with them -- can be fleeting if we find we are working for the wrong reasons.

Who are you working for – God or yourself?



Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

The Longsuffering Leader

Proverbs 19:11 (NIV) A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.

In Measure of a Leader, the authors posit that it is followers who define the leader. These followers, among other attributes, will make sacrifices for the leader’s cause.

Those kinds of followers are lead by one who not only practices patience, but also leads compassionately. Compassionate leadership often yields followers who give more to an organization than the letter of the job description requires – they give to the “spirit” of the job.

Perhaps, overlooking an offense is the appropriate action; but this is not some fluffy, whimsical compassion. This is leadership compassion that exercises both discretion and provides direction. It is more than empathy. It involves action.

For example, when a follower has demonstrated that s/he can’t reasonably be expected to perform to an organizational standard, it is compassionate, to both the individual and the organization, to move that person to another opportunity (in or out of the organization) that will best use what they have to offer a leader or a team.

Patient, compassionate leadership does require wisdom that flows from an intimate relationship with the One who is Wisdom: the One who left us the Spirit, whose fruit in our lives includes patience. Leading like Jesus is not natural: it is supernatural.

Got patience? How’s your fruit of the Spirit at work?


Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Servant-Leaders Begin with a Humble Heart

Proverbs 11:2 (NIV) When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.


In John Kotter & James Heskett’s book, Corporate Culture and Performance, they explored with empirical research how the “culture” of a corporation influences performance. They found that strong leaders:

• “Do not tolerate arrogance in others…
• They remind people often of who they must serve….
• They keep their own egos under control. They make room for other egos.”

Their research revealed that arrogance, inward focus and encumbering bureaucracy are all features of a company in disgrace – unable to adapt to change.

Scripture says that hidden in humility is wisdom: the last sentence of Kotter & Heskett’s’ book says, “…if leaders do not have the hearts of servants, there is only the potential for tyranny.”

There it is again: positive, productive leadership begins in the heart.

Got the heart to be a servant-leader?



Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell