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

LOVING DISCIPLINE

Proverbs 12: 1 (AMP) Whoever loves instruction and correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is like a brute beast, stupid and indiscriminating.

Controlling self is a critical stage in learning how to lead: Discipline; Determination to change your approaches and responses to behavior yielding different results. I’m reminded of what M. Scott Peck said in his book The Road Less Traveled, “without discipline we can solve nothing.”

To put this verse more simply – “to learn, you must have discipline (NLT).” To grow personally as a leader, it demands of you not only self discipline, but also the “discipline” from others: both have the power to shape your work and your life to better pursue the direction needed to create positive change.

But note also what this word of wisdom from Proverbs tells us: we are not to tolerate discipline. Not deal with it. Not accept it. Love it. Leaders learn that every action taken is a learning experience: they see it as producing a result- not as success or failure, per se. That’s the attitude of loving discipline. Learn from the results you produce.

If you don’t like the results, change what you are doing – don’t be a “brute beast, stupid and indiscriminating.” Learn. Change. Grow.

Have you developed the attitude needed to learn from discipline?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Leaders Understand the Danger of Fools

Proverbs 17:12 (NIV) Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly.

Does this seem like a hyperbole? A bit melodramatic? A stretch? A human who spreads his/her folly more deadly than a 500 pound Syrian Brown Bear, with bared teeth, menacing growl, towering height and long claws, diving down and running at us?

Fear the deadly, angry mother bear vs. a person wise in their own eyes: doesn’t seem like a choice? A person, who having no need for God, with whom we seek out for advice, listen to and admire is more deadly than that mother bear!

Why is that? Is it because the folly of fools fills us with false hope. Or is it because that folly is seductive: it appeals to our self-centered natures. It makes us feel good -- feeling good is paramount today.

Perhaps it is because the world’s words, having wormed their way into our willing hearts and minds, seem somehow filled with wisdom. And, after all, if “everybody” is thinking “that” way, it takes courage to provide a different perspective.

We have become a timid lot, we followers of the Way. It seems that takes more courage to stand up to a passionate person, wise in their own eyes, having no need for God and seducing the world to idolatry (worshiping anything other than God - a fool in his folly) than the deadly, angry mother bear.

Sharing God’s Word with grace and truth demands of us a discipline of active listening and attractive communication. It demands asking good, thought-provoking questions, not vicious verbal attacks are passionate disagreement.

Committed Christian leaders must be always learning not only when to “stand up” – to discern the seduction of words and thoughts that have their genesis in Hell – but also what and how to say what honors God.

Who are you afraid of most: the bear or the fool?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Effective Leaders Ponder the “Right Stuff”

Proverbs 5: 6 (NKJV) Lest you ponder her [a sexually promiscuous woman’s] path of life-- Her ways are unstable; you do not know them. ( Phil. 4:8*)

People at work often times are put in situations that can breed the wrong kind of “pondering.”

Godly leaders (at home or at work) are called to bring captive every thought by being saturated with Wisdom. “Summing it all up… I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.”*

Meditating on the Word is foundational. In addition, developing an integrated Christian Worldview will yield insights, attitudes and behaviors that make the Sunday stuff alive at work and play.

Ponder that!

The Heart of a Leader

Proverbs 4:23 (MSG) Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that's where life starts.

Effective leadership is a heart issue. The “heart” is where feelings, behavior, attitudes, hidden thoughts live. It is where “life starts.”

Scripture also teaches that the heart is very wicked and deceitful - so much so, it can fool us. That's why it must be guarded. The older I get, the more I understand how much personal discipline it really takes to become a "person after God's own heart."

Not guarding the heart allows it to wander, and it is very easily done - especially in a culture that stimulates the prurient as the driver for purchasing almost anything today. Interesting word – prurient – comes from the Latin meaning “to itch.”

People at work often times are put in situations that can breed “prurient pondering.” Behaviors have changed. The unintended consequences of how people dress, what the joke about, and what they notice sometimes creates an “itch” that we scratch by “pondering.”

Effective leaders think of others before thinking of self (prurient pondering is innately selfish!) This kind of leadership demands a humble heart, which takes effort on our part and that effort is focused on guarding our heart – keeping the pondering in check.

To become better prepared for work, do you spend as much time reading the Word as you do the Harvard Business Review? The former, aimed at filling the heart with God-thoughts, will not only yield more than the latter about the issues of life, but also will make implementing insights from HBR more effective. Their articles can be helpful, but even more so when you see how research lines up so often with Biblical principles.

Are you disciplined for leadership?

Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Leadership Discipline

Proverbs 12: 1 (AMP) Whoever loves instruction and correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is like a brute beast, stupid and indiscriminating.

To put this verse more simply – “to learn, you must have discipline (NLT).” To grow personally or to lead a business, a non-profit, your family, the team – whatever you might lead - the discipline to learn from the results you produce yields the knowledge needed to be an effective leader.

Discipline is the result of the willingness to ask the questions about results produced that produce instruction or, if needed, correction - the discipline to listen and learn. I’m reminded of what M. Scott Peck said in his book The Road Less Traveled, “without discipline we can solve nothing.”

Some organizations just love strategy formulation - big plans and wonderful Power Point® presentations: but it is the discipline that comes from strategy implementation where the rubber meets the road. Leaders learn that every action taken is a learning experience: they see it as producing a result- not as success or failure, per se.

Learn from the results you produce - that’s the attitude of loving discipline. If you don’t like the results, change what you are doing – don’t be a “brute beast, stupid and indiscriminating.”

Are you a leader who is willing to learn, change where needed and grow?

Copyright (c) 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell