A Leader's Words Give Life

Proverbs 10:11a (NKJV) The mouth of the righteous is a well of life…

All sorts of people can inspire, motivate to bring about change. Sometimes, the oasis of hoped for change is just a desert illusion.

Not so with a righteous leader: this person draws from a well of “living water” and motivates people to move (change) quenching their thirst with “the healing water” from the Giver of Life.

According to John P, Kotter, (Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management), a leader sets the direction, aligns the key factors that will yield success, motivates and inspires and produces positive change. To do these things, words take on great power. If a leader’s words are colored by discouragement, hesitancy based on current circumstances and an almost fatalistic recognition of present conditions, motivation is lost. Followers are not inspired. There is no joy for the words are not drawn from the “well of life.”

Yes, in the year 2009, we are going thru economic hardship – some of us. Not all. There are still “winners” in the stock market. Some businesses are counter-cyclic.

Regardless of your season, the personal focus must be on how the Lord is showing up even if we are in the “winter of our discontent.” Christian leaders must first communicate joy - because the “joy of the Lord is your strength.” Effective leaders speak first of what is going well (in a church or ministry context, it would be a conversation about God’s goodness) before s/he communicates the trials that must be faced and overcome. We can only truly motivate and inspire when we draw first from the “well of life.”

Leader: do your words result in joy, hope and inspiration to bring about positive change?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Effective Leaders Do More Than Just Listen

Proverbs12:15 (MSG) Fools are headstrong and do what they like; wise people take advice.

“Taking advice” defines effective leaders. They are the ones who have learned having an open mind yields beneficial results. That learning is life-long. Leaders learn to listen - not just hear - and are listening with the expectation of learning from the advice, no matter the source.

Advice comes in many forms: sometimes as a quiet comment from an unexpected source; other times, as an aside shared during a conversation; sometimes it comes unsolicited – the hardest of all advice to hear! In business settings, it may flow from those to whom you report, your peers, or those who report to you.

But it also strikes me that leaders lead because they first learned to follow - follow the One who has provided eternal advice about living whether at home or at work. Advices about letting go and letting God speak through His word or His workers.

Simply listening to advice and actually taking advice are two different activities.

Do you “do what you like” or do you “take advice?”



Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell