On The Road - Episode 5 - God Centered Leadership: We Need To Be Consistent!

God Centered Theology

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:15

Welcome back to On the Road. This is Andy Cain, and it is September 10th, 2024 in the year of our

00:22

Lord. And this is On the Road, where we talk about all things God -centered,

00:28

God -centered church, God -centered leadership, God -centered home, all those good things. And we just kind of cover whatever's on my mind and whatever is prevalent, or I might be doing a special series or whatever the case.

00:42

Today, I want to talk about some God -centered leadership, specifically God -centered leadership in the workplace.

00:48

Now, you may be in a position of leadership, or you may be not in a position of leadership at work.

00:56

I hesitate to use, and I don't particularly like using the word management or manager, because it comes across as you're simply managing and keeping things in a certain line and things like that.

01:09

And there's always an element of that. I mean, you can't just allow things to go all haywire and crazy out of control.

01:16

But there needs to be a focus on the biblical principles of God -centered leadership.

01:22

God -centered leadership starts with God and comes down to man. So it's not so much why I think this would work, but what we know

01:30

God has said. And one of the things he talks about is having proper balances and having equity and things like that in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and different places.

01:42

And if I was on the road, hence the title of this podcast, On the Road, I'd have time to really look it up and go through some exegesis and things.

01:51

But this is more so just to take the principles of Scripture or a particular section that I know well and provide some commentary, you know, while we're kind of rolling along here.

02:05

And so the thing I want to talk about the most as it relates to leadership in the workplace is the word consistency.

02:15

We find consistency in Scripture. We find consistency in who God is. He is a

02:21

God who never changes. He is consistent. He is always who he is. He's always who he says he is.

02:27

We never have to wonder if we're going to wake up one day and all of a sudden the goal posts have moved or the rules have changed or salvation looks different.

02:37

It's that consistency that we can lean on. It's that consistency that provides a sense of really just structure and confidence and just a sense of security.

02:55

And so leadership in the workplace, if you're in a place of leadership, it's vitally important that you provide consistency for those under your watch care.

03:06

If you do this, you will naturally have, and of course, there's always exceptions to every rule.

03:15

So it's not a 100 % of the time thing here. But if you do this, you will naturally have better, even more efficient, better productive, just all around a better situation for employees and for fellow colleagues to operate better, to perform better, to perform with confidence.

03:40

Because I can tell you from experience, there is absolutely nothing worse. Well, I mean, there's, yes, there are literally things that are worse.

03:48

But one of the things, one of the worst things you can experience is to be in a place that has woeful inconsistency and double standards.

03:56

And sometimes these things happen ignorantly, which is sad.

04:01

And, you know, you just hope that it comes to someone's attention that can be changed. And sometimes it's on purpose.

04:07

And you don't want to be a Christian in that position, allowing for or causing inconsistency and double standards, which causes fear in the hearts and minds of those that are working with you or for you.

04:22

So for example, if you harp on every little mistake, and act like it's an instance of something happening is what happens all the time when that's not true.

04:34

So let's say over the course of a year, someone makes five mistakes, and you act like they make a mistake almost every day or every week, that's going to create fear in the heart and mind of that person to where they're going to be terrified to make a mistake.

04:46

And they're only going to be trying to do things correctly, to avoid making a mistake to avoid having to deal with you coming at them in that way, especially if they see you ignoring or placating to or making excuses for someone else's mistake.

05:03

And especially if that person makes more mistakes qualitatively than you do.

05:09

And so that creates a it actually creates an environment where more mistakes are made.

05:15

Because when you're operating from a place of fear, your mind isn't fully engaged in the task at hand, it's engaged in okay, how can

05:22

I avoid this negative reinforcement that is unwarranted. And so inconsistency like that is is a horrible thing to have.

05:33

And so, as God centered leaders, we need to make sure that we're in positions of leadership, to provide consistency, which provides a security blanket for employees and those that work with you or and or for you to operate and to perform and to focus on their work, knowing that occasionally, because everybody's human, we're all in sinful flesh, we're going to make mistakes.

05:59

And a lot of times if you handle mistakes correctly, it can be a learning environment and not a you did something wrong environment.

06:06

And if you have good people working for you or with you, I can, I can, you know, tell you that they've probably already known they made a mistake, they're already looking at ways they can do to make sure they don't do it again, and they're wanting to learn from it.

06:23

And so if you've got people like that with you, you want to utilize that and as much as you can, get out of their way, let them do what they do.

06:35

And don't be inconsistent without how you approach them and how you, quote unquote, manage or lead them.

06:44

You want to make sure there's a consistent understanding of what's expected because anybody that's human is going to know and witness and be aware of double standards.

06:55

So another example would be something like time and attendance, you know, if if someone's constantly coming in late, and then someone else is not, but the person that's not gets harped on if they are late a little bit, they're going to know about this, and there's going to be obviously resentment that can build from this.

07:13

And you don't want people resenting you because of your inconsistency, you want them to trust that if you are able, if they do make a mistake, or if they do have an issue, that they can come to you and understand that you're going to be there's gonna be some grace involved there.

07:30

And some grace applied to their situation. Now, if you have somebody that is consistently having an issue, and it can be documented and shown that this is consistently happening over a period of time, it needs to be addressed and talked about.

07:44

And this leads me to our last point. God centered leadership that is consistent is not going to be afraid of a challenge, they're not going to be afraid to allow the people that work with them or for them to push back, express themselves.

07:59

Now, obviously, you need to have certain barriers, you know, don't be speaking disrespectfully, don't come at me, don't talk, you know, down to someone or, you know, there's certain lines you don't want to cross.

08:13

But aside, assuming those aren't being crossed, there needs to be a healthy environment where people can say,

08:22

Hey, look, you know, yes, I work for you. Yes, you are the quote, unquote, boss.

08:27

But a true leader doesn't fear a challenge and say, Look, I don't agree with this, you know, here's my area of expertise, or here's my work history, here's why

08:37

I feel like I'm qualified to speak on this. Or you may not be qualified to speak on this, you may just not be like the way you may not like the way you're being treated and say,

08:45

Look, I think I'm being treated, you know, unfairly and inconsistently here. And the wrong way to react to that and say,

08:54

Well, you just need to do what you're told, you know, appeals to authority in certain situations to actually show weakness.

09:00

The way to handle this in a strong way is to say, Look, I hear you. Let me take a self assessment, do some self reflection.

09:08

Let me take some time to really watch and see how I'm handling things. And let's reconvene and talk about this again.

09:16

And that will give you a chance to look internally to make sure you're not being inconsistent, but also gives that employee or fellow colleague a chance to see you make adjustments.

09:27

So by the time you come back and reconvene, they may take the lead and say, Look, man, you know, I really or look, man, you know, you can't really say look man to woman, you know, look, sir, madam.

09:39

Whether you it's a boy or girl that yes, there are only boys and girls, you know, it's the boy or the girl you're working for with, you know, sir, madam.

09:49

I really noticed over the past few weeks, you really made an effort to be more consistent in this area. I really appreciate that.

09:55

Thank you so much. This really made me feel better. So these things get resolved. When you talk about them, not allowing or if you if someone attempts to speak up, and you just shout them down or you know, tell them

10:09

I'm the boss and you're not or you better just do what you're told or do it because you know, this is what you're being told to do.

10:14

That's not leadership. That is insecurity. That's micromanaging. That's what you don't want to do.

10:21

So God centered leadership, let's be consistent. Let's be honest and thorough and transparent and authentic and all those good things.

10:31

So this is the podcast takes you from carpool to work. We have left carpool and now we're at work.