LEADERSHIP Series: Understanding and Prudence

There are many expectations followers have about their leaders: one in particular is the leader’s ability to “understand.” A well-rounded leader wins the favor of followers by faithfully communicating, “they get it.”

This is a leader who has learned to both manage complexity well and lead clearly through the tensions inherent in the structural conflicts involved in change. Careful! Success here can lead to personal hubris. The “prudent” remembers that it is their Creator who has equipped them, not they, themselves.

Effective leaders understand that the tension between continuity and change is perceived differently by each follower and is based on how each were “hard wired.” The aware leader can inspire and motivate in a way that “wins favor” because this leader recognizes the communication style that will get through and get action for each member of the team. Jesus employed different approaches based upon the listener to whom he was speaking. Shouldn’t we?

Proverbs 13:15-16 [PGL] Good understanding wins favor, but the way of the social deceiver whose conscious is warped does not endure. The prudent acts with knowledge, but the fool lays open his foolishness.

Those practicing manipulative management and self-serving leadership have become slaves to their own ego. They are fools. The music of life is not in the baton of the maestro, but in the musicians in the orchestra.

The prudent leader with good understanding is the maestro we favor. The score of the music is the common purpose. The musicians’ take personal responsibility for fulfilling their portion of the purpose. Remember, tuning the orchestra does not produce pleasant music, but is necessary. The music begins when the conductor, with a clear understanding of each musician’s role, and knowledge of the author’s intent with the piece, raises the baton to start the music.

Are you a maestro trying to be an orchestra?
Do you know the “author’s intent” in the score of life and it’s expression at work?


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell