Monday, February 4, 2013

Empowering Your People & Being The Final Word

Advice to Moses from Exodus 18
21But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. 23If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”

So often we get it twisted. We believe that as the leader, everything must pass through us. We are the final word on the issue. When that really just adds undue stress to our leadership.

Moses was on the verge of burnout, and was advised to empower a few chosen people to make decisions on his behalf. This eased the burden of leadership and also gave Moses an inner-circle that he would mentor and lead. The appointed people become the direct-reports of the rest of the Israelites.

What if we adopted this model into our culture?

What if we empowered those we lead to make decisions, 
to create, 
to ship,
without having to pass through us?

Not only would it ease the burden of leadership, but it might also increase buy-in from those people, and who knows what we could accomplish.

How have you seen this work in your life? In your workplace? In your ministry?

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