XV) GREAT LEADERS SET A GOOD EXAMPLE

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In Luke 11:46 Jesus gives a scathing rebuke to the “experts in the law.” He chastises them for loading people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and yet these “experts” would not lift a finger to help them. In other words, these religious elite were more than willing to tell people what they should be doing, to explain in excruciating detail what a righteous person should do, but these elite did nothing to help the people carry out these demands. Furthermore, these leaders were guilty of weighing people down with religious burdens that they themselves could not carry.

I’ve seen leaders make demands of people that were unattainable. It is one thing to challenge people to do better and to try harder, but it is something else altogether to constantly set them up for failure and frustration. When people feel that their best efforts are never good enough then they will eventually stop trying.

Jesus saw people who were weary of religion and who were frustrated by the religious leaders who, it seems, could never affirm them, only judge them and tell them that their best efforts always fell short. The hypocrisy of it all was that these leaders were not able to keep their own laws. They too failed, but because they were the ones in positions of authority they felt they were above reproach.

There are two important lessons on leadership here. First, good leaders should never load people down with unattainable goals. This demoralizes those we lead and after a while failure becomes familiar and frequent. Second, good leaders know how to affirm others.

When I was in the Air Force I worked as a surgery technician and in central sterile supply. During my time there we had several OIC’s (Officer in Command) and NCOIC’s (Non-Commissioned Officer in Command) rotate through our department. Under their command were three of us airmen. It seemed each new OIC or NCOIC had to try to outdo his or her predecessor. So each time a new one came into the department we three airmen had to change everything around to satisfy the new person in command. Regardless of how much we cleaned or how hard we tried, it just wasn’t clean enough or good enough. It was a frustrating cycle for all of us. It began to affect moral and to fragment the entire department. What we needed was some affirmation, some “ataboy’s” and “good job’s”.

The truth was that we were working out of a hospital that was old, had sustained earthquake damage and was never, despite our best efforts, going to be as good as or as clean as the newer hospitals that these leaders had cycled out of. The year after I was honorably discharged the Air Force opened a brand new hospital there.

I’ve seen leaders who expected more from those they mentored than they did from themselves. They were critical of others while they failed to model the same level excellence they demanded. Great leaders are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and lead by example. Great leaders may have high expectations, but they are more than willing to teach, mentor, and model the behavior and skills they are looking for in others.

Great leaders don’t look for behavior to criticize, but they look for good work to affirm to recognize and to applaud. If we give an employee a tower to build, we celebrate each floor of the building as it goes up. We recognize and reward smaller achievements on the road to completion. Jesus criticized these religious leaders for burdening people down with unrealistic goals and for not helping them to achieve these goals. We can learn a lesson here that will help us to assist others in becoming happy and motivated in their respective roles.