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Today's "The Word" slideshow presentation (pdf - free reader here). Right mouse click the button above and 'Save As...' |
27th February 2004
I have been reading a book of late on leadership entitled, "The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership" by Stephen Sample.
In one of the chapters, it had some interesting advice on decision making. He describes two general rules:
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Never make a decision yourself that can be reasonably delegated to someone else
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Never make a decision today that can reasonably be put off til tomorrow
He describes the 'weasel' word in these two rules as "reasonably". There are obviously many decisions that we need to make ourselves and cannot be put off.
However, as I was sharing with Carol Ripberger the other day, in our decision-making process, so many of us fail to think about what others could do, and rather misguidedly take upon ourselves more than we need. The challenge in leadership is to delegate, and continually monitor the sustainability of our activity.
It is so easy to get overworked and to become ineffective by majoring in minors so that you do not have time to major on the majors!
Similarly, we often make poor decisions by rushing out into the street in the first instance and declaring our action when we would be much smarter to leave many decisions for some time and subject them to the opportunity of counsel, creative thought, and considered opinion.
Again, the tyranny of the urgent is so often times the robber of the best.
How many times have you made a decision on the run and reaped consequences of not thinking clearly when really the decision could have been put off for some time and a much wiser alternative come to.
Proverbs 20:25 says:
It is a trap for a man to dedicate to something rashly and only later to consider his vows.
Similarly, Proverbs 6:6 says:
Go the ant you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise.
Today I want to explore with you some of the ways of the ants, particularly as it affects our decision making. May God help us all to be wise in the decisions of life and to draw upon the wisdom that comes from Christ.
Yours warmly in Christ,
Hans