{"id":5892,"date":"2016-02-14T00:33:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-14T05:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5892"},"modified":"2016-02-14T00:33:27","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T05:33:27","slug":"shepherded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5892","title":{"rendered":"shepherded"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo-1453974336165-b5c58464f1ed\"<\/a>Let\u2019s stay on the leadership theme for another day here; it\u2019s an area so relevant to us all, and there\u2019s an additional insight I believe wise to discuss.<\/p>\n

I keep toying with what makes a good leader\u2026 yes, from the presidency to the pulpit to our places of business\u2026 from our homes to our sports teams to all heads of state; this affects each of us.<\/p>\n

And I keep coming back to one, profound line:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them with his skillful hands.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

(Hence, fully in touch with my inner nerd \u2014 as I love<\/strong> word studies!)<\/em> Allow me to first define a few key words\u2026<\/p>\n

shepherd<\/strong> (v.)<\/em> – to feed a flock, to tend to<\/p>\n

integrity<\/strong> (n.)<\/em> – moral uprightness, wholeness, without any evil purpose<\/p>\n

heart<\/strong> (n.)<\/em> – the inner most part, mind, will, soul, understanding<\/p>\n

guide<\/strong> (v.)<\/em> – to lead forth, to show or indicate the way<\/p>\n

skillful<\/strong> (adj.)<\/em> – intelligent, understanding, insightful<\/p>\n

When I read that brief but excellent description, I sense that\u2019s what\u2019s scarce in current culture. Instead of men and women focused on carving out the character it takes to emulate each of the above, we instead have persons in authority or seeking authority who value the cameras, microphones, and social media more; they seem so enamored with all sorts of selfies and hearing themselves speak. In other words, too many leaders are \u201cme-oriented\u201d \u2014 forgetting that it\u2019s not about who<\/em> is right, but what<\/em> is right.<\/p>\n

What strikes me, no less, about the above, bold description, is who the \u201che\u201d is \u2014 who the comment was actually said about. It comes from the historical scriptures, in reference to David.<\/p>\n

According to all accounts, David was a clear leader. When he led; people followed. When he spoke, people listened. He was powerful and effective.<\/p>\n

But what strikes me as profound \u2014 and what\u2019s relevant here regardless of being a regular reader of scripture \u2014 is that David was quite the flawed individual. He screwed up\u2026 he had an affair\u2026 he arranged a murder\u2026 he covered it up. He was a bit of a mess at times in my book.<\/p>\n

Yet \u2014 and this is a big \u201cyet\u201d \u2014 his flaws did not disqualify him from leading.<\/em>\u00a0Let me say that again: his flaws did not disqualify him from leading.<\/em> In fact, they may have actually made him more effective.<\/p>\n

There is no perfect person; there is no person who has never screwed up.<\/p>\n

And so all this image casting that we see on a daily basis \u2014 be it in press conferences, primaries, or any sort of Snapchat\u00a0\u2014 reflecting an image of always, unprecedented wisdom and ability \u2014 is inauthentic. Why? Because it omits our flaws.<\/p>\n

The difference with David is that his flaws were not omitted. And by admitting his own foolish mistakes \u2014 seeking then both the necessary forgiveness and repentance \u2014 David again led well\u2026 not attempting to be something he was not\u2026 not solely casting himself in the best light\u2026 but relating to others via his humility and weakness. That is a humble, effective leader. There was no trace of a boast.<\/p>\n

The problem with so many seeking leadership today is that they fail to recognize that the admission of weakness and inability shows us that you actually are \u201cone of us.\u201d We don\u2019t want our candidates\/coaches\/QB\u2019s\/etc. to be perfect; we want them to be real.<\/em> I will follow the one that\u2019s real.<\/p>\n

I will follow the one who gently and insightfully tends to his or her people without any unethical purpose\u2026<\/p>\n

I will follow the one who leads according to the integrity of his heart.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s stay on the leadership theme for another day here; it\u2019s an area so relevant to us all, and there\u2019s an additional insight I believe wise to discuss. I keep toying with what makes a good leader\u2026 yes, from the presidency to the pulpit to our places of business\u2026 from our homes to our sports … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “shepherded”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[560],"class_list":["post-5892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue","tag-leadership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5892"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5897,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5892\/revisions\/5897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}