Two Crucial Steps to Take When Making Difficult Decisions

Leadership is not easy—if it was then anyone could do it. The one thing I really wrestled with early in my leadership was NOT identifying problems (anyone can do that…just look at social media)! It was actually making the really difficult decision I knew needed to be made in order to solve the problem. The main thing that will hold us back in our leadership (as well as the church/company we lead) is an unwillingness to make a difficult decision. You are a smart person (if you weren’t then you would most likely NOT be sitting in the place of leadership you now have); however, oftentimes leadership isn’t an IQ test, it’s a courage test. Most leaders already know the difficult decision (or decisions) they need to make—they just refuse to make them because doing so would cause things to get uncomfortable. I can remember wrestling with a leadership decision once that I knew was going to impact a lot of people, and most likely cause some people to not like me. The decision was keeping me up at night—and I kept on delaying it (thinking things would just work themselves out). Finally, two points of clarity hit me that enabled me to make the decision I knew needed to be made (but didn’t want to make).

1. There is not one single example in the Bible of God asking someone to do something that was easy.

Courage is a requirement for leadership—and, the steps of faith the Lord will ask us to take as our organization grows will actually increase, not decrease.

2. I can’t lead people if I need people!

If I need people’s approval, if I need everyone to think warm, happy thoughts when they think of me, if I am more fearful of being unpopular than I am of being unfaithful—then I will be significantly limited as to what the Lord will accomplish through me as a leader. With all this in mind, here are some questions to maybe chat through in your next leadership meeting… 1. What is the ONE THING we’ve been putting off because we know it will shake things up? 2. What do we really think will happen if we make this decision? 3. What do we really think will happen if we DO NOT make this decision? 4. Are will letting our perceived popularity interfere with our willingness to make this decision? 5. If we make this decision, what do we believe are the POSITIVE RESULTS that will follow?