9/28 Leadership’s Classic Mistake

Leadership’s Classic Mistake

1 King 12:13-15

“And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men's counsel that they gave him; And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat.”

In this story Rehoboam made one of the biggest mistakes that leadership can ever make. This mistake is thinking that their place of position is for the people to serve them. This is not the purpose of leadership. Leadership is in place to serve the people and to meet the needs of the people.

When leadership starts thinking that people are to serve them then leadership will begin to fall. Any great leader who lives on in history as a great leader is a person who used their position to help people.

Herein lies the difference between a dictator and a leader. A dictator will use his position to meet his needs and expects people to serve him because of his position. By the way, a dictator shows his poor ability to lead for he cannot get anyone to follow him as he tries to lead without force or fear of force. A leader uses his position to serve the needs of the people he serves. Being a leader is much harder than being a dictator in the fact that by being a leader the followers have a choice to follow, and yet, the leader is still capable to get them to follow him without force or fear of force. Rehoboam never learned this principle, and apparently neither did the young men who counseled him. Each leader needs to learn this great principle of the purpose of their position.

I am talking to the parents who are leaders in your home. Your purpose of being a parent is not to use your children to serve you. The purpose of you being their leader is to teach them what the right way in life is. Yes, as the leader in the home they will be required to do duties. These duties are not to be done so that you won't have to do them, but they are being done to teach them how to become a better person in society. This is the case with any level of leadership. All leadership positions are there for the sole purpose to serve those they lead.

Any leader who must use fear to get their followers to continue to follow them is a poor leader. If you want people to follow you, then convince them that you are not out to get them to serve you, but convince them that you are out to meet their needs and you will be pleasantly surprised how much they will follow you.

I ask every leader who reads this, what are your leadership skills like? Do people follow you because you serve them or do they follow you because of fear of what you will do to them if they don't follow you? Let every leader realize the purpose of them filling their position is to serve those they lead. When you fulfill that purpose then those you lead will want to follow you for they know you have their best interest at stake.