As a person, I am a "people person." I love to be able to have long conversations, deep discussions, time together. I love relationships. I truly love people! I am energized by people! I am a "shepherd" that deeply enjoys moving with, guiding, and caring for people.
As a leader, I must also admit I really love a good box checked. I'm an achiever. I have a list, things that are priority and important. That list drives work and results and people to great things. When I get to check something off my list, I feel a true sense of accomplishment. A full list checked off? Well that's exhilarating! And then I start a new list.
The reality of great leadership is that it's all about people. I can have top priorities, grand vision, SMART goals, and a personal hard work ethic that produces results, but none of that will work without people. And more over, if the tasks and results are all I truly focus on, I will identify great people to get the job done, use those people, alienate those people, hurt those people, and lose those people. And my results? They will fall short because it takes people to make those results happen.
What I learned in leadership is that while I am a people person, my pride loves tasks. I feel a sense of accomplishment, I get things done, I see goals met and exceeded. It's about me. What Christ has called me to as a leader is to be about others. That smashes my pride. In each phase of new leadership, I have felt this tug of war inside me. I have felt a desire to really accomplish something significant, but have had a conviction deep within me that if I didn't take time to know and serve and love the people on my team, then I would miss my calling completely, and any real purpose I was supposed to have or feel would be lost on tasks. Don't get me wrong, the tasks and results were critical, and I am convinced they have eternal weight. But if I only focused on tasks or results, then I missed the true significance in leadership: the people. For great leaders, people are the priority.
Whenever I find a principle in leadership, I can always root it back to the ministry of Christ. He is the epitome of "leader." Christ was about His Father's work. Christ was singularly focused on God's purpose for His life. Christ was the God-Man on a mission. His teaching, ministry, and even His footsteps were all towards the end game: the cross. And His priority in all that on earth was people. God's heart is for people.
Consider with me two stories in the ministry of Christ that show that people were His priority. Pause for a second and remember that Christ is the Messiah, the great Rabbi, the Son of God. He has healed whole cities, taught ground breaking truths to crowds numbering in the thousands, and done miracles. Miracles! He has a following like no other leader and He has an eternal mission to accomplish perfectly in only three years. He also has a group of 12 men that He must individually and corporately disciple so that they can carry on His work. Jesus could be viewed as a high powered, busy leader.
Jesus could be viewed as a high-powered, busy leader. But His priorities looked very different than many leaders. One of my favorite stories is the Samaritan woman and Jesus in John 4. Jesus took the long way around to get where He was going. He chose to meet with a woman that was relationally off-limits to a Jewish man for several reasons. He purposefully was there when she would be there to engage her in a difficult conversation that would change her life. Jesus was about her. She was His priority. Knowing Him, truth, wholeness, and no more shame: that was His plan for her. And He enjoyed it! He was so satisfied by His encounter with her and the result of this encounter, so full from having changed a life, so satiated by doing exactly what God would have Him do in this situation, that it was like food to a starving man. His disciples came back with lunch, and His heart was so full He wasn't even hungry and wanted them to feel the same way! A single woman was His priority.
In worldly terms, this situation was time consuming, inefficient, potentially reputation damaging, outside the boundaries of normal business, small "potatoes" compared to His usual audience, uncomfortable in confrontation with a difficult personal subject matter, and there was a lunch to get to. But Jesus' priority was people, and she was His focus. The result of this "people priority" was a whole city encountering the life changing power of the Messiah. He made her a priority and when her life was changed, she shouted it from the rooftops! With no shame! They came running to meet Him, "...and because of His words, many more became believers. They said to the woman, 'We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.'" (Jn. 4:41-42)
One more: In Luke 7, Jesus was on the move with His disciples. He had just taught the Sermon on the Mount and had been traveling, healing along the way. He comes to the town of Nain and at the gate, He sees a funeral procession. He is moved with compassion for a mother who has lost her son, and immediately people are His priority. He casts off any agenda He may have had, and throws off all social and personal restraint and reaches out and touches the dead son on the stretcher. Jesus, by Jewish standards, has defiled Himself. ("The Son of God could not be defiled no matter what He touched. One day soon He would literally take on the sins of the entire world while still remaining the perfect Lamb without spot or blemish." Beth Moore, Jesus the One and Only) He couldn't help but be about her and the life of her son. He didn't care about anything but being with those people in that moment and impacting their lives. His touch and word raised the son from the dead! Those two became His priority. They were immediately on the agenda. They became the agenda! Whatever He was headed towards, this interrupted. And Jesus was all in for an interruption by people and bringing life to someone God placed in His path. The result was life for the son, a miracle for the mother, and news of God among the people spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country. Talk about results!
We as leaders, are invited to be about people. We are called to be about people. When I am submitted to His way of being about others, I see results that multiply and last. When my priority becomes the people God has placed in the care of my leadership, then I have the ability and opportunity to infuse life, shape, impact, influence, and even be an instrument for God's change in their lives. And that type of priority is so extraordinary that it always points back to Christ and His power! Those people in turn go, like the woman at the well and the people in Nain, and impact others in significant ways because I was faithful to Christ to make His priority my priority.That's eternal! That's great leadership.
So, in a 21st century setting, what does this look like? There's still the list, there's still the agenda, there's still the results to be seen. That's a reality. That may be your reality. Chances are, your results and agenda are tied to a team of people you are leading. It's most likely not you alone in this endeavour. If that's the case, then God has given you multiple "things" to steward. You feel that tug of war between people and processes, goals, results. If you will invest in your people; that means be intentional about taking time to know them, encourage them, equip them, inspire them, celebrate with them, teach them, be willing to be interrupted by them, have compassion on them, free them to try and fail and lead again and win, and serve them, then they will follow you, their leader, towards whatever processes, goals, and results are in front of you. They will trust you and work hard with you because you have made them a priority and you have made their work matter because you have shown them they matter to you and your mission. Results will happen and goals will be met. They will grow as team members and develop as leaders, and ultimately, when they leave their season under your leadership, the investment you poured into them will multiply as they make other people their priority in new places of leadership. This is the purpose of leadership: people.What's more, you will bring life to those God has placed in your path, and like Christ, you will feel a deep sense of satisfaction and overwhelming joy, that's like food to a starving man.
I am a people person, but this prioritizing of people is not exclusively "housed in" or available only to leaders "like me." Our calling as leaders is to be about others. That's something we all can do, but only if we look to Christ to do it through us, just like He did in His ministry here on earth. When you make people your priority, that's Christ in you, and He gets the glory for the results. That delights me to no end as a leader, because that's as it should be!
We have an opportunity to lead in a way that points to Christ and have eternal results.We must simply look to Him and follow His example.
People are the priority.
Just a seed of my faith,
Ginny
