For as long as I can remember, I have been a doer with a propensity to jump into action. Everything from organizing Sunday school summer camps at my local church, to student placements at the various places I have worked. If such enriching programmes didn’t exist, then count on me to set something up. That bias to action translates into my work as a lawyer, and I love coming up with ideas to help my clients, colleagues, or myself.
This also had its advantages when I was mentoring under-privileged women to transform the way they saw themselves and define their goals. Perhaps some of this spilled over into the way we raised our 3 children (for both better and worse)! So, you can see why the story of the ‘Woman at the well’ (John 4) would resonate with me. This example of bias to action is shown after her exchange with Jesus and His declaration that He was the Messiah (verse 28-29, New King James), “The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come , see the Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be Christ?”. She didn’t wait to share the good news; she had an enormous curiosity and showed immediate action, energy, and courage.
There are other examples of figures in the Bible who had bias to action; whether it was Miriam (Moses’ sister), after crossing Red Sea, she broke out into a song with tambourines etc, to celebrate God’s protection and provision over the people, or, Abigail, when she felt that her husband’s life may be threatened due to his foolishness towards King David. Of course, there was Peter, who must be the most impulsive man in the New Testament; who asked Jesus for permission to join his walk on water (Matthew 14: 28) as soon as He saw Jesus walking on the water. He then allowed fear and doubt to creep in and consequently began to sink!
That’s me, a person of action. An exceptional quality in a leader? With this came challenges, too much bias to action can be impulsive, disruptive, and inconsiderate; derailing my career several times, being brought back on track with the help of wise counsel from, friends, mentors, and prayers. My path to leadership has been interesting. I drowned myself in self-help books from the best leadership teachers, listened to podcasts, attended development training, and learnt a lot through trial and error (I cannot count the number of times I have ‘lost face’ and overfilled my ‘tear jar’). It all became too confusing for me, there were too many voices, so I began to mute them with prayers.
I went back to the bestseller of all time, the Bible. I started to unlearn a lot of the corporate leadership mantras and instead learn about Christian leadership values. I explored the men and women in the Bible and looked to understand Jesus’ teachings. Christian leadership values are not unlike most of those values you read in leadership books and hear in podcasts: humility, empathy, considerate, transparency, accountability, integrity, compassion, diplomacy, etc.
So, what’s the edge with WELL? God adds the ‘wonder’ to the ‘wonderful’ results I achieve at work. When things go wrong in the natural, he brings about supernatural outcomes. He gives me strength when I am weary from overwhelming workloads. He gives me patience when I don’t get what I want after a pitch. He nurses my pain when I am passed over for a promotion. This list goes on. WELL aims to be your personal coach and mentor with a spiritual antenna, covering topics we wished we had known in our 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond. This blog touched on bias to action, and we will cover a variety of leadership topics with Biblical lens.
As a lawyer, I lean on evidence. There are far too many stories in my leadership journey to be dismissed as self-fulfilled achievements, derived only from my own strength and intellect. Belief in Jesus helps us with peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and a self-control (to varying degrees in each of us) in our everyday influence as a leader. These are fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23); they cannot be manufactured or created by us. To lead like Jesus, it starts with a relationship with God.
I am still learning and growing as a leader. WELL, is a way to connect Christian faith leadership experts with our members. Here is your personal invitation to join us at the Grace Lounge for coaching conversations, building community and connections and join us at our conferences to learn and grow to become an effective and inclusive leader.
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