Wisdom Beyond Words

"Nature abhors a vacuum" This Aristolean principle helps explain why air fills an "empty" space, why liquid goes to the edge of the container its given, and why, regardless of the size of our house, we always seem to be able to fill it with stuff. We grow to the space we are given whether it terms of our potential or in terms of our physical possessions.

In the same way that nature fills emptiness, many fill silence with the presence of speech. In a car ride with others, a litany of syllables fill the air. Waiting for a doctor's appointment, we start chatting up the other unsuspecting patients. An elevator is our worse nightmare, because as we wait for the ten-floor ride downward we aren't sure what conversation is most appropriate.

Sometimes though, words aren't what's needed. "Silence is golden" as they say, and while you may not be able to sell it on the commodities market, there is value in the absence of words. We speak because we want to demonstrate our intelligence, our concern, or our care. Sometimes though, wisdom means that we withold our opionions, our options, and our intution to allow God to work. The wisest thing we can do is to withold peddling our perceptions so that we can see things from His. When we are standing before a holy God, all the words that we have to say are useless. Wisdom dictates listening to Him, not ourselves.

Words can captivate and motivate, but words can't love and words can't care. Just ask Micheal Oher, recently drafted to the Baltimore Ravens. Once homeless, he's now a member of an NFL, primarily thanks to the actions of one caring family in the community. Words couldn't do that, only action could. While thousands may have been able to tell Oher what he needed, only one family actually provided it.

We speak to elevate ourselves in the presence of our audience, whether its a thousand people, or just one friend. However, oftentimes the best thing we can do is direct them to the One audience that really matters and tell them to listen to Him.

Leading through Service

Every so often a buzz word catches on in the business world. It might be "synergy", "positioning" or "the long tail" (I kid you not) but somehow, some way, through the magic of pop culture an innocuous word suddenly starts appearing in boardrooms across the nation. Often times the people uttering the words can't even define them, but that doesn't stop them from encouraging their adoption. Usually there's a banner company like GE that advocates its acceptance and business leaders (who are more rightly called followers in this regard) flood to training seminars to learn the habits of those who have proven effective. It's management by the masses and usually the process leads to nothing but the readiness to adopt the next guru's cure.

A few years ago, the cause of hysteria in the business world was "servant leadership." Books from previously unknown authors abounded. Everyone was willing to get in on the act - to help leaders learn how to act like servants in order to further their own causes. This organizational mindset even had religious undertones which carried it further upstream. The idea was that if leaders embraced the notion to give of themselves for others, that they, and the organization would be better off. In certain respects, it worked. Given the choice between leading humbly and leading with pride, the former is bound to beat the latter in the long-run every time.

However, I don't think the management textbooks completely got the idea right. See - they tried to take leaders and teach them to serve - a worthy endeavor. But I wonder how often we overlook those who are already serving and therefore providing leadership? We try to take those who are exalted and teach them humility. How much more can we learn from those who are already humbled? Whether its the tech guy who's willing to burn the midnight oil to solve the computer glitch, the cleaning crew who is the last to leave or the first to arrive, or the artist who doesn't ever get to put their name on a design because its created for another - each of these are already leading, even if their title speaks otherwise.

Maybe leading through service is a higher aim than servant leadership. It's something we're all capable of regardless of what our business cards say.

Perceptions of Greatness

One of the hardest lessons that is learned on our journey to adulthood is that we are not what we think we are. The perception that we have of ourselves is rarely the same perception that others have of us. This can be both good and bad. For example, I tend to be my own worse critic so in a way this could be good news for me. On the other hand, I also think that I'm pretty witty, and the fact that few might fight my humor laughable kind of makes this bad news. We tend to think of ourselves as being a certain way, and because we are intimately aware with our inner thoughts, feelings and motivations, we are justified in believing that this is who we really are. But others aren't privy to this internal dialog, so they form their opinion based solely on the part of our lives with which they have experience.

Leaders, maybe more than any others, have the potential to be the hardest hit as a result of this consideration. After all, their behaviors are observed by a greater number of people than those who aren't leading, and leaders are less likely to be really known by those that follow. As my dad has told me "it's lonely at the top". Being in a position of leadership means that there are few people who can relate to you; there are only a few that understand you. Even these individuals can not fully appreciate the struggles that a leader must go through and the careful balance that must be maintained between the various contingencies. Leaders are known of by many, but only known by a few. Perceptions of who a leader is abounds, understanding of the leader is scarce. And perhaps the hardest part of the equation is that the reality matters very little. Perception will form the basis of judgment. Many leaders try to manage perception but after awhile that gets pretty futile too. Each person will interpret actions based on their own experiences and biases. Leaders can not make decisions and consider these hidden agendas.

So, what is a leader to do? The right thing. It is only through doing what the leader knows to be right that the leader can be sure that perception doesn't matter. The leader has made a decision based on what he or she believes will accomplish the most good and which will serve his or her followers. If its a Christian leader, they will also be motivated by the opportunity to bring God the greatest amount of glory. Knowing that the decision is concurrent with the right thing to do, makes misperceptions easier to manage. Even if misperceptions persist, the leader can rest in the knowledge that their decision was motivated by the proper reasons and that the final judgment will vindicate them.

Leadership is never easy. Being judged by others isn't either. Knowing that you did the right thing can make both manageable.

"One of the hardest tasks of leadership is understanding that you are not what you are, but what you're perceived to be by others."
--Edward L. Flom,