Having a Leadership Dilemma?

As a leader you will be called upon to make decisions regarding relationships, money, time, values, opportunities and disputes. And, your decisions will show up on the bottom line. There, in the clear light of day, your leadership will be judged. And, there is something else you need to know; in that realm it takes longer to recognize your brilliance or stupidity, because you're called to lead for long periods of time without the benefit of knowing whether you made the right call. By the time your harvest starts coming in, it's too late to change your procedures. You have to wait until the next season of planting.

Having a vision to produce something, in your business, in your life, or in helping others in a difficult season, is exciting in the beginning. There is a lot of energy around vision. And, as the vision is embraced it begins to transform your daily life with new habits and desire that will yield results for that vision to come to pass. Where many people lose their vision, is in the waiting period for the evidence that the vision is working and that the desired results will become reality. There is a period of time once a seed is planted that no evidence whatsoever is seen that the seed will reproduce. Waiting for a sign of growth can often breed uncertainty.

When it comes to leadership, uncertainty is a permanent part of all progress; it never goes away! Furthermore, uncertainty isn't an indication of poor leadership, it just underscores the need for it; it's the environment in which good leadership is most often discovered. As a leader you may think you should always know what to do, but in reality there will be few occasions when you're absolutely certain. There is a story in the Bible about King Jehoshaphat's leadership when God's people were under attack from the armies of neighboring countries. It was a moment of uncertainty. However, King Jehoshaphat did not solely depend on his own military leadership skills to defend God's people, he said to God, "We do not now what to do, but we are looking to you for help." 2 Chronicles 20:12 NLT

Since, as a leader, you will constantly called upon to make decisions with limited information, your goal should not be to eliminate uncertainty, but to develop the ability to trust God and be courageous and clear in spite of it. It's not your job as a leader to remove uncertainty; it's your job to inspire clarity, faith and progress in the midst of it. When you can to that, you're learning to be a leader.