Beware of this leadership killer
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The crowd was so thick people were trampling each other. Yet before he addressed them, Jesus took his disciples aside for a few quick lessons.
The first is found in Luke 12:1b-3:
"Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs."
Christ took that moment to teach his inner circle that though the masses see one version of us, a different one dwells within. Our sinful hearts create an inner self that looks after its own.
The self we let others see will usually be better than the real internal one, but Jesus wanted his lead team to close the gap between them. He wants the same for us.
His warning is stark: People will find out about you.
Watch what you say when you think no one can hear, because it will get out. Watch what you watch, because someone will walk in on you and glance at your screen. Watch what you think, because it will register on your face.
When the gap between our inner and hypocritical outer selves widens, we tend to fall in.
Excerpted from Servant Leader Strong: Uniting Biblical Wisdom and High-Performance Leadership, by Tom Harper (DeepWater Books, 2019). Also available in Spanish and Amharic.
 | Tom Harper is publisher of BiblicalLeadership.com and executive chairman of Networld Media Group, a business-to-business publisher and event producer. He has written five books, including Servant Leader Strong: Uniting Biblical Wisdom and High-Performance Leadership (DeepWater Books, 2019) as well as the Christian business fable Through Colored Glasses and its sequel Inner Threat (DeepWater, 2022). Learn More » |
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