Wise leadership is founded on strong relationships with those around us. In fact, Marcus Buckingham in The One Thing You Need to Know about Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Success, says that the greatest manager truly care (love) their staff.

So, how do rate yourself?

Who are the people that are difficult to care for? What does that say about you?

When is it difficult to care for others? What does that say about you?

Take the challenge and read The Paradoxical Commandments by Kent M. Keith:

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, 2001

www.paradoxicalcommandments.com

So, while having my relaxing Saturday morning cup of coffee, I decided to read Psalm 119. The first stanza I read was, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (105).” I immediately wondered, “Hmmmmmm, I wonder what Google has to say about this verse as it relates to the role of leading during tumultuous times? What does it say that could refute some of the Leadership Myths that we read about in the endless array of leadership books and articles written for business leaders, entrepreneurs and sales management leaders?”

The first entry is a quote from Charles Spurgeon, that says, “We are walkers through the city of this world, and we are often called to go out into its darkness; let us never venture there without the light-giving word, lest we slip with our feet.” Isn’t this true, that we often feel blind when faced with all the economic and market news? Doesn’t if often seem that the pathway into the future seems so murky that it’s scary to make any moves forward, for fear of falling off the cliff?

Spurgeon goes on to say, “Each person should use the word of God personally, practically, and habitually, that he may see his way, and see what lies in it.” Again, isn’t that what we need in these crazy times? To really see and to really see what lies in the uncertainty?

Spurgeon explains the concept of Lantern and why the Lantern metaphor is so powerful. “Having no fixed lamps in eastern towns, in old time each passenger carried a lantern with him, that he might not fall into the open sewer, or stumble over the heaps of ordure which defiled the road. This is a true picture of our path through this dark world: we should not know the way, or how to walk in it, if Scripture, like a blazing flambeau, did not reveal it.”

If you’d like to read more of Spurgeon’s comments on this passage, go to Eternal Life Ministries.

So, here’s the question for you to ponder, “Where do you need the a Lantern in your Leadership Journey? Where do you need clarity? Insight? Direction?” And, where are you looking for this clarity? Finally, as they say in the sales world, “How’s that working for you?”

Love it hear from you and what you’re learning about in your Leadership Journey.