The Inspired Leader: 101 Biblical Reflections for Becoming a Person of Influence (9 page)

J. Michael Perry

EVP Business Development, Williams Financial Group

IF I WERE to ask each of you to describe the values of your organization, I am fairly certain one word would be at the top of that list—Integrity. As leaders of our companies, families, communities, and churches, we all desire to be known as people with honest virtues. And as we all know, this pursuit of integrity in any organization begins with the leadership. As for myself, when I am living a life of integrity, my words and deeds are in sync. I am who I am no matter where I go or with whom I am speaking. Integrity is not so much what we do as it is who we are out of love.

Within the last few years we have witnessed several businessmen and businesswomen, politicians and religious leaders fall short of the values they claimed to uphold. Many of these leaders have publicly professed a personal relationship with Jesus, yet their actions fail to be good representations of the love Jesus embodies. Romans 7:15-16 says, “
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good
(NIV)
”.
Of course the simple answer to this problem is that people are separated from God—living in their own self-deceptive, self-absorbed, self-centered “I love me” world.

As men and women who wake up daily to follow Jesus in our work, families and communities, we ourselves are not immune to these same shortcomings. It may be something small and seemingly insignificant, but the reality is that we—as men and women of Christ—are not always living up fully to the key aspects of honest living. So as we begin a new year, full of fresh beginnings, our hope and desire is to confess our sins and recognize that we are broken men and women before God in order to be completely reliant on Him for all our needs.

If you have not done so already, I would encourage each of you to ask a close friend who truly knows you to begin asking you the hard questions—sharpening and refining the parts of your heart that are struggling to embody the love and integrity shown by Jesus. James 5:16 says,
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective”
(NIV)
.
This will help us to walk steadily with the Lord on a daily basis and allow Him to refine us so that we will be effective leaders to those we love.

So what are these hard questions?

• How are you treating your spouse and children?
  

• Are you spending time in Scripture?
  

• Are you making choices at work that are honoring to God?
  

• Do you have any sins that you have yet to confess?
  

By having a close confidant ask these simple questions, you will find that your journey with the Lord will be strengthened far beyond what you can do alone. This will transfer into your leadership abilities and enable your words to match your deeds—thus living a fully integrated life.

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

1. Do you have people in your life who have the freedom to ask you difficult, personal questions? If so, who are they? If not, why not?
   

2. Are you comfortable with accountability or do you avoid or resent it? What systems of accountability have you built into your life? If you avoid accountability, why do you?
   

3. Think of one or two people who could help hold you accountable to your commitments if you asked them to. Why don’t you increase the circle of accountability in your life during the next month and see if it does not help you take your commitments and integrity to a higher level?
   

John D. Beckett

Chairman, The Beckett Companies;

Author,
Loving Monday
and
Mastering Monday

HARRY STONECIPHER OF
Boeing. Mark Hurd at HP. Respected, effective CEOs uprooted through moral failure.

Each of us in leadership is vulnerable. A friend once cautioned, “If you think you can’t be deceived, you’re deceived already.” Adam Galinsky, a business school professor at Northwestern says, “Power makes people feel psychologically invincible and psychologically invisible”
(Wall Street Journal,
16 October 2010).

Solomon was a king with unparalleled wealth and power. He loved the Lord. God gave him “
wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore”
(1 Kings 4:29).

However Solomon “
loved many foreign women
,” who, in turn, drew his heart away from the Lord. This was his Achilles’ heel and precipitated his downfall. “
So the Lord became angry with Solomon and raised up adversaries”
(1 Kings 11:1, 9, 14).

How do we guard ourselves? Lessons from the Scriptures provide robust companions for our risk-laden journeys through the marketplace.

Watch the little foxes. Solomon himself knew “
little foxes that spoil the vines
” (Song of Solomon 2:15). We must intercept and wrestle down problems when they are small—when no one is looking. A financial executive in our company found ways to get his hands in the cookie jar, grew emboldened, and eventually embezzled a quarter-million dollars.

Mind the “big three” which the Apostle John warned about (1 John 2:16).

Lust of the flesh
—the inordinate cravings, the things we feel entitled to and must have.

Lust of the eyes
. It matters what we look at, and for how long. The progression for all of us, if we’re not careful, is to look… linger… lust.

Pride of life
, or in one translation, “boasting of what he has and does.” Pride, indeed, goes before a fall. The antidote? Humble yourself. “Never miss an opportunity to humble yourself,” a good friend once advised.

When we cross a line, repent. Repentance is an act of the will, not merely an emotional response. It means to stop what we’re doing and to proceed in a different direction. “
This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word”
(Isaiah 66:2
NIV
1984).

Finally, our greatest safeguard against moral failure is to walk closely with the Lord, heeding the corrective nudges of the Holy Spirit, applying the Scriptures to our circumstances when they bring warnings, and even “crying out to God” when we are tempted and in danger of falling.

Guard your Achilles’ heel. Make it your goal to finish strong. Serve your family, friends, and co-workers by being a good and godly example. We’ll never fully know how many people are watching us or who will be either repulsed or inspired by our character and conduct.

REFLECT FOR A MOMENT

1. What is your Achilles’ heel? How are you guarding yourself in the areas you are most vulnerable?
   

2. Do you have an area of your life where you have repeatedly stumbled? If so, how have your dealt with it? Have you truly repented to God? Have you asked the forgiveness of those your behavior affected? What steps have you taken to ensure you do not stumble again?
   

3. Do you tend to excuse your sinful behavior? What excuses have you used in the past (I have always been bad at that… That’s just the way I am… I have been under a lot of stress lately…)? How might you take greater responsibility for your actions in the future? Some failures carry enormous consequences. How can you make sure you never fall in those areas?
   

Steve Taylor

Former CEO, Fresh Express

BUSINESS LEADERS WILL be tempted in many unique and compelling ways. Success and the acclaim of others can lead to pride. It becomes all about us and our gifts and talents. Financial rewards open the door to many opportunities that foster our desire to acquire still more. To gain more we may be tempted to “fudge the truth” to protect a reputation or to gain or keep a customer. The line that separates good, hard competition and providing goods and services for our customers from abject greed can be easily blurred. How do we differentiate between coveting our competitor’s market position and influence, from staying focused on the assignment God has for us?