Delegating authority: a two-way traffic

 

As a leader, how well do you delegate authority?

• Do you feel comfortable dishing out a portion of your authority to a subordinate?
• Can you get busy elsewhere knowing your collaborator or assistant is doing a great job even in your absence?
• Do you give the opportunity to your collaborators to put their own gifts and talents to use?
• Will you protect, defend and back those you’ve delegated to represent you?
• Are you afraid to lose some of your authority if you gave part away?
• Do you feel threatened when your collaborator or associate seems to be doing a better job?
• Do you delegate authority and then stifle it by your attitude towards those you’ve delegated?

How well do you as a subordinate represent your superior?

• Do you take the tasks assigned to you seriously?
• Do you represent in such a way as to give a positive image of the one you represent?
• Are you accountable and responsible to the one who delegated you?
• Do you try to take more authority than you were assigned?
• Do you intentionally sabotage your superior when acting by delegation so as to become more popular than them?
• Can your superior trust to have you sit in for him next time?

Every human being is a delegated authority. God has delegated all of us to represent Him on the earth. How well do we do it?

As the leader, can you trust others like God has trusted you?

When you get delegated by a superior at work, how do you handle that responsibility?

Share your thoughts.

 

Discipline and sanctions: two delicate tools in the hand of a leader

Discipline and sanctions, when well-handled can be effective tools for the leader to get things moving in the right direction and with the right perspective.

But the abuse or misuse of these tools could have very negative consequences.

As a leader you should ask yourself these questions when faced with the possibility of meting out discipline or sanctions:

Why is it necessary at this point in time?

What is the expected outcome of this?

Who is the beneficiary in this?

Wrong motives for meting out discipline and sanctions

To earn the respect of others and gain influence

To establish one’s authority, “I’m the one in charge here…”

As a means to revenge or get back at someone who hurt you in the past

To degrade and humiliate a rival

To silence opposition and dissenting voices

As an attempt to hide your weaknesses and failures

When discipline and sanctions become tools that benefit more the leader rather than those who are led and the organization, they become dangerous tools.

• There is always a better way to establish your authority as a leader and earn respect from those you lead.
• Avoid dishing out sanctions when you are still in that mood that provoked the decision to sanction the individual in question.
• Postpone the sanction; reexamine the motive to see if you still feel the same the next day.

As a leader what are your motives for meting out discipline and sanctions in your home, organization, church, classroom…? Share.

 

 

 

 

Is it right for leaders to interfere in the choice of marriage partners for those they lead?

A leader here refers to anyone with authority over another, for instance in the church, family or any other established structure.

Let’s examine a few facts and then reach a compromise.

Let’s go back to the story of creation and the first man Adam. When God entered the garden and asked Adam,

“Have you eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you not to eat (Genesis 3:11)?

The man’s response was very interesting.

“The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Genesis 3:12).

Adam literarily blamed God for giving him that woman to be with him. It was like saying, had you not given me this woman, I’ll not be in such a mess like this.

Eve was no longer the “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”. She was no longer the darling and sweetie and baby…

He was like saying, ‘if I had had my say in this matter, it won’t be this one’.

If you were in God’s position, will you ever think of bringing someone home to your son even if just to see if he liked them?

Don’t get me wrong here. There is someone out there God will very much want you to marry. But he will never violate your will by forcing them on you.

He doesn’t want to get blamed when the boat hits a tide.

Does it mean God has left us to our own devices when it comes to marriage? I don’t think so.

• He will create an opportunity for both of you to meet.
• He’ll use various ways to suggest the person to you as a possible partner.
• He will put that loving desire for that person in your heart; He’ll convict you about them.
• If you say ‘no’ to that, He’ll not force you into it.

If you come crying years later that you missed the right person, He’ll still wipe the tears and bind the wounds. But that’s about all he can do at such a time.

• So, dear leaders, I think we shouldn’t strongly interfere in such a sensitive domain in the life of individuals. Don’t go where angels fear to tread.
• Give your opinion, suggest to them, and create an avenue where they can meet; but don’t push them into it.
• Pray for it to work if you are absolutely sure they are meant for each other, but stay clear and let them work it out by themselves.