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Leadership Begins at the Top



  
This morning I read an article about Mavericks owner Mark Cuban being quoted as saying, "Leadership starts with caring-but not in the way you think. As a leader, you can talk about targets. About goals. About missions and visions. You can communicate and connect and engage in an effort to inspire and motivate, but in most cases, your employees will simply smile and nod and go back to doing their jobs the way they always have. No one starts caring about the business they work for until they know the business cares about them." I believe that this fundamental truth is what people are all about. This truth alone has grown a people to reach their goals and dreams, but the lack of it has wiped out the visions and hope for many. The reality is that this attribute is a choice...a choice to be someone or be no one. I don't know Mr. Cuban personally but I could not stand up and applaud more than to his practical belief in the way he leads others.

A goal I set up for myself as it relates to people that cross my path is this quote but unfortunately I do not know who said it, "people will not remember many words you spoke to them, but they will always remember how you treated them." I mentor many men, young and old, in addition, I have mentors myself. I have them so that I know and can speak to how it feels for someone to love and support me. This way I can experience and provide a similar care to my mentees. There is no greater feeling than to hear and feel a genuine kind of love and and know that in anything I may face, I will never be alone. I tell my guys that the giants we all face are at times so much bigger and stronger that anyone of us, but together, we can cut down the odds of being defeated just by being a team. I also must always share that our greatest warrior lives within each of us. Now the odds of defeat are impossible when Jesus is our general during any battle. It is impossible for us to lose a battle without or within regardless if the outcome is what we think it should be or if it is the total opposite. As long as the Lord has it, rest assured that you've won.

There will be times when we feel down and out, with no vision or no goal, and it seems like life has taken on a black and white tint with no color anywhere. There will be times when our emotions are left wounded and bleeding, our hope and inspiration have dissipated like a vapor. As long as we see things through our eyes, our flawed perspective, you're correct, it will look bleak, dark, and impenetrable with no form of light within. But when it seems its darkest, there is another way, there is another perspective that each of us can simply get, can simply receive, and all it takes is a heartfelt confession that my way is not the way, but His way is the way...and if you recall, also the truth and the life. He just wants to have an intimate, side by side, and high five hand on hand with you and with me...or any other man that extends out his hand to receive.

Mr. Cuban is on to one of the best kept secrets ever. The secret really isn't all that secret because it's all of us seeing what the need is and acting on it. This is a spiritual insight that is greater than us but it keeps us grounded on loving and serving others as we would want someone to do for us. That gentleman, is leadership.

Comments

Rodger said…
This was such an encompassing blog. By that I mean that the purpose goes beyond just its intended audience. As a pastor myself, I found this article to help me view the church body differently as well. "No one starts caring about the business they work for until the know the business cares about them." That could also be translated this way: No one feels like part of the church body until they are made to feel like part of the church body. Somehow we make people feel like members in the sense of obligations and responsibilities, but how often do we really accept them into our circle of every day living? It's like we know to give gifts during Christmas and birthdays and anniversaries, but how much more special are the gifts given in-between and just because? Those are the things that make people feel special. Likewise, it is important to not only say we love people, but to show them, to actually put feet to our words. There's a huge vulnerability in being a Christian. We are to love others, even those who might not return the same level of love and compassion. We are to trust a God that we physically cannot see with circumstances we cannot control and we are to accept the outcome of that trust, even if it doesn't turn out the way we expect it to. Wow ! That's asking a lot of a person as weak as me. If there has ever been a reason to trust God, well, it's with everything.
October 4, 2020 at 7:54 AM
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