Today is day two of Willow Creek’s annual “The Leadership Summit” conference. Yesterday, in his opening plenary address, Willow founding pastor Bill Hybels shared his insights into “The High Drama of Decision Making.”
“So much of leadership is decision making,” Hybels explained. Yet many church leaders fail to reflect on their decision-making processes. As a result, those leaders can feel totally unprepared to tackle a tough decision with confidence.
Excellent leaders, on the other hand, reflect on their decision-making processes to such an extent that they are able to reduce a lifetime’s wisdom into short leadership proverbs, or axioms.
These axioms meet the four requirements for a good decision: 1) they are consistent with the Bible’s teaching on a given subject; 2) they are consistent with the wise counsel of trusted advisers; 3) they are informed by past experience; 4) and they are consistent with the Spirit’s prompting.
Hybels offered as an example a famous proverb of Abraham Lincoln: the best way to defeat an enemy is to make him a friend. That axiom meets the above criteria. But even more helpful, it is short enough to be recalled at a moment’s notice. Say, for example, you find yourself in conflict with another church leader on your staff. Instead of spending the time to walk through the four criteria for a good decision before determining your next move, think of Lincoln’s words: the best way to defeat an enemy is to make him a friend. You save yourself time and energy be relying on the wisdom of past experience.
Hybels shared just a few of his own leadership axioms with us at The Summit. And he has compiled all of the proverbs that govern his leadership in his new book, Axiom (Zondervan, 2008).
In the end, though, Hybels suggested that the process of thinking through your own leadership lessons is infinitely more valuable than putting someone else’s into practice. That got me thinking: what are my leadership axioms? What proverbs do I follow because I know they are consistent with the Spirit, the Scriptures, and wise council and have been proven true by my experience?
Well, here’s one from the Bible: There is nothing new under the sun. This proverb reminds me, when I face a tough situation, that there is a solution because nothing can happen to me that hasn’t already happened to someone. It encourages me to take heart and to take a hard look into Scripture and church history to see how others have addressed the same issue.
What are your leadership axioms? What catch phrases do you use that summarize your values and encapsulate a lifetime’s wisdom? I’d love to hear them.
