Do you believe it’s possible for him to ‘show-up’ better? Do you believe he can grow and move towards who he was designed to be?” As I asked these questions, a senior leader wrestled with the reality of one team member not responding well to a number of changes happening within the company.
“No I don’t!” he responded.
How do you respond as you consider people, both at work and home, who are challenged to show up well, struggling to engage and become who they were designed to be?
Deciding how you “see” people is a significant leadership choice. I cannot overstate the impact of this clarity within both my life and leadership. This clarity has profoundly shaped my view of…
- Myself
- My wife
- My kids, their spouses and my grandkids
- My community of extended family and friends
- The ministry of our work and team
- Clients and how they experience us.
How do you view people? What value do you subscribe to them? In your mind – does your worldview say they are “worth it”? Or as I have heard from some over the years, people are a “line item in the budget”, a necessary “evil” to get done what needs to get done.
Take a moment and listen to the heartbeat of just a sampling of scripture regarding the worth of the individual. Can you “hear” the worth of the individual echo loudly as you reflect?
Whatever language you use to describe your purpose as a human being, as a leader, it must be shaped and informed by the One who made you. Is yours?
The scriptures can help beautifully shape your view and language of purpose. If you choose to invite God and His word to do so, I suggest that your ability to truly “see” people will be profoundly shaped by the very One who made you.
“Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
“Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Your view of people will shape everything you put your head, heart and hand towards. It is impossible to lead a business, serve a family, contribute to a community and claim Christ without a deep regard and commitment to the beauty and value of people.
Does the One who made you inform your purpose? He saw you, and sees you, as worth it? Do you offer others the same?
A Deliberate Application:
- What’s your view of people? Are they worth your best?
- If your family and friends heard your response to the above question, would they agree with you?
- What have you learned about how you regard people? What is your view of them?
- Are you willing to do what is needed?
- Who can help support you?
