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Leading by example
By: IMPACT360 Date: November 28, 2014, 3:39 am
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Leading By Example
Every moment of life we are each changing to a
degree the world around us through our personal
influence. We are either making the world more or
less of a heavenly place.
We have all heard the phrase, “do what I say, not
what I do.” This message has no power to
influence others. If we do not do what we say, what
we say has no power to motivate or impact others
positively. In fact, we will have a negative effect. If
we tell people to do things that we do not do
ourselves, we become hypocrites and lose the
confidence and trust of those whom we seek to
lead. What we say is a method of influence, but it
is only effective when it is aligned with what we do
and who we are.
Sermons We See, by Edgar Albert Guest:
I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I’d rather one should walk with men than merely
tell the way.
The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the
ear,
Fine counsel is confusing, but example is always
clear;
And the best of all the preachers are the men who
live their creeds,
For to see good put in action is what everybody
needs.
I soon can learn to do it if you’ll let me see it
done;
I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue
too fast may run.
And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and
true,
But I’d rather get my lessons by observing what
you do;
For I might misunderstand you and the high advice
you give,
But there’s no misunderstanding how you act and
how you live.
Emerson wrote, “What you are shouts so loudly in
my ears I cannot hear what you say.” To be a
Divine-Centered Leader, it is not enough to do
what you say and practice what you preach. You
must be what you teach. For example, let’s
consider the principle of service. To operate on the
highest level of influence, you can’t just teach
about service or tell others they need to do it. You
can’t merely go out and do service. You must be a
service-oriented person. It must be a part of you.
With this paradigm, you view service not as an
action you do but as an attribute you possess.
Thus, Divine-Centered Leaders do not merely teach
about and do service, they are service.
A mistake some people make is that living a good
life is sufficient to influence others for good. While
it is true that people can learn just by observing
what we do, the influence is the greatest when all
three methods of influence: teaching, doing, and
being, are utilized together.
John C. Maxwell is his book Developing the Leader
Within You shares the following story of leading by
example. “Benjamin Franklin learned that plaster
scattered in the fields would make things grow. He
told his neighbors, but they did not believe him.
They argued with him, trying to prove that plaster
could be of no use at all to grass or grain. After a
little while he allowed the matter to drop and said
no more about it. Early the next spring Franklin
went into the field and sowed some grain. Close to
the path, where men would walk, he traced some
letters with is finger, put plaster into them, and
then sowed seed in the plaster. After a week or two
the seed sprang up. As they passed that way, the
neighbors were very surprised to see, in brighter
green than all the rest of the field, large letters
saying, ‘This has been plastered.’ Benjamin
Franklin did not need to argue with his friends
anymore about the benefits of plaster for the
fields.”
Jesus Christ Leads by Example
Jesus perfectly modeled the ability to influence
others at the highest level – teaching, doing and
being. Jesus taught the way to eternal life, showed
it through his life, and actually is the way to eternal
life. “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the
life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.’ It
is not just that the Son of God brought light into a
darkened and fallen world; He is the Light. It is not
just that our Savior showed us the way; He is the
Way. It is not just that Jesus of Nazareth restored
the truth and taught the truth; He is the Truth. We
have inherited a Greek notion of truth, one which
emphasizes truth as something to be learned, a
matter of the head. In fact, the Hebrew notion of
truth was something we do and, more precisely,
something we are, a matter of the heart.” (From
address March 16, 1992 entitled “The Challenge of
Christ-Centered Leadership” by Robert Millet)
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