As I noted yesterday, we’ll be devoting this week to considering what it means to finish well as a leader. Yesterday we addressed the question: When do you start thinking about it? The short answer was: right now, if you haven’t already. Today, were going to ask another important question: What do you do daily to make it (finishing well) happen? I don’t know that I’ve ever quoted Mary Poppins before, but it seems apropos here: A job well begun is half-done.
What I mean by that is when it comes to finishing well, we “start” by living and leading well daily. Most of the leaders who have not finished well, didn’t wake up one day and decide to short-circuit their leadership and their lives. They woke up daily for a long time and didn’t practice the habits necessary to finish well. Of particular interest to meet are pastoral leaders. Whether you’re a follower of Jesus or not, you have certainly heard of the Christian leaders who have not finished well. Many have made the news over the past several decades. A study by Fuller Seminary focused on pastors who didn’t finish well, who had a moral failure and left the ministry. They discovered that while many factors contributed to these derailed leaders’ failing to finish well, three were common to all: 1) They were not reading their Bibles daily; 2) They were accountable to no one; and 3) They never thought it could happen to them.
Let’s consider each point: 1) They were not reading their Bibles daily. Again, whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, investing time each day to gain truth or at least to gain information that will continue to shape you as a person of integrity, and to guide your overall personal development is vital. Whatever our faith background, we must make daily deposits in our own personal development. For me that means reading the Bible, reading and listening to the Bible blog posts, podcasts and other sources of personal growth and development. I’m ordinarily reading a book about best practices in both ministry and business at any given time. This practice of investing in our own personal growth and development daily is a way we plan to finish well.
2) They were accountable to no one. As I have written before, accountability is a crucial factor in our ongoing growth as a leader. While we may not meet with an accountability partner daily, we need to be accountable to God and our spouse’s (if we’re married) daily, and to an accountability partner on a regular, preferably weekly basis. We need to give access to our calendars and our e-mail accounts to someone at work, so we ensure that we’re not spending time doing things that will derail us from living well and ultimately from finishing well. In this technological age, so much that can harm us is only a click of the mouse or tap of the finer away, we must be more diligent than ever to ensure that we live daily in a way that will lead to the health and benefit of our lives and those of everyone around us. Remember, when a leader fails to finish well it impacts so many more than the leader.
3) They never thought it could happen to them. Some of us think we have moved beyond stupid. You know what I mean, right? We think that there’s no way I would ever do what that person did, whether it’s fail morally in the sexual or financial arenas, or make unethical decisions regarding our businesses. The longer we’ve navigated the waters of life and leadership well, the easier it is to assume that under our guidance the ship will never run aground, hit a sandbar, or an iceberg. Remember, before she was launched the builders of the Titanic pronounced her unsinkable. We must never let pride or even naivete convince us that while many other leaders might take a path that wold derail them from finishing well, it could never happen to us.
I take that last step a bit further in my own life. On a regular basis I ask myself, “If I were to be derailed, how would it happen?” I consider what trials and temptations could lure me away from the path of effective leadership and living. I never assume it couldn’t happen to me, because I know that despite decades of growing as a person and a leader, you and I are all just one bad decision away from being the next victim of derailment from a life well lived. Please hear what I am not saying, I’m not saying that I never make mistakes, or that I never sin. What I am saying is I read the Bible and other information daily that reminds me of the consequences and rewards of my actions. I make sure I’m accountable to my wife and my accountability partner and to a number of others on a daily and weekly basis. I know myself, and I know that apart from the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit I won’t finish well.
All that keeps me moving forward, and reminds me of how important it is to finish well. We have all done many things over the years, we wish we could go back and undo. WE can’t. What we can do is live today in such a way that the job of finishing well is “half done.”
Here’s to leading better by investing in actions that will move us toward greater integrity and faithfulness in finishing well one day–today!