The Wise and Unwise Leader
By David Berg - August, 1973
A good executive is not a boss!––He is a servant! Jesus wasn't just trying to teach His disciples humility when He said, "He who is greatest among you must be servant of all!" A good executive simply is not a dictator! He must call his people in and talk to them and find out what they think and go a great deal by what they say. If he sees their ideas are good, all he has to do is say, "OK!"
A good executive is really a servant! He listens to his employees! When the top people don't even communicate with their co-workers, then of course they don't understand the problems of those under them.
That is the attitude you should take toward your own co-workers: You need to listen to them! Leaders do have the responsibility to respond and to make the final decision, but being a good executive does not mean that you are the only one who has all the ideas and does all the thinking and all the consulting just within yourself, and then make all the decisions. Being a good executive means you assemble your people and share and listen to others.
They probably know more about it than you do! Any good secretary knows more about her boss' business than he does, and she should! Because he shouldn't have to be bothered with all those things and he needs to listen to her! My secretary makes many suggestions on what needs to be done and what has to be done and often suggests how she thinks it ought to be done: Many of the initial suggestions come from her.
I, being the executive, the final decision-maker, have to decide between these choices she presents to me. She presents her case for each alternative and she explains why she thinks it ought to be done. She's like a lawyer and I'm the judge and I have to make the final decisions as to whether she's right or not. The vast majority of the time I take her suggestions, because I know she knows what she's talking about. She's more familiar with the extent of the work, the urgency of it and the need for it, so I usually take her suggestions.
So when it comes to things that are practical, the leaders ought to listen to their helpers! When it comes to the inspirational, you're supposed to be good, or you shouldn't be the leader! But when it comes to the practical, they probably know more about it than you do! (Read Acts 6:1-4.) Once you have made the decision, okayed your workers' suggestions, accepted them, approved what they have to do or want to do, you should then agree together to do it.
Any officer, any general who doesn't listen to his officers and doesn't pay any attention to his men, is going to be in trouble! Every good king is surrounded by many counsellors who tell him what to do! Did you know that even God works that way?––He calls in His chief counsellors and spirits and Angels and asks them, "What do you think we should do about this?" He listens to their different plans and suggestions and then He has the Godly wisdom to know who is right and to make the choice! If you don't believe it, read Genesis 1:26; 1 Kings 22:19-22; Job 1:6-12 etc.!
My Lord, if God Himself won't do all the thinking for us and expects us to do some for ourselves, then who are we to try to make all the decisions, do all the thinking, give all the orders and carry them all out besides?
But when it comes to getting the job done and the work done, if those top leaders don't learn how to assemble their staffs together and let them do the talking while the leaders merely guide the conversation, then they're going to have trouble!
That's really the job of the executive: He's merely the guy who is supposed to keep things moving, the power that just must keep pushing.––But he should let his people do the work, recommend the work, initiate the work and by all means carry out the work!
It's only a novice, a new baby or junior executive, the brand-new, not-yet-dry-behind-the-ears executive, who tries to run everything and boss everything and push everybody around and tell everybody what to do!
Any smart executive is going to pump people power!––He is neither going to try to be the pump, nor the water, nor the bucket! He's merely going to be the guiding hand that takes hold of the handle and grabs the bull by the tail and pumps!––I'll tell you, you'll get action then! Let the people's well, the repository of God's rain, provide the water! Let the pump, his counsellors, bring it to him and then let his spouts guide it into his buckets and not try to run everything himself!
All the pumper does is just keep the pump in motion, that's all! The Council pump then provides the vacuum, as the channel of counsellors, the people's representative, opens itself for suggestions. The Council Pump consists of his counsellors, his cabinet, his committee, of whatever it is and the suggestions or the water, is provided by the earth itself, the people from the well holding God's rain!––Amen?
The council pump merely channels it up to where the pumper can see it and decide which bucket it ought to flow into.––That's all he does! A chief executive or leader should only be a guide, who in turn is guided himself by God.
If the brain of the head refuses to listen to God or the hand refuses to listen to the head or the handle refuses to respond to the hand or the handle refuses to work with the pump or the pump refuses to react to the handle or pump the water or the earth refuses to give it and yield her store or the rain refuses to fall and the well runs dry or the buckets refuse to receive it, you're going to have a famine for water and the Word of Life!
When everybody has heard what everybody has to say, they should then all agree together on a decision as to what to do. No one should have all the say or no two or three should have all the say and nobody should be a total absolute monarch or dictator, refusing to listen to anybody else.––Not even God does this!
God not only listens to his Heavenly counsellors, Spirits and Angels, but don't forget, He even listens to us and does what we ask Him to do! But a tyrannical spirit makes a leader like the Devil, the first would-be dictator, who didn't want to listen to either God or the other angelic forces! Obviously the majority of them were opposed to his rebellion, for when he leaves Heaven at the start of the Tribulation he'll only take one-third of them with him!
The Devil, having refused to listen to either God or the majority of the Angels either one, what does he do? Does he then yield and give up and say, "So sorry! I was wrong." No, he goes insane and he screams that he alone has the power to do as he pleases!
He rebels against all governments and all peoples and becomes the Devil, Satan, the wager of wars upon the World and all peoples and all governments and even God! He is the rebel of all rebels, the terrorist of all terrorists, the backslider of all backsliders, the delinquent of all delinquents and the criminal of all criminals and the worst monster of all ages!
He declares his independence from all righteous rule and people and goes about doing his dirty work amongst the whole universe as a dandy bad example of what not to be and what not to do! So we have hell on Earth and even some hell in the heavenlies at present in the Spirit World, until God throws him out completely and all his devils, in the coming Tribulation and Wrath of God after the Rapture.
Even if the majority refuses to listen to the minority, the majority will be in trouble! Every government has to heed the voice of its minority as well, because to have a successful kingdom, you must not only try to keep the majority happy, but you must also try to please the minority and keep them happy too, as much as possible.
In other words, you must try to keep everybody happy, because everybody has a right to be happy and to have his needs met and to do the work he likes to do and wants to do if he's in the Will of God and competent and qualified.
So we all need to work together, we need to listen to each other, counsel together, agree together, decide together and then work it out together. If we're going to be an effective body, every member must work together with all the other members––not just one, not just a few, not even the majority, but with all working together as a body, which Christ described as His Body, the Church and with Himself as the Head.
So again we say unto you: Get it together! For God's sake and your sake, let's get it together!––Talk together, discuss together, counsel together, agree together, decide together, love together, go together, do together, bear together, care together, grow together, work together and enjoy the fruits of our labours together!
God bless you and keep you together––even when you're apart! Never get so far apart you can't stay together in spirit. The only way we're going to win this war is to fight it together and not against each other, but together with each other against the Enemy!
Let's win it together so we can shout the victory together and greet God together in the end! Hallelujah? Praise God! I love you! Let's get it together and keep it together and always together in all ways with all of us––always together! Amen?––Then and only then will you be a wise leader and a good executive!