Leadership Qualities: Discernment Part 3

Zerubbabel Reads People-Ezra 4:1-3

Leaders must practice discernment. Relationships can get messy; people often harbor personal agendas and attempt to mask their true motives or to make them sound more noble than they really are.

Leaders must read the people, then lead the people. They must understand the timing, the people, the situation, and the priorities, then act accordingly. Their action depends upon how they read these factors. Discernment always precedes decision. Analysis always precedes action.

Leaders Assess, Then Respond-Ezekiel 18:1-32

God handles each circumstance based on His assessment of the individual situation. In Ezekiel 18 God reminds us to use discernment in each situation we face. Don’t package everyone together, but size everyone up, one at a time. Respond correctly to each situation. Consider a few rules of thumb to increase your leadership discernment:

1. Analyze past successes. Try to identify the root issues of problems you have already solved. What patterns do you see? What enabled you to succeed?
2. Assess each person based on their particular situation. Don’t fall into such a rut that you begin to stereotype everyone. Let each team member be an individual and discern what is right for him or her, without the baggage of others.
3. Listen to your gut. Try to recall times when your intuition “spoke” to you correctly. Get data, but go beyond mere information to your heart’s sense of the right thing.
4. Learn from wise leaders. What great leaders do you admire? Study and read the lives of other leaders with gifting similar to yours and discover how they think and make decisions.

Join me next time for Leadership Qualities: Discernment Part 4