And soon, you’re bending over backwards to make everyone happy, which of course means that in the end, you will end up making no one happy, including yourself. It’s actually a recipe for misery for everyone.
It’s also a recipe for inertia.
If you focus on being liked, you won’t lead. You will never have the courage to do what needs to be done.
By the way, if you’re a real people pleaser by nature, here’s a post outlining 5 ways people pleasing undermines your leadership.
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Effective leaders are prepared to be misunderstood.
There will be seasons in leadership in which you will be misunderstood.
Your motives, strategy and skill will be questioned.
It happened to Moses. It happened to Jesus. It happened to Paul. It will happen to you if you’re leading.
There are two extremes that happen when leaders are misunderstood.
Some leaders think everyone else is wrong and they’re absolutely right.
Some leaders believe the critics must be right and question themselves…to the point of quitting the change or quitting entirely.
We’ve all seen leaders who are convinced they’re right and everyone else is wrong. Not fun.
So how do you ensure you’re not that person without becoming the person who caves or becomes paralyzed in the face of opposition?
Simple. Test your motives. Ask yourself:
Is this change really going to help people? Or am I doing it for a selfish or questionable reason?
If the change isn’t faithful, helpful or going to help people in the long run, abandon it.
If it is faithful and it’s going to help people in the long run, stick with it.
