Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?"
1 King 3:9
Objectives:
- Understand the
definition and importance of discernment for a Servant Leader.
- Develop habits
that help with discernment
- Use the SWOT
analysis to help with discernment and growth
(c) Freeshapetest.com - Go to the link at the end to find out more.
I love to meditate on the story of Zelophehad's daughters found in the book of Numbers (27) in the Bible. Israel was about to enter the Promised Land and the people had started seriously thinking about their inheritance. At that time, their law only permitted males to inherit, meaning Zelophehad's daughters (he had died leaving behind five daughters), did not qualify to inherit anything. The law was clear, their fate was sealed. They however decided to petition Moses on what appeared to them as an injustice in the law. Granted, their father had no sons but that should not exclude them from their fair share of the inheritance. Moses listened to them carefully and decided to take the case before the Lord in prayer (even though he knew what the law stated). God changed the decree on behalf of Zelophehad's daughters, giving them the right to inherit land. Moses could have made a decision, based on his knowledge of the law, but he chose all the same to seek to discern the will of God in this situation as in many other situations. His pattern of going back to God as well as considering the big picture, gave Moses the unique ability and wisdom to lead his people ( not usually known for their obedience), through tough as well as good times.
Definition
In simple terms, discernment represents the leader's ability to make good and well-informed
decisions based on their relationship with God. In the story, we saw earlier, Moses did not only count on his
knowledge in order to make a decision. He had to discern what God’s will was
and in doing so, he was able to make a good and well-informed decision. As a
Servant Leader, you will be faced with the challenge of making good decisions frequently. The
pressure is real, when it comes to making decisions, as you want to ensure that
these decisions represent good and will be of great utility both to the people
being served as well as the organization/community. A discerning leader in
addition to developing a heart that seeks to do those things that please God,
equally seeks to develop their intuition and foresight.
The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a
fool feeds on folly.
Proverbs 15:14
I am your servant;
give me discernment that I may understand your statutes.
Psalm 119:125
Foresight and
Intuition
On one hand foresight enables the Servant Leader to understand the
lessons from the past, hold a firm grasp of the realities of the present as
well as clarity regarding future decisions that are to be taken and their
possible consequences. Foresight therefore sharpens the leader’s ability to
understand. Intuition, on the other hand, is the leader's ability to understand
their situation (sometimes due to experience, knowledge, or relationship with
God), enabling them to make wise decisions.
Per John Maxwell, leaders with
good intuition are able to read (or correctly evaluate) their people,
resources, trends and themselves. What this means is that a leader with good
discernment is able to look at a situation for example and know if it is the
right time to start a new project, make a commitment impacting his/her team or
engage in a deal. In addition to taking out time to talk to God, the servant
leader should also use the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities
and Threats) analysis to help with reading
their circumstances.
The SWOT analysis:
Before you commit
yourself/people to any new project, apply the SWOT analysis by asking the
following questions:
A - Internal Analysis
What are my/our Strengths and Weaknesses ( internal analysis)? How can I/we take advantage of these strengths or work to overcome the weaknesses?
B- External Analysis
What are the Opportunities before me/us and the
possible Threats that can stop me/us
from reaching my/our goal? How can I/we take advantage of these opportunities and build a strategy against the possible threats? You can use the following acronym to evaluate your external environment:PESTELP - PoliticalE- ExonomicS- SocialT- TechnologicalE- Environmental L- Legal
Doing this should give you clarity in your preparedness and
help increase your ability to read yourself, resources (people, finance and
plans) and trends (what does data indicate etc.). It will help you adjust to the reality of your current resources prior before engaging.
Week 9 Assignment:
- SWOT yourself as a leader
taking into consideration your life mission. You can use this document
to help you determine your skills, passions, talents and gifts.
- SWOT your organization and
family taking into consideration their expressed missions.
- Sit down with someone influential
from your family or organization and discuss what you found out.
- What do you plan to do
over the next few months, to improve on your ability to discern?
- Review the case study below and apply what you have learned to it.
Case Study:
You are the head of a Common Initiative Group - CIG that
seeks to empower young women to be independent by creating opportunities for
them to start small businesses. Your resources are currently strained and all
the project managers are involved in managing different projects. The Big Sister
International Organization has just sent in a gift of a million frs CFA and have specifically
asked you to use it to empower a group of twenty young girls who have the
potential to become future leaders.
What
are you going to do?
Write a brief summary of what you learned this week and explain why it is important for all leaders. Post on your blog and share the link in your group.
Email your assignment to your mentor and copy Team21.
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Extra:
Here is a free online test that can help you discover your
purpose: https://www.freeshapetest.com/
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