29-A-Step-Of-Faith-Working-Under-a-difficult-Leader

The 29th episode of A Step of Faith discusses working under a difficult leader. It explores what to do when your boss is difficult, showing favoritism, ignoring you, and taking credit for your work. Some leaders are hard to work for, but they remain in authority because they deliver results. One piece of advice is to view difficult leaders as opportunities to learn what not to do when you become a leader yourself. Another perspective is that the leader may be dealing with personal issues, and their behavior is a result of transferred aggression. The story of Jacob in Genesis 31 is used as an example of how to handle a difficult leader. Jacob maintained a good attitude, obeyed, developed himself, and stayed until God directed him to leave. The lesson is to let faith develop under pressure and not try to escape prematurely. Prayer is offered for grace and understanding in dealing with difficult leaders. Listeners are encouraged to send comments and questions and visit the website for mor This 29th episode on A Step of Faith is titled, Working Under a Difficult Leader. My name is Greg Alabi and I am inviting you to come let us study the Bible together. I must confess that the different types of feedback that we have been getting in this series have been very interesting, generating more questions and topics for further discussions. One of such is what should you do when it is your boss, your own leader that is being the difficult person when you want to take a step of faith or work on a project. He is not open to suggestions or advice. He shows favoritism and being partisan, ignores you, loves to take all the glory and himself or herself doing little or nothing. Unfortunately, there are a few of such difficult leaders out there. We may blame the followers all we want but we cannot deny that some leaders are difficult to work for. One of the few reasons why some are still in that position of authority is that so far the authorities that put them in leadership are still happy with them because they deliver, they meet or exceed their targets. If the numbers and the books are still looking good, some authorities do not mind their methods or their relationship with their downline as long as they are not in any serious violation. Leaders who will shout at you publicly, show little or no respect, they already decide what to do and yet call for a meeting for suggestions, then proceed to do whatever they want. They are fast to point out what you are doing wrong and ignore the things you are doing right. Hello, does this ring a bell? Question then is, what should you do if you have one of such as your leader? Here is an advice from somebody. Some of us need them so that we can learn first hand what not to do when we become leaders. A difficult leader could be God building character in us in preparation for where God is taking us to. Here is another advice. Some people in leadership may likely be going through some personal private issues. Some of what you are experiencing could be transferred aggression. Now let us learn some valuable lessons from Jacob in Genesis chapter 31 from verse 38 to 42. Jacob worked for Laban. Unfortunately, it was a pretty challenging time for Jacob. A young man whose mother, Rebekah, made life very easy for him, he was always around his mother at home while his brother, Esau, was out in the field hunting and working hard. But when he got to the house of Laban, his mother was nowhere near to bail him out. Jacob served Laban for 20 years instead of a few days as recommended by his mother in Genesis chapter 27 verse 44. Laban deceived Jacob into marrying Leah. Talk about a deceiver being deceived. A deceiver made a bigger deceiver. Jacob worked as a shepherd. Laban made him pay for any livestock that died, whether stolen, killed by wild animals, sick, or lost. He slept outdoors in the cold nights and the heat of the daytime. His salary or wages was changed 10 times in those 20 years. Besides, Jacob was Laban's nephew. We are talking about family here, not a slave, not a stranger. Now here are some valuable lessons to learn from Jacob. First lesson, Jacob maintained a good attitude. No record of any rude confrontation or violence against Laban. Second lesson here, Jacob obeyed while going through each experience. He did everything they asked him to do. Third lesson, Jacob was privately developing himself in preparation for his future. He was growing the size of his wealth and the size of his family under Laban. Fourth lesson, Jacob stayed until Genesis chapter 31 verse 3, God himself asked him to leave. The lesson, James chapter 1 verse 3 to 4 in the message translation says, You know that under pressure, your faith life is forced into the open and shows its true color, so do not try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the lessons we are learning. We pray, O God, that you give us grace to go through what we are going through right now and help us to understand if our leader is having a problem and help us to learn all the lessons we should be learning, in Jesus name, Amen. Please send in your comments and your contributions on this topic and on previous topics too. Make it three minutes long or in multiples of threes, three minutes, so it can be within our five minutes limit. 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