Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

Wake Up, Look Up a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the gospel of jesus christ i'm zach

Weihrauch and in today's episode we're

asking the question is confidence

overrated this is prompted by an article

in the wall street journal called the

best leaders aren't decisive they're

ambivalent by naomi rod it caught my

attention because uh i am a very

confident guy i know you find that

surprising i'm a pretty decisive guy and

i also think of myself as a leader so i

was pretty interested to read that miss

rod actually argues that decisiveness

and confidence might not be the best

attributes in leaders that's because the

more decisive you are the more confident

you are the more sure you are that you

are right the less interested you become

in other points of view in seeing things

from another angle that's why actually

studies show that ambivalent leaders

leaders who really don't know what they

think leaders who really don't know what

the best way forward is those who aren't

personally invested in their own

confidence and in their own strategies

actually sometimes make the best

decision makers because they're willing

to hear from multiple perspectives to

consider all possible avenues forward

ambivalence leads to asking questions it

leads to listening and it leads

therefore to better uh uh decisionmaking

uh this is interesting because

culturally it's not what we think about

leaders we think the louder someone is

the more aggressive someone is the more

sure someone is uh the better the leader

they are but that might actually be the

reverse it's possible that the more

confident and loud and aggressive

someone is the less likely they are to

stop and think before they act i found

this article fascinating and i got to be

honest i don't know if i agree with all

its conclusions history is full of men

and women who were confident and

decisive who especially in times of

crisis led us forward i think of leaders

like winston churchill who wasn't known

for beating around the bush but probably

saved the united kingdom from the nazis

but actually i don't think the article

is really about confidence or

ambivalence i think it's really about

humility because that's really the

difference being confident and being

decisive are not the same thing as being

stubborn or egotistical or myopic uh

those are things that come from a poor

character uh the bible doesn't dissuade

us from confidence or from decisiveness

the bible is full again of men and women

who lead outfront who are decisive and

confident in their decisionmaking but

the bible repeatedly reminds us that

humility is often the beginning of

wisdom i think of proverbs 11 where

we're told that the wisdom is found in

the abundance of counselors meaning even

as a leader i should have multiple

people speaking into my life speaking

into my character and possibly even

speaking into a decision you know jesus

modeled this kind of humble leadership

not necessarily crowdsourcing all his

decisions but consistently listening

asking questions and serving listen

decisiveness with arrogance is a problem

see proverbs 16:18 and what it tells you

is waiting for the proud you know paul

understood this the apostle paul was

confident he was decisive he was

aggressive read the book of acts but he

also said in 2 corinthians 12 "when i am

weak i am strong." he understood that

there's a difference between confidence

and decisiveness that comes out of

humility i have listened i have asked

questions i have sought counsel i have

sought the lord and now this is what

we're doing versus the kind of

confidence and decisiveness that says i

don't need to listen i don't need to ask

i don't need to go to the lord in that

way those things are not confidence or

decisiveness they're arrogance and

recklessness you know proverbs tells us

to trust in the lord to lean not on our

own understanding the truth is even

someone like me maybe especially someone

like me who has the kind of personality

that i do needs to begin each day by

shedding an over reliance on self and by

putting on a reliance on the lord and

those he's put around me listen if we

step away from decisiveness and

confidence in leadership i think we get

worse not better but those things always

need to come from a place of humility

listen if you are a leader don't

apologize for being a leader but be a

leader who listens be a leader who stops

and thinks be a leader who sees things

from other perspectives that way when

you do move forward you do so in

humility and with a team around you that

knows that you did hear their

perspective yet again this is an

opportunity for christian leaders whose

identity doesn't come from being a

leader but from jesus to model

winsomeness humility patience kindness

togetherness in our decisive leadership

decisive or humble that's a false choice

i choose both and so should you if

you're a leader hey thanks so much for

watching this episode of wake up lookup

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Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!