Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and 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, should leaders take time to party? This is prompted by an article I read in the Washington Post looking at a recent controversy involving FBI Director Cash Patel. Patel was in Italy for the Winter Olympics, in, particular there to watch the United States men's hockey team play the Canadian team in the gold medal game. I guess. FBI Director Patel is a huge hockey fan. And when the United States won in dramatic fashion, both because it had been, I think, something like 46 years since they had won gold and winning in overtime, Patel lost his mind. He celebrated the way pretty much any sports fan would, only because he's the FBI director. He did it in the locker room with the team that had invited him back. He. He's on video spraying beer, shotgunning a beer, singing songs at the top of his lungs, celebrating the United States win. Now, this has resulted in a ton of pushback on Patel for a couple of reasons. one is people are ask the kind of typical accountability questions of, how did he get to Italy? Is he using government dollars to watch a sporting event, to celebrate with the team? Did he fly the government plane? Some of these questions are relevant because Patel, in the run up to Trump winning and him moving into the office, was pretty critical of previous FBI directors and their use of government funds for personal travel. but the other thing is, there are a number of situations going on right now involving the FBI. For example, Savannah Guthrie, NBC Today show anchor, her mother Nancy, who was kidnapped, has still not been found. someone recently was shot and killed when they broke in to the property at Mar A Lago, Trump's residence in Florida, although he wasn't there. And the pushback is, hey, with stuff going on in the country right now, is it really appropriate for. For Patel to be on video shotgunning a beer in a hockey locker room? it's a good criticism. It begs the question, how should leaders think about this? Because this is really not an episode about Patel or the FBI or the Trump administration. This is an episode about leadership. Is it okay for a leader in the midst of crisis, in the midst of a situation that requires leadership to take a little time to unwind, even in public? And I think that's a great question. And if you're a leader listening to this, let me offer you some counsel. And that is that this optics Matter. Listen. The apostle Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12, set in front of the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Part of what it means to be a leader is to give the locker room talk, is to set strategy, set direction, cast vision, hold people accountable. Then let's call that the nine to five elements of leadership. The things you do at work that everybody expects you to do, or in your organization that everybody expects you to do as a leader. The stuff that fits in your job description. But what Paul is saying is that when you're a leader, there's an element of leadership that takes place after 5 o'. Clock. It's the things you do in your regular life. It's understanding that as a leader, people are looking to you. They're taking their cues from you. Optics matter. You're communicating something with the choices that you make. And I think here it would have been more appropriate for Patel to pass on an opportunity to go to Italy and watch the United States men's hockey team because of the situations the FBI is in. I'm just wondering if you are the Guthrie family and you're watching this video of the FBI director shotgunning a beer in the locker room, celebrating a win. If you're wondering if maybe that hour or two spent chasing after your mother would have been more productive. And Patel might say it really wouldn't have been. And maybe he's right. I don't know how much investigating the FBI director is doing. I'm sure he has a competent team that's working around him and for him. I'm confident that while he was in Italy, the rank and file FBI agents on the case were doing their job. But that's not the point to make that. The point is to argue that the only thing that makes a leader a leader is the nine to five element and someone else is, quote, unquote, on the clock. But that isn't what makes a leader a leader. Optics matter. What Patel should have done is say, hey, I can't put myself in a situation that will make it seem like I'm uncaring. I can't put myself in a situation that will make it seem like this doesn't matter to me. Listen, there may not be any word more important for leaders in 2026 than authenticity. People want to be able to draw a straight line through the things we say and the way we live. And Patel having some time to unwind isn't a terrible thing. But to do it on video, brazenly, to defend it against people who are wondering if you should have been somewhere else is tone deaf. Leaders don't just lead when they're on the clock. They lead in the way they live their lives. And in times of crisis and in times of controversy, that can mean saying no to otherwise harmless opportunities. I don't care that Patel is a hockey fan, and I don't care that he celebrates. I don't care that he celebrates by drinking a, beer. But I do care that he understands that when you're in a controversy, it's not the time to celebrate. Listen, if you're a leader, lead on the clock, but lead around the clock by making sure your life choices sync up with the situation you're in and the message you want your organization to hear. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. 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