THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION A LEADER WILL EVER ASK
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By R. Scott Rodin
few years ago, I was asked to give the commencement address at a west coast Christian university. In my message, I considered what I would have told myself if I could go back in time and sit next to myself at my college graduation. Looking back over my years of work, what would I say? What one piece of advice would I give myself as a bright-eyed and hopeful 22-year-old college graduate? My answer was this: “Be careful how you define success, Scott, because it will drive everything you do.” In my 40-plus years of leadership, consulting, and coaching, I have come to believe this is the single most important question we will ever ask ourselves as leaders. How do you define success? I want you to consider two possible ways you may answer that question and the implications of each for your life and leadership.
Outcomes-Based Success
The first way we can measure success is by the outcomes of our life and work. We’re successful when we have a good job, make a large salary, build a strong marriage, raise kids who are successful, develop a strong retirement account, live in a nice home, go fun places on vacation, build a successful business or ministry, earn the admiration and respect of others, and the list goes on and on. These measurements of success all have to do with what we’re able to produce and measure. When we define success by our accomplishments, we use the metrics of wealth, power, influence, impact, security, and reputation. This definition of success drives us into a lifelong pursuit of those things we believe will determine our value and provide us our happiness and satisfaction. This is success defined in terms of ownership. The more we own, the more we control, the more we have amassed, and the more successful we are.
To make us feel better, we can couch these measurements in spiritual language. We can serve God by building a large church, broadening our influence through our writing and teaching, expanding the work of our ministry through more fundraising, more stuff, and more programs. We can claim it is all for the Lord since it is His work. However, just because we use Christian titles and speak about spiritual outcomes, we still end up using the same metrics of ownership and control. If it is our church, our ministry, and our work, it is still ours. And this brings us to our second point. Our definition of success is what drives us. We invest our lives as leaders in our pursuit of achieving our definition of success. Think about what occupies your time and work. What motivates you to get up and do what you do? What keeps you working late nights and weekends? What causes you stress and anxiety? What drives you each day to do what you do? At the end of it all, you will find your definition of success. The problem with accomplishments as our means of success is that we never have enough. This is one of the enemy’s greatest weapons against Christian leaders. When we shift our definition of success to metrics of ownership and control, the enemy has us on a treadmill that he will use to kill, steal, and destroy the abundant life Christ came to give us (John 10:10). How many Christian leaders do you know who have faced burnout, moral failings, ethical downfalls, and leadership failure? How close have you been to experiencing this yourself? At the center of these stories, you will find this drive, this passion to achieve, constantly pursuing a definition of success that was not in line with God’s will and purpose. It may have looked and sounded godly and spiritual, but underneath it was a misplaced understanding of God’s definition of success. If you choose human achievement as your definition of TODAYSPASTOR.ORG
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