What You Are Doing Is Not Good
“What you are doing is not good.”
Has anyone ever said that to you?
For a performance-based, people-pleaser like myself those words are painful, especially when they are told in love and they just happen to be true.
One of my favorite leadership lessons in the Bible is when Jethro evaluates Moses’ leadership:
Exodus 18:13-18 (NIV)
The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.” Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.
I wonder how Moses really felt when his father-in-law Jethro basically busted his chops for how he was leading? Moses wasn’t replicating himself. He was trying to lead and manage everything and he was wearing himself out and frustrating everyone else in the process.
I recently was in a similar place…
