Kingfisher Leadership
1st May 2020
Kingfisher Leadership news Resilience in leadership “Success is the only to find that, in their absence, their homes had ability to move from one failure to been raided by the Amalekites and their wives and another without loss of children had been taken off as captives. enthusiasm.” This is a saying often attributed to Winston Churchill, as “David was greatly distressed because the men were talking well as often being of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit attributed to Abraham because of his sons and daughters. But David Lincoln. Whoever used this found strength in the Lord his God.” (1 Samuel phrase originally, it points 30:6, NIV) to an important leadership Adversity is truth - the importance of He had been on the run from his fellow a great conserving enthusiasm Israelites, mistrusted by the Philistines, when up against it; of teacher, but rejected by both sides, and now he bouncing back from experienced this new setback - their this teacher adversity. A word for this is homes were burned to the ground, their ‘resilience’. Resilience is makes us families forcibly removed. It’s a crisis, but the ability to bounce back pay dearly how many crises can you keep coming from adversity. It is what back from before you start thinking that for its allows us to recover from the ongoing cost is too high and maybe change or hardship. instruction you should think of just giving up? To quote Elizabeth Hardwicke, "Adversity is a Over time, most leaders great teacher, but this teacher makes us pay find resilience becomes dearly for its instruction; and often the profit we more of a challenge, as the derive, is not worth the price we paid." familiar weights of adversity, of opposition and of unremitting But look at how David fostered resilience: struggle begin to take their toll. This goes beyond just feeling tired and Don’t mistake denial for resilience. needing a holiday. This is about “David was greatly distressed…”. Distress is the experiencing hope disappearing, about a growing unwillingness to take risks, to appropriate response. Denial of the fact that this is a distressing situation does not equate to strength of pray the price, a loss of focus on the character. We cannot lead well if we are unable to goal, the prize. How can leaders engage with the situation at hand on an emotional maintain resilience in their ministry? level. David was distressed because of how upset An experience from the leadership of and angry his followers were. They had experienced King David sheds some much-needed light on this. Having allied himself for a a great loss and, as is often the case, were looking for someone to blame - and the leader is most often time with the Philistines and been the person on whom people’s anger is focussed. denied the opportunity to go into battle with them, David and his men returned to their base in Ziklag, 1
Kingfisher Leadership
Just denying this distressing nature of this situation may look, on the surface, like resilience, but in reality is just denial, which is a weakness, not a strength in leadership.
Resilience looks beyond self-pain to empathise with others. “…each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters.” David had lost his family too, but now was the not the moment for just nursing his own grief. This was a tough lesson that David was to encounter later in his life, when his son, Absalom, staged a coup and was killed in the subsequent battle. Even though David won the day, he was so consumed by the grief of losing his son that everyone felt unable to celebrate. “The king was overcome with emotion. He went up to the room over the gateway and burst into tears. And as he went, he cried, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son.” (2 Samuel 18:33, NLT). It took Joab, David’s general, to challenge him to look beyond self-pain and to empathise with his troops: “Now, go out there and congratulate the troops, for I swear by the LORD that if you don’t, not a single one of them will remain here tonight.” (2 Samuel 19:7, NLT) Resilience grows as it is rooted in the right soil - not the court of public opinion, but in the strength of the LORD. “But David found strength in the Lord his God.” Literally, he ‘encouraged himself in the LORD’. His encouragement came, because in that moment, he chose to focus, not on the problem, but on the solution.
1st May 2020
God not only HAS the solution - He IS the solution! David called for the ephod and used it to enquire of the LORD. He felt the grief, he acknowledged the distress…then he reached for the solution! Resilience gives people the strength to tackle problems head-on, overcome adversity, and move on with their lives. As a leader, your ability to recover from setbacks and hardships will inspire others - you cannot be an effective leader without it.
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