Blue Collar Leadership - Part 3 - Believe In Your Followers

John 2: 3-5 "And when they ran out of wine the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have not wine."  Jesus said to her, Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?  My hour has not yet come."His mother said to the servants.  "Whatever he tells you, you must do it."




In this lesson we are going to learn a leadership skill from Jesus' mother.  Jesus basically said that he did not want to do this.  Although, did you catch how Mary responded?  Without hesitation, she continued to tell the servants what to do.  She did not complain, beg, or pout about it.  She directed the servants, with the full belief in Jesus that he could perform the miracle.

Believe In Your Followers
This method will work when teaching others, in leadership, or in business.  Believe in your students, employees or followers.  I know there have been a lot of teachers who believed in a student, even when the student did not believe them self.  As a result, the student went on to do incredible things.   Now, I am not saying that Jesus had this problem of not believing in himself, as I think he was confident in himself.  I do believe that we should believe in others like Mary believed in Jesus.   I think Mary was chosen to be Jesus (mother - teacher) for many reasons.  Perhaps, God knew that she would be a great teacher and leader to direct and teach Jesus to become who he is.

Here is a Bible verse that we should teach and share with others.

"Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God" ~Hebrew 13:16 EVS

Here is another quote the results people can provide if you let them.


"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."  ~General George Smith Patton, Jr

Leaders Need To Push
Sometimes we need to push a little to help people achieve success.  For example, let's say a teacher gives homework, but the students complain and say that they do not understand and will not be able to do the work on their own.  If the teacher gives in, he or she is really doing injustice to the students.  However, if the teacher has taught the students how to perform the topic and believes that they can, the chance are that they can and they will.  It is amazing what we CAN do when we have no choice.....at the same time, it's amazing what we wont do when not required to.

How Does This Apply To Leadership
Have you ever heard, there just needs to be two of me?  What this person is referring to is that no one can do what he or she does.  Therefore, rather than having someone help, they just work twice as hard trying to do it all.  I agree, sometimes it seems easier to just do it ourselves.  However, if we never learn to delegate and allow others to help us, then things will never change.  Do you always want to be the one who does everything?  To change, you must believe in the people that can help you.  If you take time to properly train your employees, they will take on the roles that you need them to.  However, if you don't think they can do it, how in the world are they going to believe that they can do it.

Lesson Learned

1.  Believe in the people that can help you.
2.  Give a push when needed.

This could also be a lesson of how we need to ask Jesus for things in our prayers.  No pouting or begging, but asking with the belief that he will help.

So tell us, what are your thought on this lesson?  Leave us a comment below.