Getting Motivated – 12 January 2010

The second principle we learn about leadership from Nehemiah is that to lead we have to be able to motivate other people. 

What good is your leadership if you can’t move other people forward into action? 

We can have the most wonderful passion about something, we can have great ideas about how we should go about doing it, but unless we can motivate people to join us in that path we are not leaders. 

Nehemiah could not have built the wall on his own.  He was only able to build the wall because he was able to motivate other people, to get them on board, to get them prepared to give up their time, to surrender their own desires their personal needs in order for the goal to be achieved – in order for the wall to be built. 

And he also learned very quickly that as you cast a vision for the work, that vision leaks away pretty quickly.  I said yesterday that from beginning to end it only took 52 days to build the wall, but in fact at day 26 just three and a half weeks into the project the people’s energy was sapping, their morale was ebbing away and they were ready to chuck in the trowel. 

Thus Nehemiah had to cast the vision again, remind them what they were about, set before them the goal, encourage and enthuse them in that work.  And so he was able to achieve what God had set him to do.

It is important for people in any positions of leadership to be passionate, have a clear vision, have a clear goal - but then be able to motivate other people.  It’s no good being passionate but charging off on our own and finding that everyone else is just sitting down saying “Well that’s great you go and do it.”  That is not leadership.  Nehemiah had that gift of leadership to be able to motivate other people to come on board with what he believed God was calling him to do.

As you develop your leadership give time today to consider how you can encourage and motivate others whom you lead.