christian counseling today
Vol. 20 no. 2
69
most important project to them. They
overwhelm their people with e-mails
and “urgencies” that have nothing to do
with the “most important” priority they
have decided upon. As a result, they
lose focus on what is “vital” and “core”
and become distracted by the tyranny
of the urgent or the attractive, and then
have too many things now requiring
time, attention and resources. I often
tell leaders, “If everything is ‘important,’
nothing
is.”
When you help one leader with his
or her executive functions, you some-
times help thousands and thousands of
people. As Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor
of Willow Creek Community Church,
often says, “When a leader gets better,
everybody benefits.” When you can
help a leader realize he or she is not
focused on what has been deemed and
communicated as “important,” organi-
zational confusion and demoralization is
reduced and the “ADHD” of leadership
is better mediated. In my experience,
leadership train wrecks and mishaps are
often caused by the scatteredness, lack
of focus, and impulsivity of the leader,
which bring their gifts to a standstill. In
assisting leaders, help them focus… and
stay focused.
Facilitating a leader in staying
committed to what he or she has deemed
important can add incredible fuel to the
counseling, coaching or therapy process.
It literally
forces
therapeutic and character
issues to come to the forefront; for as
you begin to confront the lack of focus,
you are bringing up the underlying
reasons that drive it: fears of failure, fears
of confrontation, the lack of discipline
and structure, narcissism, impulsivity
and, sometimes, a deep soul searching
regarding giftedness and purpose. This
lack of focus can be a powerful dynamic,
but as long as leaders are allowed to be
“all over the map,” they never have to
face some of those issues.
In
Boundaries for Leaders
, I talk
about how many leaders are too obsessed
with finding the right “strategy” or
“plan,” when the real issue is they are
not leading people well. Their own lack
of boundaries is getting in the way of
the results they desire and would be very
fulfilling to them. If you can guide them
in finding appropriate boundaries, they
will have a greater capacity to be fruitful,
fulfilled, and able to bring relief to those
they lead.
✠
Henry Cloud, Ph.D.,
i
s a clinical psychologist,
leadership consultant,
and the author of the
new release,
Boundaries
for Leaders: Results,
Relationships, and Being Ridiculously in Charge
(Harper, 2013).
