Today’s Scripture: Exodus 18:14
Assessments are valuable tools because they help people understand how to leverage strengths and compensate for weaknesses. Usually these evaluations are taken privately and the results may or may not be shared with others—depending on the person who self-assessed.
Some leadership appraisals are “360’s,” meaning other individuals, like your co-workers, friends, direct reports, managers, and acquaintances are asked to complete a questionnaire to evaluate your leadership. Then a coach or consultant sits with you to go over the results. Some leaders avoid 360’s like the plague because they don’t want to hear what they don’t want to hear. Others love 360’s because they reveal blind spots and help them become better, more effective leaders. I suppose it all depends on how open a person is to hearing the truth.
This week’s quest takes us into the desert with Moses and his father-in-law Jethro. Moses was a very devoted leader of hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of Israelites. The poor guy was more than eighty years old, and he was doing the best he could. On a friendly family visit, Jethro observed a flaw in Moses’ leadership style, and this father-in-law stepped in to rescue his son-in-law from potential disaster—for him and the people.
Let’s pull out some points from this story and, hopefully, by the end of the week we will be better equipped as leaders. And, we may discover that the friends who speak into our lives with honesty are the best friends of all.
- What have you learned about yourself when you’ve taken self-assessments? How open are you to other people evaluating you to point out possible blind spots? What causes you to hesitate?
at this time in my life I pretty much know about who I am, lol