Lead your team like St Benedict
Are you leading a team at work? Maybe you're a manager in a corporation, or run your own business. Read the Rule of St Benedict. There's so much there to help you. You can find it online, or just buy a copy of it.
I've been reading it for a while, following along like the monks do, by reading a bit every day. The Rule has a lot to say about the Abbot (that's the guy who leads the monastery). And so much of his suggestions and instructions appliy to the leader of a business team, or even to a father leading a family.
For example, St Benedict knows how important it is for the Abbot to lead an exemplary life. He knows how important it is for the Abbot to never compromise on matters of faith and morals. The monks ought not be allowed to slip into laziness, sloppiness or, heaven forbid, sin.
Yet St Benedict also understands human nature. When you're a leader, you've got to realize that people aren't perfect. So you need to be like the Abbot. Benedict advises: "...let him act with prudence and not go to extremes, lest, while he aimeth to remove the rust too thoroughly the vessel be broken." Yes try to get your team members to perform to their best potential and get those results. But come down too hard on them and you'll just discourage them, even break their spirits.
There's more. "Let him not be not be fussy or overanxious, exacting or headstrong; let him not be jealous or suspicious or he will never have rest...let him be cautious and considerate...Let him be discerning and temperate in the tasks which he enjoineth, recalling the discretion of holy Jacob who saith: 'If I should cause my flocks to be overdriven, they would all die in one day.'"
"Keeping in view these and other dictates of discretion, the mother of all virtues, let him so temper everything that the strong may still have something to desire and the weak may not draw back."
See how aware St Benedict is of the different personalities people have? He's remarkably sensitive to people's capabilities, temperaments, characters, and personalities.
There's a lot more where this came from. Take some time with the Rule of St Benedict. I'm not saying to throw away all those management and business books you may be reading (although you may not need to spend so much time and money chewing on some of those business tomes once you sink your teeth into the Rule). But you'll be surprised just how much St Benedict has to say about being a team leader.
I've been reading it for a while, following along like the monks do, by reading a bit every day. The Rule has a lot to say about the Abbot (that's the guy who leads the monastery). And so much of his suggestions and instructions appliy to the leader of a business team, or even to a father leading a family.
For example, St Benedict knows how important it is for the Abbot to lead an exemplary life. He knows how important it is for the Abbot to never compromise on matters of faith and morals. The monks ought not be allowed to slip into laziness, sloppiness or, heaven forbid, sin.
Yet St Benedict also understands human nature. When you're a leader, you've got to realize that people aren't perfect. So you need to be like the Abbot. Benedict advises: "...let him act with prudence and not go to extremes, lest, while he aimeth to remove the rust too thoroughly the vessel be broken." Yes try to get your team members to perform to their best potential and get those results. But come down too hard on them and you'll just discourage them, even break their spirits.
There's more. "Let him not be not be fussy or overanxious, exacting or headstrong; let him not be jealous or suspicious or he will never have rest...let him be cautious and considerate...Let him be discerning and temperate in the tasks which he enjoineth, recalling the discretion of holy Jacob who saith: 'If I should cause my flocks to be overdriven, they would all die in one day.'"
"Keeping in view these and other dictates of discretion, the mother of all virtues, let him so temper everything that the strong may still have something to desire and the weak may not draw back."
See how aware St Benedict is of the different personalities people have? He's remarkably sensitive to people's capabilities, temperaments, characters, and personalities.
There's a lot more where this came from. Take some time with the Rule of St Benedict. I'm not saying to throw away all those management and business books you may be reading (although you may not need to spend so much time and money chewing on some of those business tomes once you sink your teeth into the Rule). But you'll be surprised just how much St Benedict has to say about being a team leader.
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