REICHENBLOG.ME -- Grow as a Leader

As I anxiously awaited for the Super Bowl on February 7, 2016 to start, I must say as a Seahawks fan I was rooting for the Denver Broncos, I was thinking back to all the showboating, dabbing, tearing of losing teams banners when a touchdown is made etc. by the so-called “leader” of the team, Cam Newton.  I use leader loosely here because the first pillar of being a leader is integrity and unfortunately Super Bowl 50 exposed Cam’s lack of integrity as well as his lack of character.

The 3 things I learned from Super Bowl 50:

1. Character: As a man of God I must reflect the image of Him in every facet of my life, weather on the playing field (Trinity Networx Office for me), home, church, sporting events etc.  We will tested for our faith in all these places weather suffering or in joyous times we must always be above reproach (Romans 5:3-4).  Peyton manning exemplified this and Cam Newton was exposed.  The Lord will ALWAYS expose sin.
2. Teamwork: The leader of the team or on a football team the quarterback must always be strong, positive and even tempered.  Seeing Cam Newton on the sideline on the grass pounding the grass like a little baby when he did not get his ice cream from his mommy sends a bad message to his team and embarrasses himself at the same time.  When his teammates saw that, I am sure they were a little thrown back by it because they may have never seen this behavior and in turn deflated them.  The other teammates may have felt defeated as well and did not give his all as his leader had thrown in the towel.
3. There is ALWAYS someone trying to take your spot: Never think that because you are at the top of your game weather in business or on the field that you are a shoe-in.  Someone will always be trying to knock you off and take your place.  This can apply to your clients in your business or the national football title. Stay vigilant.

As a leader we must always exemplify character, teamwork and always be vigilant and not become complacent.  A leader is ALWAYS learning.

I had the privilege to sit and listen to the testimony of a Navy Seal from Seal Team 1.  I am speaking of Chad Williams who served this great nation from 2004 to 2010 and had 1 aspiration in life after reflecting on many of his failures in his young life and that was to be a Navy Seal.

The five things I took away from that teaching was:

1. Perseverance, drive, preparation and proper mentoring will put you in a position of success in the goal you are trying to achieve.
2. There will be hurdles and speed bumps on your way to test your integrity and your faith in yourself to complete the task at hand. Chad’s mentor who prepared him to be a seal was used in 2004 as a memento if you will for the war in Fallujah by the Taliban as a message to the United States.
3. Achieving that goal and getting to where you thought the end all be all would make you king of the world is the loneliest place to be and you feel emptier than you did prior to your journey because your natural instinct is “what’s next?”
4. Being in the “perfect” place and the “perfect” time is never the work of man but the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus has a plan for you and the circumstances he has put you through are stepping stones to what He is going to do next.
5. In order to be used by the Lord one must put his pride aside and listen to the voice of God as is reflected in 2 Kings 5:1-14 which reflects on Naaman a commander of the Army of the king of Syria who was an honorable man and mighty man of valor but a leper. Naaman received a message from Elisha saying to go and wash in the Jordan river 7 times and your flesh will be restored to you and you shall be clean.  Naaman became angry because the Lord did not come and heal him.  It took his servants to talk some sense into him asking him a simple question if a prophet asked him to do something great he probably would have done it.  So why will he not heed the direction action and go and wash and be clean?  He finally did and dipped in the Jordan 7 times and his flesh was restored.

We all want to do great things and be accomplished but sometimes the little instructions are hard to do because pride gets in the way.  Pride must be set aside to be a man of God and I urge all that true leadership is a prideless, humble inquiry into your God given gifts and talents while simultaneously executing them quietly as NOT to be tempted by the fanfare, success or money.