Hey, everyone.
Welcome back to the right call.
Wisdom simply applied.
My name's Jeff Cochrell, and today at episode five.
Authority, obedience on display.
We're gonna get straight into the heart of something that I get a lot of business leaders, particularly Christian business leaders struggle with.
They're wrestling with this, and it's it's authority.
What does it mean? How do I exercise it well? And it actually and it's more challenging, but we have a lot of really good examples.
In fact, one of the one of the ones that I think demonstrates both both extremes of it is, well, at noon.
On 12/23/1783, Thomas Mifflin, he was president of the continental Congress, and he stood up to introduce this guy.
He finishes it uniform figure stands slowly.
He steps to the front of the room and in a quiet voice.
The truthfully often faulted with emotion he delivered this address.
Mr.
President, the great events on which my resignation depended, having it length taken place? I have now the honor of offering my sincere congratulations to Congress and of presenting myself before them to surrender into their hands the trust committed to me and to claim the indulgence of retiring from the service of my country.
Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty and pleased with the opportunity afforded The United States of becoming a respectable nation.
I resigned with satisfaction the appointment I accepted with diffidence.
A diffidence in my abilities to accomplish so arduous a task.
Which, however, was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause.
The support of the Supreme Power of the Union, and the patronage of heaven.
Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the Great Theatre Of Action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this August body.
Under whose orders I have so long acted.
I here offer my commission and take my leave of all the employments of public life.
Lieutenant general George Washington simply returned to Congress, the authority he'd been given.
For eight years, he'd fought the the world's superpower of the time.
Eventually forcing them to surrender.
And when it was done, I mean, he had the he had the loyalty of the army, the adoration of the people, If anybody could have set himself up as a king, that was the guy.
But he didn't try to do that.
He didn't didn't try to hold on power.
He hold on to power.
He didn't even try to extract some concession from them.
He just said, look, Here it is.
I'd like to go home.
But throughout those eight years, there were times he didn't wait on Congress.
He acted when Congress didn't because he he was loyal to the mission.
He exercised all the authority he could to accomplish that mission.
And once it was done, he surrendered the authority back.
And that's authority as obedience, bold in service.
Humble and surrender and completion.
But today, leaders struggle with this.
They fear that if I exercise it fully, it's gonna look unserve it like.
And we're gonna take a look at the the modern versus true servant leadership.
Gonna take a look at some of the pitfalls and share some steps so that we can we can really exercise the authority boldly.
So stick around.
This reframes everything.
Because today most top down leadership models tend to view authority as something that's delegated downward and then it's exercised on subordinates.
The military's not like that.
So are micro managers and some spouses as a matter of fact? Now in modern servant leadership, it's It's more shared, it's relational, consensus driven, which is great for engagement.
I mean, look what happened at Southwest Airlines.
Herb Keller here was a great model for that.
He drove employee turnover way down, but it can be a drag on decisions.
According some studies, increasing the decision making that the the time it takes by 15% or longer.
Specifically, if the call is gonna be unpopular with the workforce.
And so that's one of the downsides of the modern view of servant leadership.
And in first century Rome, authority was exercised differently.
It was an upward partnership.
It was it was mission focused and exercised in a way that honored whoever the master was.
I mean, think about Washington at Valley Forge.
They come into Valley Forge, They've basically been running from the British for the last year.
They go into one of the coldest winters on record.
They're some of them have not been paid.
They don't have shoes.
There are people whose enlistments are coming up.
Some people are deserting before their enlistments are coming up.
And so what did what did Washington do? Well, I guarantee he didn't have endless empathy sessions and fireside chats around a campfire.
He took a lined action, and that was the action that turned what was essentially diff near defeat into victory.
Having von Stuyben, start drilling them, there were some people that he captured as deserters and had them hanged.
Had them executed.
So people saw this.
They knew that this was still an army.
And this there were times he actually dipped into his own his own, um, stores to pay people.
And and that was the kind of authority that he exercised.
It was to make sure that the mission got done.
You think about Intuit under Scott Cook in the early two thousands.
He he started delegating authority downward and challenging people to use it boldly.
And they started pivoting faster.
And in in that ensuing decade, they 10 x the stock value.
Your results may vary.
The point being is not just doubled it.
They 10 x the stock value of in of Intuit.
Because of how he choose to exercise authority.
And this is the upward model.
This this it mirrors Roman Stewart, the Orconimos.
They those are the folks that wielded they had full household authority on behalf of the owners.
Plining the younger.
In his letters, he praised some of his most efficient and trusted managers.
They exercised they exercised the authority boldly, and of course that built trust because they produced results.
And and this upward alignment, it boosts the level of trust.
When people are talking, the trust goes up by by 25% or more.
There's greater cohesion as much as 20%.
Whereas if we're just exercising it downward, trying to get people to do things, we're exercising authority on two people.
It increases level of cynicism, fifteen, seventeen, 20%.
And and I think sometimes we forget how liberating it can be for us.
I remember when I was in the navy.
I was on board my second ship, I was on board US to Saratoga.
My job was DCPO coordinator.
Now, which is a basically, I have responsibility for maintaining equipment all over the aircraft carrier, all over it.
In every single compartment, there's probably something that I was responsible to make sure that it worked all the time.
Everything from a a deck drain to a to emergency lighting to a c o two fire bottle, including putting the the rubber gaskets around watertight doors.
I had two guys that worked for me and I had 70 who were what we called collateralized.
They didn't work for me.
They had other jobs.
They might be an aviation mechanic, but they needed to get this damage control maintenance done.
And so I had two gentlemen that worked for me directly, two whole technicians welders.
And I remember being back in the office and hearing what I'm on the phone.
And the way he's describing me, talking about Lieutenant Connor being on my butt, I was thinking, man, it's just like the only thing I'm missing are are are fangs and having just a single eye like a cyclops in the in the center of my forehead and a big club because he described me as this ogre.
And I thought, well, that's not how I would do it.
But what I noticed was our work was getting done.
And I thought, do I really need to worry about I mean, he's the one saying anything was untrue? He was just maybe exaggerate a little bit.
But it but we got this work done.
And that's exactly what we needed.
And so rather than rein him in, I thought he's, you know, he's exercising more authority than I might have granted at the start, but it was all about getting the mission done.
And that was happening.
And that's what battered.
And what I realized was because he was doing that, it certainly made my job easier.
And I think it made his job easier too.
And we also we were we were in we were in constant contact.
Because basically what we did was we looked at authority as an expansive partnership, unlike an l l p, a limited liability partnership, which seems to be how most people approach this.
What's the least amount of authority that I can give them, or how can I limit any liability that I might have? Because and I think what's I mean, a lot of that's that l l p aspect is more fear driven.
When we embrace the upward model, it circumvents a lot of the modern pitfalls.
One of the challenges with with modern servant leadership is this this loss of autonomy because everything is about making sure people are happy with it.
Which me means leaders often hesitate.
They don't they don't exercise their authority.
They're they're trying to make sure that everyone's good with this before I before I take action, which reduces their their perception of their own autonomy.
That might have been given autonomy by their boss, but now I'm like, okay, I gotta check with my subordinates.
Well, I I think we we need to make sure our subordinates are taken care of, but our main job is get the mission done.
One of the other challenges with modern servant leadership is there's burnout from over extension.
We're so focused on pouring into our people that we got nothing left for ourselves, for our families.
But also, it's we end up not having enough to get the mission accomplished.
Whereas, if we are really focused upward, making sure that we are in alignment with our boss, I just use one person I've gotta make sure that I please.
And ideally, the closer I am to them, the more I can learn to lead like them to act as they would.
It also minimizes the sphere of exploitation, which I think goes on both sides.
We've all had bosses that that steal the credit, that when we run the rest, feel like we're sometimes being stabbed in the back.
And a lot of that I think is because that's the kind of people that have worked for them.
It's rather than a rather than a a partnership.
It's a it's a, um, it's a tug of war.
And by being in alignment with them, by by communicating regularly.
It allows us to spot where the alignment is out, either we are misaligned with them or they are people that we cannot get in alignment with.
And it allows us then to make that make those changes earlier.
The more upwardly aligned we are, the more these pitfalls kind of fade away.
So it's really kind of practical protection.
So the question is, how do we do this? How do we make this actionable? And I think there's really there's five big steps to exercise authority boldly and to ensure green alignment.
First off, clarify the master and the mission.
Who or what am I truly serving? Those are the things we need to ask ourselves, which is not what am I doing, but it's okay.
This is what I'm doing.
Why am I doing it? If I'm doing it to accomplish this thing to serve this mission, That makes sense.
If I'm doing it to serve this master.
Okay.
That at least that gives us clarity on what it is.
Patagonia, one of their things was their their North Stars Environmental Protection.
So whether it was suing the Trump administration in 2017, foregoing some profitable products because they damage the environment.
As a result, they've had tremendous customer loyalty, tremendous employee loyalty because not only is is protecting the environment there nor star, they act in accordance with it.
Second, and this I think is for us as a challenge.
I've been hammering on this.
We gotta embrace our identity as servants.
Understand that's who we are.
And and I think all of us at some level know that we are happiest when we're using our talents to serve something else or serve someone else.
Now when we know the when we are when we embrace that, and then We kind of figured out, okay.
What's the what's the authority that I have? What who am I serving? How can I serve them fully? We exercise whatever that authority is to create success for the master we've chosen to serve.
Whether it's your supervisor, your boss, your spouse, family, your career, the lord, etcetera.
And Netflix put this into a sort of a context, not control thing, which empowers teams.
Um, this sort of this sort of willingness to kinda go the full route amps up the innovation by about 20%.
At least.
Step three, communicate communicate communicate.
We we make sure we're in alignment through regular check ins and monitoring the results.
It's I I think it's, um, you know, what bay basically, we're thinking, we're we're just we're really trying to make sure that we are in alignment with our master.
Find out How are they thinking? What are they thinking about? It improves our performance, so they don't have to worry about it.
Are they gonna like this or not? I know who they are.
Because step four is we have to we have to really act like their agent.
We communicate up and down.
Let them know.
But rather than say, can I do this? We're coming saying, Hey, here's what I'm planning to do.
Any problems with that? Or here's what I've done.
Just letting you know.
That so often I I hear I'll hear people say, well, they never take action on their own.
Or they need me to tell him everything.
Uh, which is one of the big frustrations bosses have.
They're not looking for us to come and say, hey, uh, how should I handle this? What they want is, here's what I plan to do.
Is there any reason I shouldn't? Or here's what I'm thinking about.
Let me get your perspective.
Or I'm trying I need I can do this, this, and this.
I need your help here.
But we we act as the agent.
Fully empowered to do what we can.
And then, of course, step five, we monitor and adjust.
We watch Freddie misalignments.
When when we're able to to make sure we're in we are in alignment when we are talking the same language on the same page.
That allows us to make any pivots quickly.
And those are things that lift engagement.
So pick one step.
I mean, when we think about this, this is really think about this is how Jesus model authority.
It was bold obedience in alignment.
I mean, and truthfully, he stands out as a preeminent servant leader.
But remember, he wasn't sent as a leader.
He was sent as a servant.
And he went, he was sent as our servant.
He was sent as the father's.
But his entire life, and even now is about being a good and faithful servant in complete alignment with the father's will.
That was the criteria.
And because he succeeded there, because he was always in alignment.
He became the perfect perfect sacrifice, and he he paid the blood price of sin for us.
But it was because he was the ultimate servant.
Now we will we as Christians often tack on the leader thing, which I think is this that's where many Christian models of servant leadership go off the rails.
We think serving is a path to leadership, but Christ never sought leadership.
He served his master on a mission.
Gathering and leading disciples was required to fulfill the mission.
And the thing is he modeled the thing that mattered He modeled being a servant to the lord.
True servant leadership flows from being a servant who is called to lead.
Not a leader who chooses to serve or not someone who says I'm gonna serve as a leader, which is kind of the same thing.
I'm a leader.
I'm gonna lead this.
I'm gonna serve best.
No.
We're we're servants.
We're called to lead.
And when we embrace that identity, not as a costume, not as a second skin, not as some vehicle wrap, things get easier.
It affects how we demonstrate obedience, It lets us do it more boldly.
It creates conditions for real success in our work on the Great Commission.
And I I as I've been resting with it, this is one of the things that's become more and more clear to me.
Before he left, Jesus told the disciples.
He said, now go.
And teach all nations.
I'm baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do all the things I've commanded you.
And I look at this and I think If that's what we're supposed to do, not not just in our off time, but that's what we're supposed to do the whole time.
When we embrace this identity as a servant, it allows us to do this all the time.
If we're working for somebody who's not a Christian, and they see that we've embraced this identity as a servant, and we are we are dead set on helping them be successful.
And they start wondering, I wonder what makes this person different? Same thing with the folks that that we're we have authority over.
Let me start wondering, what makes us purchase different? That's that's how we begin.
We model we model for others the same thing Jesus model for us.
That we are servants first.
And when we realize that, it takes a lot of the pressure off of us.
Because that's that's really what it means.
Authority is obedience on display.
It's bold, it's a line, it's transformative.
So the question we have to ask this week is where can you exercise your authority more boldly? Not not recklessly.
And not thinking, I just need to be I just I just need to be more bold, but where can we get in greater alignment so that we're comfortable with pushing the boundaries? Because we now know where the boundaries are.
The the challenge that I found with this, the thing that I struggle to incorporate, I think is critical.
And I remember several years ago I was talking with my dad.
And at the time, I was a frustrated and failing New York Life agent.
And I remember he said, Jeff, you you have only one problem that's keeping you from success.
You always think you have a better idea.
Truthfully, I don't wanna hear that, but in retrospect, he was right.
My pride kept me from doing the grunt work because I knew there had to be an easier way.
There had to be some silver bullet that would let me shortcut the hard work.
Some secret technique that can only be uncovered by me because obviously nobody else in the history of the world or at least the history of New York life was smart enough to see what I saw with my less than a year of experience.
But this secret would catapult me miles ahead of my competition.
I may be the old guy, feel thinks that way, but I bet I'm not.
Well, the silver bullet that I was missing was humility.
In this next episode, we're gonna dive into the final aspect of of the servant identity.
That thing that multiplies our effectiveness is humility.
Now, if this hits home, please feel free to share this episode.
Drop your takeaway in the comments, shoot me an email, or get let me know on x.
I'm at at j b cockerel on x.
Let's make disciples through better leadership.
And better servanthood.
So thanks for listening.
Go ahead and lead faithfully
