Leviticus 10:16
“And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was burnt: and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron which were left alive, saying,”
When it comes to leadership skills, few in the Scriptures could top Moses. The verse above is another lesson from Moses on leadership. It says, “Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering.” Aaron was supposed to eat the flesh of the burnt offering, but because of his sons being killed, he neglected to do his part. As a good leader always does, Moses didn’t just give a task and not follow up to see if it was done. He inspected to see if it was, and he found out that Aaron had neglected his duty. When Moses saw the duty was neglected, instead of immediately rebuking Aaron, he asked him why he had not done his duty thus giving him a chance to explain his actions. This is great leadership skills in action.
Throughout the years of my ministry, one of the weak leadership practices I have seen is for leaders to be absent from their duties. What I mean by this statement is that a leader will tell their followers what to do, but they never follow up to be sure that it was done. Then I have watched some leaders quickly make judgments about situations without giving someone a chance to tell their side of the story. Absentee leadership skills will hurt people, which results in the hinderance of an organization. Let me show you some principles Moses teaches us on leadership.
First, leadership should give clear responsibilities. Before the verse above, Moses clearly gave Aaron his responsibilities as a high priest. Moses didn’t assume Aaron knew, but he made sure he explained what he was to do. One of the greatest causes of disharmony between a leader and follower is that the leader didn’t clarify the responsibilities to the follower. The leader assumes the follower should know, but that is poor leadership. Every follower should have their responsibilities clearly defined by the leader so they will know what is expected of them.
Second, leadership should inspect to be sure that the follower is doing what they are supposed to do. Just because you explained someone’s duties does not mean that the follower will do it. It is your job as a leader to be sure that the follower is doing what they are supposed to do. Absentee leadership will not know what the followers are doing. If you’re a leader, you are supposed to know what the follower is doing by following up to be sure they are fulfilling their responsibilities.
Third, leadership should give their followers a chance to explain their actions when they are found to be negligent. Don’t be quick to rebuke a follower just because they didn’t do something. Before you ask them, you should give them a chance to explain why they didn’t do what you feel they should have done. It could be that they didn’t clearly understand their duties, or they could have a legitimate reason why they didn’t do it. You will never know unless you ask.
Finally, leadership must correct problems when they are faced with them. Moses was not afraid to correct Aaron. This is the unpleasant side of leadership, but it must be done. You must not be of the mindset that it will work itself out. This will only cause matters to get worse. When you see something is not being done right, then you must quickly correct the problem, or you will have bigger problems to handle later.
If you’re a leader, let Moses who was one of the greatest leaders in history teach you how to lead. These principles we learn from this story will help every leader to keep their organization running smoothly.