One thing about growth is it may not always be numeric. It is also a maturing, a developing, or a becoming. Regardless of what is going on externally in the world around you, you can still thrive. There is a demand that has been placed on you to become what God intended to be even in crisis. At a time when the world could be declaring recession, not just good opportunities, but God opportunities will present themselves to you. There is a generation of feeders that rise up in trying times with the ability to feed out of their overflow. This opportunity is not only money. It is also wisdom, the Word, innovation, creativity, and love.
There are also opportunities emerging for you to shape your future more consciously from here onward and to preserve and develop the many positive aspects of crisis, allowing you to make any situation a turning point whereby you are changed for the better.
The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger. The other for opportunity. In a crisis, you must be aware of the danger, but it is imperative that you recognize the opportunity. Therefore, crisis is a turning point. Crisis creates change that can be quite overwhelming. You must use it as a prompter to take risks and challenge the status quo in an effort to achieve something new and better. Crises do not resolve themselves. Someone must realize that they are an answer to the world’s problems and step up and find a solution to the new set of circumstances. During times of uncertainty, a simple truth reveals itself, you cannot manage your way out of a crisis. You lead yourself and others out.
This season, the most effective people will thrive because they understand and utilize collaborations, teams, partnerships, collaborations, networks, and mergers. We are living at a time where for many of us, if we want to see the height of our success, it will only come through collaboration. Collaboration is no longer just a strategy. It is a vital key to long-term, consistent success. It creates a communal brain where you are able to turn each person’s ideas into a collective intelligence, which allows greater results.
“Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed” Proverbs 15:22
“By wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory” Proverbs 24:6
Plurality in leadership, then, is the corporate manifestation of such sober mindedness, sanctified level-headedness. The toughest decisions we face in leadership are not clear do(s) and don’t(s). What we desperately need is to exercise a collective wisdom stemming from God’s remaking of us, not just individually but together.
God’s work is too large and complex to be accomplished by one entity. When you look at your reach, your resources, your energy, talents and goals, multiplied, collaboration just makes sense.
Collaboration is Kingdom behavior. The way to thrive in crisis is simple…together!