Ep. 90 | Why Hurry Is Undermining Your Leadership

What if the pressure to move faster is actually holding your leadership back? In this episode, we explore a powerful and timely truth for Christian leaders navigating new seasons, complex decisions, and constant demands: hurry is not a sign of faithfulness, it is a liability.

This conversation invites you to rethink how urgency shapes your leadership and to embrace what Scripture points us toward again and again, a sacred pace rooted in trust, discernment, and intimacy with God. You will learn why speed is often mistaken for obedience, how data alone is never enough to make wise decisions, and why discernment must guide leadership choices in moments of uncertainty.

Through biblical examples, practical leadership frameworks, and reflective questions, this episode helps leaders slow down internally so they can act with greater clarity, emotional health, and spiritual confidence. You will be challenged to examine what emotions drive your decisions, where fear may be masquerading as urgency, and how faithfulness can reshape the way you lead teams, families, churches, and organizations.

If you are feeling rushed, stretched, or overwhelmed, this episode offers a grounded and hope filled invitation to lead from peace instead of pressure. Tune in to gain insights on leading with faith, wisdom, and sustainable impact.

Chapters

• 0:06 Hurry Named As A Liability
• 1:36 Data Pressure Versus Wise Discernment
• 3:16 Slowing Internally For Spiritual Clarity
• 7:18 Identity In The Father Guides Pace
• 9:22 Data Needs Discernment To Direct Decisions
• 12:19 Speed Does Not Equal Faithfulness
• 14:29 Emotional Regulation And Adaptive Leadership
• 18:25 Self‑Reflection Questions To Defuse Hurry

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:06

So, in this season of so many new things getting started in our lives, I need you to hear this one incredibly important leadership tip. Hurry is a leadership liability. There's so many contexts in where we feel an urgency and a pressure to perform or to accomplish or to move past the obstacles that stand in front of us, but too many leaders fail to recognize how hurry can actually become a detriment, a damaging impact on their life, their leadership, and the outcomes that actually matter. They begin to believe that making the decision faster equates to a more faithful or a better decision. And it's simply not the case. What I need you to understand is that in our world today, we've got access to more data, more insights, more opinions and perspectives than we ever had before. And that begins to place on us as leaders these pressures, these perceptions, as if people around us have uh better insight than us, or all of a sudden are going to be expressing either real insight or uh uh false judgments around us and our life and our leadership. Uh, but leader, I want you to hear this. Those pressures aren't going to provide the clarity you need to make wise, effective, God-honoring decisions uh for the team that you lead and the organization that you lead within. So I want to give us uh three kinds of frameworks to think through these things and to understand this problem that you and I are living in the midst of so that we can respond differently in this moment than we have ever in the past. The first thing I want us to see is this. Uh, we need to understand that the wisest leaders slow down internally so that they can see and act with clarity and faithfulness. Listen, I'm not saying that we need to act uh slow as if we're procrastinating. I'm saying that we need to act uh patiently because we are practicing an attitude of faith and an attitude of confidence that God is making a way for us. We're not procrastinating from the tasks that God has in front of us. Listen, if you know an issue that's sitting right in front of you and you know the right choice to make, we shouldn't just withhold that decision. But instead, it's in these moments where we aren't uh totally sure what is the next step or what is the next uh action. We shouldn't be overwhelmed with a sense of hurry that keeps us back from the better ways and the greater clarity that God wants us to have as we go to make those decisions. Listen, this isn't spiritual or an excuse for spiritual avoidance. Uh instead, this has to be an intentional act where we go before the Father in prayer, uh, seeking him in that intimate relationship that we know is required for effective Christian leadership. From that place, we begin to seek him out, uh, understanding that this place of inner peace and this place of clear judgment will come at the feet of our Maker. Remember, He loves you. He sent His Son to die for you. So, Christian leader, this is a key moment for you to recognize as we go to make these decisions, we're operating at a sacred pace, not a hurried or frantic pace, but one that recognizes we can walk with the Father in our decision-making process and he will guide our steps. Remember the proverbs trust in the Lord in all your ways, and he will make your path straight. That spiritual intimacy is going to lead us to a place of uh real clarity in our decision making. And that clarity is gonna allow our hearts to have uh better emotional regulation, and we're gonna really begin to see our actions and decisions align with the better judgment that God has for us. Let me let me read this to you. The difference between reactive leaders and discerning leaders is rarely intelligence, it's inner uh relationship with God. That space is the one that we're gonna find better fulfillment and ultimately better decisions for us and our teams, not from that place of anxiety or hurry, but from that place of confidence at the feet of the Father. If you remember when Jesus is washing the feet of the disciples, he he does that first because he loves them, but he also does that because he understands who he is in the Father. He understood his place in the Father, and so he could lead his disciples well. If you and I are going to lead well in this moment, in this new season, we have to lead from a place where we know our identity before our Heavenly Father, because he's a good Father. The second thing I want us to look at is really this question: why do we think leaders make poor decisions even when they have the right data? Here's the key it's not just about the data. The data gives insight, but it's discernment that actually gives uh guidance to that decision-making process. It's the ability to take that information in and sift it both in mind and in spirit to understand what is it here that really matters at the end of the day. Right? I was sitting and talking with uh some leaders not long ago. We were looking at uh some sets of data coming in, and it was clear as we looked through the information, man, we aren't hitting the goals and objectives that we have. Uh, we're a little low on this metric. Uh, how can we go about it? And well, there's there's a couple of ways that you could do that. Um, one is we can we can uh press more product into the market and try and grab a greater market share, or we could make our market uh a little smaller and recognize wait a second, we're not gonna reach all of the market segment we were seeking. We're just gonna reach this few. To put it in church terms, it may be that I can't reach uh the entire city in my area, but I can reach my neighborhood. Figuring out and discerning between those things doesn't just require data. It requires seeking the Lord's direction and allowing that discernment to govern our decision-making process. If we do that, it's gonna be something that that helps to shape us and give right direction and clarity and insight to that process. Another thing that that discernment's gonna do, it's gonna help narrow that hurry from a sense of uh uh uh anxiety-driven uh into a place of greater peace, uh, greater confidence. Listen, that sense of hurry really begins to narrow our options. We don't give ourselves the space to think with clarity, we don't begin to explore the other options. Uh, we might not even give our hearts or our heads the moment to rest even a single night. That can't be the way that we step into this season. As Christian leaders, we want to hear from the Lord in his timing. Remember, his timing is perfect. It's better than ours. And so if we're gonna step into that, we want to be walking uh uh not ahead of him and not behind him, but right alongside the spirit as he guides and directs us. Listen to this. When leaders move faster than our souls can process, we get confused thinking that speed equals faith. It doesn't. Uh it wouldn't have been better if Peter had walked out of the boat before Jesus called him. It was in the midst of that moment that they saw something miraculous take place. If Moses had simply led the Israelites into the water before hearing from the Lord, uh it wouldn't have been the right way that God was intending to go about it. In the same way, we have to be listening, watching, and understanding that speed doesn't equal faithfulness, faithfulness equals faithfulness, uh, practicing our faith, trusting Him uh uh beyond our own understanding, knowing He will make the path straight. Second thing I want us to look at what separates reactive leaders from discerning or adaptive ones? Well, really, I think at the bottom of this is they have a real practice of um, well, emotional control. They they live in a place where their hope, their joy, their peace is rooted firmly in their identity. Uh, so they're not responding to each crisis, they're not reacting uh to every emotion. Instead, uh they're looking at urgency and they're calling it what it is. They're not chasing after those things. Um, they're they're seeking to uh pursue a life where they're not constantly cleaning up after the mess. A discerning leader is gonna notice what's happening on the inside. They're gonna walk with the Lord in a way that they can see, wait a minute, I'm walking at a pace that's sustainable. Uh, I'm I'm prioritizing my faith practice, I'm I'm sitting with the with the word, I'm I'm practicing regular prayer and uh in lifestyles of worship. Those kinds of behaviors are the behaviors, attitudes, and actions of people who aren't overwhelmed, over-urgent, and missing the decision-making guidelines and process that God's given us. Listen, hurry is a leadership liability. It's not us moving faster toward our goal, it's us operating outside of the sacred pace that I think God wants for us. I like how this was written. Discernment isn't slower leadership, it's leadership that avoids expensive mistakes. If you're an effective Christian leader today, you understand that we are to steward the resources God's given us. That doesn't just mean our finances, it means our time, our talent. And that's true for our entire team. If we want to be effective leaders, we want to help our team understand the gifts, talents, and resources they've been entrusted with and how to practice uh good stewardship in the midst of those. Fast decisions will not always equal better results. They just equal faster decisions and they often equal bigger messes to clean up in the end. We don't want to live or lead from that kind of an attitude or perspective. Uh, I want to give us a couple of practical tools that can help us do some personal examination. Uh, so here's some of the self-reflection questions. Number one, where did I feel rushed or pressured today? Think on that for a second. Where have you felt rushed or pressured today? That kind of rush and pressure is a key element where you can begin to reflect and go, wait a second, God, this is a place where I'm not walking at the sacred place that you've called me to. Um, I'm I'm feeling these external liabilities that are not mine to carry or that I'm just missing some pieces on. God, I want to sit at your feet, put these before you, and seek your direction and your insight. I'm gonna seek some Christ-like mentors to speak truth into my life around these things and help me make those decisions. I'll give an example for my own life. Leading in this time and season for me has been one of great joy, but it's also been one God has grown and stretched me. As I lead here at the International Leadership Institute, there's been so many great seasons, but there's also a lot of hard decisions that have to be made. Uh, when we have limited resources, we have to navigate which uh uh um gatherings are we gonna be able to help support and subsidize as these leaders are gathering? How do we invest in where the gospel is growing at the greatest pace and at all of these pressures? Well, in seasons of lean resources, we can begin to feel that pressure. We can begin to ask those harder questions and feel like we're being pulled in every direction. And that can lead us to a decision-making process that's too fast, too disjointed, and quite frankly, isn't sitting at the feet of the Father. So in that season, we began to learn wait a second, we want to seek the the direction of the Lord together in unity, knowing that He has made provision for all. He has made provision for all that He has assigned us to. And so from that place, we are better able to make decisions. So the first question we need to ask ourselves, where do I feel rushed or pressured today? The second question we've got to ask, what emotion was driving me in that moment? Listen, as we reflect on our decisions, which we should reflect on our decisions so that we can learn from them and grow, we need to ask, what was really motivating me here? Was it something that was meaningful? Was it something that was uh just a sense of inner anxiety or panic? Uh, I think sometimes we can be the best at lying to ourselves. And so we have to guard our hearts against that by reflecting, what was I thinking here? And how could I make my decision making fit the pace uh that's gonna help me uh be successful and help my team be successful in the future. Maybe you're sitting there in a meeting and the presentation is offered to you. Hey, we can do option A or option B. Here's the cost, here's the cost, you have to make a decision right now. But the reality is you might actually have until the morning. Uh, and maybe that's when your mind functions best. That's where your thoughts are most clear, that's where your decision making is best. Uh the team at the at the table with you may be pressing you for an answer today, but the best leadership decision for you may actually be to wait until the morning. When you're sitting, you're fresh, uh, and you're able to navigate that decision uh uh in that moment of clarity. That's what we need to know about our own decision making. Again, a personal story. My wife and I learned about ourselves. We don't do our decisions best in the evening. In fact, that's when we are most emotionally tired, physically tired, mentally tired. We've just done a lot. Our day is full. And so by the end of the day, as we're sitting on the couch or laying in bed next to each other, there's just this recognition this is not when we should be making big family decisions. Instead, we've started a beautiful practice in the mornings when we are fresh, when we are alert and awake, sitting, having a cup of coffee, praying together and talking through those big family things at that moment when our mind, our spirit, and our heart are ready for that decision. That kind of question, uh uh what emotion is driving me in the moment, is a key question that leaders should be asking themselves. Third key question that we can ask each other what would faithfulness, not fear, have required? What would faithfulness, not fear, have required? If you and I want to be faithful leaders that are making decisions not out of hurry, but out of conviction and clarity and courage, uh, that means we've got to be asking, where is faith being practiced in this, or is it simply a response of fear? One of my favorite questions for Christian business leaders is to ask, are you thinking from a scarcity mindset or an abundance mindset? Remember, God is making all things new. He has the cattle on a thousand hills, and he has the hills. All of it is his. There is an abundance in the kingdom, and God is working those things out. So where are we making our decisions from? From the position where we know the God of the universe loves us, knows us, cares for us, and calls us by name, or from the place where we feel we have to perform to earn his love and respect and validation. Let me encourage you, leader. He loves you today where you are. He values you today where you are. He's placed you there and he's placed you there for a kingdom impact and a testimony of faithfulness that can transform your community and the lives of men and women around you. And so listen, as I as I just close our time together, I want you to know this spiritual pace creates organizational clarity. Your clarity in the organization is going to come as you practice that sacred pace, that spiritual practice, uh, helping the people recognize wait a second, there's not this uh uh uh urgent get it done that that undermines the effectiveness and efficacy of what we're trying to do. Now, listen, I know some of you are thinking, man, there's so much to do. We've got so much we got to push. If I'm not pushing, nobody will. Let me tell you, urgency should be driven by excellence and a care and a love for the vision. It shouldn't be driven by you and I cracking whips behind people. Uh, they need to be driven in themselves. And so we have to uh motivate and internalize that motivation by giving them a clear understanding of how the vision that you're working toward is worth their time, energy, effort, resources, and how they can actually make a meaningful difference. Casting that clear vision will help motivate them. It's not your pressing for a deadline that's gonna press them to operate faster. A person or a team who are so amazingly excited about the vision that God's given them, they will do something transformational. Incredible thing happened uh during World War II. Uh, you know, much of Europe was taken over uh in the midst of that war. And at the time, Europe actually had some incredible productivity, some incredible GDP figures prior to World War II and during World War I. Uh, there was a lot of uh resources being mined and manufactured, a lot of natural uh um produces uh being made in places like Ukraine and others. But when the Axis powers uh began taking over those nations, they thought that the productivity would remain the same. What they found was actually something incredibly different. They found that all of that GDP energy and effort and drive, all the productivity that those lands once had were no longer anywhere near what they once had been. It didn't matter how urgently those governments pressed and pressed and pressed, it didn't produce at the same level because the people didn't have the same heart and vision. Because they had been detached from ownership in what was happening, they no longer produced at the rate that they once had. And it actually caused incredible collapse in the economic systems of those governments. Now, my point isn't to give a history lesson, but just I say this. If we want the most productivity, we want the most outputs, we want the most transformation, it's not going to be by you and I pressing for the hurry. It's going to be by you and I inviting people into the sacred pace that produces the God-given vision and mission that you and I long for in the businesses, churches, ministries, uh, and organizations that we lead. So listen, you don't need to lead faster. You just need to lead with greater clarity of vision. That's how you get people to move forward in their own life and leadership. This is a moment where so many people are starting new things, where there's so many elements that could be in front of you. Don't begin to believe that your sense for hurry is a blessing. It's not. Your hurry is a liability. God's called us to live at a sacred pace at his feet because his yoke is easy and his burden is light. His call is great and his commission is clear. Let us be the men and women who lead with faithfulness so that all would know, hear, and experience the hope, the love, the joy found in Jesus Christ, and so that you and I would lead others effectively into the purpose, vision, and calling that people have uh every day all around us. I hope this has been helpful to you as you just start off this year. Listen, I don't want you to start off with craziness or hecticness. I want you to start off with a sacred pace at the feet of the Father. Uh at the International Leadership We Institute, we believe that the most effective Christian leaders are practicing eight core values. If you want to learn more about those things, just like intimacy with God that we talked about, you can go to iliteam.org, discover some of the resources there, and listen, I want you to know this. I believe you, as a local Christian leader, wherever you are, you are the most effective way for the gospel to move forward in a community, in a church, in a business, in a family. It's you. And so I want you to be living out those values so that God is known among every people, nation, language, and tribe, so that God is glorified, and so that you and I can continue to personally experience the joy of knowing Christ and the people around us can experience the hope of walking with Him.