Judging Others

Today’s Just a Thought comes from Luke 6:37-42 and Matthew 7:1-5 and 37: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

How do you lead or manage without judging a person? Isn't that the essence of leadership and management: the ability to properly assess a person’s performance and to guide and direct accordingly? To promote, to demote, to hire or fire, to affirm or to rebuke based upon your qualified opinion?

Yet here, in the Bible, we are told not to judge. It actually offends God when he sees us judging or condemning another person or ourselves.

Where does this leave us as leaders? Doesn't that take away the most important tool in our toolbox?

To properly judge something, there needs to be the process of comparison to something or someone else.God claims he is the only one who is capable of doing so.

Again — where does that leave us as leaders?Can we successfully lead or manage without judging?

I think we can if we remove the comparison factor. I can look at each individual as God’s creation; I can seek to learn about this person — and their hopes, dreams and talents — and use what gifts I have been given to encourage, motivate and direct, correct, promote and demote, all based on their abilities and not by comparing or challenging their self-worth through condemnation.

If we can clearly define the tasks, skill, outcomes, quotas, deadlines, quantities and qualities of the job at hand, then we are able to let performance be the guide. If these metrics are not met, will that result in us judging the person or the person judging or condemning themselves? Possibly. Yet I think God would say that it's not a judgment issue, but rather a proper match up of talent to task.

We all have seen a person seemingly failing at something only to find something new to focus on — and then watch them excel in that endeavor. Jack Welch talks about getting the right people on the bus to ensure success in your business. I agree wholeheartedly with this thinking, yet what Jack didn't say was that there are plenty of buses for everyone to have a seat.

Our job as leaders is to help get people on the right bus.

God would go on to say that there is no one bus better than the other.

Just a thought …