Are you waiting for a crisis to establish accountability? (130-2)

On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being barely adequate and 10 being fully adequate, submitting to accountability will be a 1 unless the leader takes deliberate action to be accountable. Submitting to accountability has an element of reluctance; effective leaders pray for and seek accountability. Read Psalm 141:1-5.

King David passionately asked God to set a guard over his mouth (his words). He prayed that his heart (his mind, will and emotions) would not be drawn away from God’s standards toward evil. And David looked for righteous individuals that had the passion to slap him if need be to get his attention and hold him accountable to God’s standards.

There is a way for leaders to give the appearance of accountability while avoiding its reality. When leaders primarily want the public appearance of accountability they lose most of the value of accountability and their actions are not in their own best interests.

King David wrote Psalm 146 some time after a major failure in his life when he had purposefully avoided accountability. The acts committed in secret, with no accountability partner, cost him the loss of his family and the respect of the nation. When David’s actions were discovered and confessed, God forgave David for the sin but the consequences of David’s momentary dodge of accountability lingered through the rest of his time on the throne.

Wise leaders don’t wait for a crisis to establish accountability. They willingly establish structures and relationships that harness their sin and unleash their potential. They practice such a degree of honesty that they are accountable for every action.

2 Corinthians 5:7, 9-10 “We live by faith, not by sight…So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”