Nehemiah’s Leadership Playbook: Restraint

Restraint

Next to them the Tekoites made repairs; but their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work of their Lord. – Nehemiah 3:5

In continuation of our meditation on the various leadership lessons we can learn from Nehemiah’s playbook, one more lesson we can learn from him is restraint.

Nehemiah demonstrated this unique leadership quality in the way he engaged the nobles in the land of Judah. From our previous accounts, we can see that almost everyone rose to the clarion call of Nehemiah to rebuild the walls and the city. The reaction he got in response to his call was massive and impressive. Yet, from the passage above, we can see that the response was not 100%. The passage says the nobles in the land did not participate in the work.

This is telling because the priests who were special people in the land and were designated to attend to the services of God at the temple signed up for the project and all participated in the project, from the high priest to the least of the priests. If anyone should be exempted from the work, it should be the priests. So, the fact that they joined the train gave no one else an excuse not to be part of the work.

However, the nobles did not.

Nehemiah could have taken offense at the attitudes of the nobles and called them out, chastising them to be part of the work and be fair to the other members of the community who sacrificed time and resources to be part of the project. But he did not. His demonstrating restraint this way, in not creating a scene by confronting the nobles, further enhanced the success of the rebuild project and that of his administration as a leader as well.

How? Because if he had taken them on, they might have reacted in anger, questioned his authority or undermined his leadership. This would have rendered the atmosphere toxic and unproductive for everyone, thus causing a significant delay in the project until the situation was resolved, that is if the development did not cause the end of the project altogether.

But by exercising caution and not launching into an attack against the nobles, even though he had a good reason to and would have enjoyed the support of the people, Nehemiah did not only give us another good leadership example worthy of emulation for any leader who desires to achieve success, but he also cemented the success of his own administration as well.

One of the lessons savvy leaders know is to choose their enemies or the battle they fight. It is not every adversary a leader should take on in battle. Similarly, not every hostility deserves a confrontation. Some adversaries are better managed by avoidance or keeping them at arm’s length, while some hostilities are best ignored rather than antagonized. The leaders who have mastered these subtleties tend to last long in their reign, while those who do not often have their tenure short-lived.

Therefore, if you desire to reign for a good spell, you must imbibe this important lesson.

You Will Succeed in Jesus Name!

Also read:

• Nehemiah’s Leadership Playbook: Organization
• Me, An Idol Worshiper?
• Before I Got Saved, I Got Shipped Off