On one of the Facebook pages I follow someone posted about 52 Thoroughbred horses that needed rescuing from imminent death. Of course the original post was from 2011 but hey whose checking. How often have you been surfing social media and saw someone post something that you know for a fact is either old or false.
I cringe every time I see something like this because the extra 30 seconds it takes to fact check could really make a difference. As leaders we often do the same thing. We go off on something that hasn’t been fully fact checked!
As a leader I keep track of things, not because I want to keep track of someone’s faults or mistakes but to show that what seems like a constant issue is really very intermint. We need to be very diligent in our reporting, and make sure that we double and triple check our facts. We have the potential to really hurt the people we work with and lead if we aren’t careful.
Many years ago as a young church leader I had a husband and wife team that were struggling. They were doing an OK job leading but weren’t really getting the vision behind the ministry. Instead of working with them, I listened to a single source and asked them to step down. They ended up leaving the church all together because of my words.
You see if I had fact checked and looked I may have seem something different. I may have also come to the same conclusion however I would of approach it differently and maybe found another place for them to serve.
As leaders it is critical that we fact check constantly and not react based on our gut. AND when we do react (which we all will) we have to step back and apologize and then go back and fact check again.
As you move into 2019 think about what makes you react and then how can you fact check just a bit more, because remember no one is going to save those 52 horses!!!
Leadership Simplified 