Kindness of Correction

If you don't A S K you won't G E T. Applicable to as many areas of life as "All I Need to Know about Life I Learned in …" Imagine if there were a way to measure the turmoil caused because someone in authority is afraid to teach someone else an important tenet of work or life, afraid somehow of the implications of making the correction. Or just as bad, and perhaps the reason why the first situation is so prevalent amongst many leaders from bosses to teachers to parents, that person in authority doesn't know how to make the correction with love and kindness, and so it does not have the value it could because the emotion that gets attached to the communication looms larger than the actual request, comment, or criticism. How much turmoil then is created because of the people who expect another person to read their mind, to recognize what to them is certainly obvious, or something they believe they said once and that should have been enough. The sad thing here is that all too often someone only thinks they said something aloud once, because they thought it so many times. But in reality they may have never said it, or if they tried, it was disguised in nervousness and other clothing that disguised the true intent.

 

Reading Proverbs looking for conversations about corrections, discipline, and relationships, an enthusiastic student could find a paradigm here for leadership in mentoring, whether mentoring one's own child, and employee, a student or a friend. Looking at mental wisdom, of the head, one sees pure thoughts, a gentle, thoughtful (non-reactive) tongue, and a humble and happy spirit, especially in areas of correction and discipline. That humility, purity, and thoughtfulness is part of a discerning heart, with humility that keeps seeking knowledge, right living, and God's heart through prayer. The result? True wisdom that spreads naturally because it's believable, it's affirming, and it's consistent with the lives of the people sharing. Isn't that the kind of wisdom every leader would like to impart?