Dependence on God

We saw in the last chapter that the first dynamic of effective leadership illustrated in the memoirs of Nehemiah is the relationship between the leader and God. Unless his or her relationship to God is right the leader will never be God’s choice for any situation, nor in the final analysis will the leader ever be effective. Still it is not only to a heavenly superior that leaders must relate. They must also relate to earthly ones, and for this reason the second dynamic for any true leader involves what we generally refer to as the role of middle management.

Nehemiah’s difficulties did not stop there either. To be sad in King Artaxerxes presence was dangerous enough. But in addition to that, what Nehemiah wanted was to go to Jerusalem and rebuild its walls, and it was precisely this king who earlier had been petitioned against the rebuilding of the walls and had stopped the work as a result. Nehemiah’s plan meant asking him to reverse his own former policy.

The second secret of dealing with a superior successfully is tact. We speak about tact often. Yet more often we fail to exercise it. We think that it is more needful to “speak our mind,” Notice how tactful Nehemiah was with Artaxerxes.