Have you ever thought about what your posture is as you work with others? I have. Posture matters as we work together and as you work with your team. I love this section of Colossians 3:12-16, which provides a beautiful picture of posture by describing how we are to clothe ourselves when working with others.
Take a moment and read through it.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
Picture yourself getting dressed in clothes labeled compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience as you get ready to walk into our meetings. Relationships between Boards and Executive Directors in some organizations can be difficult and tricky. There are times when both experience anxiety, disagreement, and sometimes even despair, but it does not need to be that way. Colossians INDEED provides a different and beautiful view of our posture as we work together in this process. By utilizing these words, we can remove the assumption once again that we (I) personally know everything there is to know about your organization and exactly how this process will pan out, and we can refocus our hearts on discerning together the task before us.
Max De Pree in Leadership is an Art (2004) states, “Leaders need to foster environments and work process within which people can develop high-quality relationships – relationships with each other, relationships with the group with which we work, relationships with our clients and customers”. Relationship development and growth happens when we consider our posture.