Audience of One (Part 1)

All leaders need to choose their audience—who they will seek to please. Our leadership basically comes down to either pleasing God as our “Audience of One” or pleasing people. Leading with God as our primary audience ensures that we do what is right regardless of personal cost. Leading to please people can result in irrational decisions, protection of self, and misuse or abuse of power.

Leading to please God instills within us both humility and courage. Humility, because we know who we are and whose we are—that any gift or ability we have comes directly from God; we are only stewards of the time, energy, and resources He has given us. Courage, because we can do all things through Him who gives us strength (see Philippians 4:13). When we know our identity in Christ and are aligned with His Kingdom values we can courageously say with Paul in Romans 8:31: "If God is for us, who can be against us?"

If our audience is people, however, we will lead out of fear or pride. Fear, because our insecurity leads to "people pleasing" and sometimes coercion to accomplish results. Pride, because we self-promote or self-exalt in order to make ourseves appear worth following even though we are much less than the greatness we project. Ultimately, pleasing others with our leadership is self-focused; we want others to like us or accept us, regardless of what is true or right.

When we lead to please God, we will have:
(1) Humility and confidence that results in fellowship with others,
(2) Contentment with what we have and a spirit of generosity toward others, and
(3) An eternal perspective on reality.​

[In my next post I will look briefly at Satan's formula for self-worth which many leaders buy into when people are their audience.]