Everything I’ve read about good leadership has led me to believe that good leaders are risk-takers. They are not adverse to making the difficult decisions to go out on a limb with an idea or concept.
But here’s an important caveat.
They are not fool-hardy, but faith-filled. They use their intuition coupled with information-gathering to know what they need to know before pulling the trigger on something.
There are always risks:
- The idea failed
- Finances took a huge hit
- People walk over the decision
- You get replaced
What leader has never made a risky decision that failed? My father owned and managed his own business for all the years I knew him. He had a sign in the office:
“Show me a man who never made a mistake and I’ll show you a man who never made anything.” True, true!
Perhaps the biggest risk of all is never taking any risks!
As Christian leaders we want any and all ideas that pose a risk to come from the Lord and not merely be our ideas. I recently read Nehemiah 7:5 in the New Living Translation, “So God gave me the idea…”
But how do we know if an idea that has risks (and probably most big ideas/decisions carry risks) is from God and not just our own thinking? We probably won’t or don’t know for sure until a bit later in the implementation process. But if we wait until we are 100% sure before stepping out, we may be waiting a long time and perhaps never make the decision.
We can succumb to Paralysis of Analysis.
Noah got the idea from God to build an Ark. He was the laughing stock of the community, since there was no water to be seen anywhere. I would guess that he had his doubts at times in stepping out investing time and energy doing something that looked fool-hardy. He took a risk.
Caleb after seeing the promised land was filled with faith (along with Joshua) to go for it. He was out numbered and the decision was made to not go for it. It was God’s idea and they paid the price of 40 years in the desert because the people were not willing to take this faith-filled risk that Caleb and Joshua were ready to move out on.
Abraham Stepped out with his family to leave home and travel to an unknown country because he heard from God. I’m confident he had some difficult conversations with friends and family about this seemingly fool-hardy risk. Abraham had more questions than answers, but he took the risk, confident he heard from God and moved out.
Not that I agree with their worldview, character, ethics, or life-styles, but Bill Gates, Steve Job and Jeff Bezos took huge risks in their respective business ventures. They all had their share of failures along the way. The rest (as they say) is history.
As I soon enter 2026, I have some Faith-Filled risks I will be taking. One risk is stepping into a role and responsibility I’ve never had before.
A verse I’m heavily leaning into and praying over daily as i step into 2026 with all of it’s unknowns:
“Be enthusiastic to serve the Lord, keeping your passion toward Him boiling hot! Radiate with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let Him fill you with excitement as you serve Him.” ~ Romans 12:11 The Passion Translation
Here is a link to a book note I did which is the best I’ve ever read on making high level, and potential costly, decisions; the ones with huge risks attached.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” ~ Mark Twain
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