HOW DO YOU HANDLE PRESSURE?

Pressure come to all of us. But those who fore see it and plan in advance can easily navigate through with great achievement. Pressure is an opportunity to thrive. It is through pressure that leaders are easily identified, gloomed and rewarded.

In today’s devotion we look at Moses who was given a task to lead over 2 million people (the children of Israel) from Egypt to Canan. The time came when there were conflicts and disagreements and they needed justice. Pressure was too much on Moses, until when he got advice from his father in law Jethro.

 Exodus 18:13 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. ¹⁴ When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”

¹⁵ Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. ¹⁶ Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.” ¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. ¹⁹ Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. ²⁰ Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. ²¹ But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²² Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. ²³ If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”

From the above, we learn that what Moses’ father in law was teaching him was the art of planning and delegation. This is the answer to solving pressure. If you want to be a good leader, plan your journey, form teams and learn to work through your teams.

There is a difference in being under pressure and experiencing stress, yet, in many ways, they are similar.  Stress comes from having an overload or being trapped or pushed into a corner; it’s when we cannot see the end of the tunnel, but can’t go back either. Sometimes in business, we start something that may not work, but the consequences of quitting are greater than that of going ahead.  That creates stress.  It can kill us.  On the other hand, pressure is more of a choice.  In sports, we push ourselves.  In business we make too many appointments and try to accomplish too many things at once.  Pressure is usually self-inflicted.  We would not have to play or work that hard, but we choose to by setting too many goals or wanting to win too much.  In the end, pressure may turn into stress, but in many of these situations we can readjust our goals and even use a back door out of pressure situations if we want to. Pro-active leaders are identified by these traits:

1. They have vision. And keep the focus
2.  They delegate and work in teams.
3. They thrive on challenge because they foresee and work on plans.

So, if you want to be a good leader, you must learn to live with pressure. Plan a head and keep your focus. There are two types of leaders:  one is proactive, and the other is reactive. They both face pressure.  The proactive leader looks ahead to see what is coming and puts pressure on himself and others to achieve their goals or avoid a disaster.  The reactive leader, on the other hand, reacts to the disaster after it has happened, causing him pressure or even stress. Proactive leaders cut a path for others to follow.  They are driven by a vision of what needs to be done.  To them, getting it done is more important than the cost or pressure it will take in achieving their goal.  They will handle problems that others fear and avoid. Some of their friends will laugh at them and say it cannot be done.  But these leaders see into the future; they see things as they should be and work hard to acomplish them.

What type of a leader are you? I pray that you will be that proactive leader.