Leading Through Emotional Crisis

Welcome to Leadership Talk. Today, Pastor Jojo and Apostle Priji delve into how emotions can affect different aspects of leadership. Tune in to know how to navigate as a leader during emotional crisis.

Transcript:

Pastor Jojo: In this podcast we delve into the intricacies of leadership and ultimately we want to help you grow as a leader. We hope you are enjoying the content we have been putting up on this channel!
Welcome Apostle.

Apostle Priji: Thank you Jojo. I’m excited for every conversation, for the leaders. I do believe that there is a genuine need for godly leaders to arise in this last days. Jesus is the best example of leadership.

Pastor Jojo: Is it valid for a leader to be emotional?

Apostle Priji: We underestimate the power of emotions and make it look like a sad thing. It is when emotions are controlling a person is when it is a bad thing. But otherwise, emotions are something that God has placed within us. These emotions are a beautiful ways of experiencing God, relationships, vibrancy of life. Without emotions, a leader would just function like a robot. Without emotions, a leader will not have the real personality that he/she should have. It’s ok for leaders to be emotional and expressive of it. We have Jesus as our role model. Jesus had a very beautiful expression of his emotions.
We have to be careful. We have to draw our boundaries to see if we are being governed by emotions. In the same way that leaders cannot be governed by their intellect, talents or opportunities, in the same way they cannot be governed by emotions. My spiritual mother said in the previous podcast, “A leader is somebody who is led by God”.

Pastor Jojo: We tend to get carried away by emotions which affects our leadership style and approach. How do we manage and control being driven by emotions?

Apostle Priji: It is ok for us to rejoice when a blessing has been given. It’s ok to grieve when we go through a season where we have has losses. Jesus didn’t worry about crying. Jesus cried even when He knew that He is going to raise Lazarus back to life. This means that Jesus was ok to express His emotions. We have to allow ourselves the freedom to express our emotions. The question is when is it too high or too low. If our emotions are coming in the way of how God wants us to function and our assignments then we are causing a boundary.
1 Samuel 30, the bible talks about David and his men returning back from war and they realize that their families and everything that they had were plundered by the enemies. David was emotional as well as his men. The bible says that people became so emotional that they started taking stones to throw at David. That is too much. It’s ok to grieve but when they took stones to throw at someone who is superior is not ok. This is where they crossed their boundary. They attacked the source of their blessings.

Pastor Jojo:This is the point where we need to have the awareness as well as the spiritual intelligence to come out of emotions and function as a leader with our responsibilities.

Apostle Priji: Even when we grieve it is possible to lead in the midst of grief. Jesus was overcome by grief when He heard that John the Baptist has been executed. Jesus withdrew himself from public arena for a little while. He went down to seek the Lord all by himself. It affected Him and yet He didn’t stop His ministry because John got killed. But on the other hand we see Elijah who almost gave up His ministry because Jezebel threatened to kill him. The enemy tries to accumulate trauma upon trauma especially when you are heartbroken; but you have to learn to lead, to be aware of your calling as a leader in the midst of pain and struggle and betrayal.
The mistake that we make is that we forget our calling, our identity because of our emotions.

Pastor Jojo:What can we do to come back from deep pain and hurt?

Apostle Priji: Sometimes certain pain can take time and sometimes we have to live with it. We see the example of Apostle Paul: “thorn in my flesh”. God dint take away the thorn in his flesh but God gave him the grace to lead in the midst of the painful situations.
We need to learn to prioritize and value our assignments more than ourselves. Many times people quit their jobs and businesses because of sadness or heartbreak.
God would always remind me that my pain and hurt is not as important as the calling that He has placed over my life. This helps me to re-prioritize myself and make sure that I don’t lose out on what God wants me to do.
Another thing is going to my leaders and exposing my heart as to what I’m going through. I’m not looking for answers but I’m just looking for a place to be myself, be vulnerable and let them know that I’m hurting.
As much as Job’s friend were talking non-sense he still allowed them to speak to him. He still served them. This is something that is missing in our generation. We have a middle ground where we can allow few trusted people to see our failures and brokenness.
Our healing and help will come from the Lord. One thing that we shy away from during emotional turmoil is conversation. Conversation is a very good thing. Talk about all those things and in the midst of it God will come to give you more clarity and fill in the gap. God will come in to tell you things that you could not process by yourself.

Pastor Jojo: There is an emotional side of a leader at the same time there is an emotional side of the people that we lead. How do we keep a balance on both the side?

Apostle Priji: One thing is that we should not dismiss emotions. We can validate their emotion but don’t push it to such a point where the emotions become an idol.

Pastor Jojo: Thank you so much Apostle. Please follow us on all the platforms and ensure to hit subscribe. Also spread the word. For more information and resources please visit apostlepriji.com. Thank you and God bless you.