Monday, January 25, 2010


Genesis 6-9 The Story of Noah

Leadership Lessons: Trust in Company Direction, Understanding and working with talent, Execution of plans, leadership confidence.


Most people are aware of the “Noah’s Ark” story in the Bible.  The question, as a leader, how can I learn from what took place.

First, from God’s perspective,  he was ready to scrap the whole  “civilization experiment” when he realized that there were so many terrible people in the world.  Instead, he evaluated the entire situation and found that there was something (or someone in this case) worth investing in and saving.   There have been many times as a leader that scraping the whole project, or letting everyone go and starting from scratch seem like easier, or better decisions.  If you take a moment and truly evaluate the entire situation, you may find that there are actually diamonds in the rough, or valuable lessons to be learned from the experience.

Next, let’s take a look from Noah’s viewpoint.  Imagine the confidence he must have had in God’s plan for him when he started building a gigantic ship in the middle of his property.  Then he had to trust that God was going to work the whole “two of every kind of animal” project out, without anyone eating each other.  Imagine the leadership patience that Noah must have exhibited as all of those creatures were cooped up on that boat for such a long time.  Even when the boat finally struck land, Noah had the patience to wait until he was sure it was safe to venture out before he made a move.  The key is that he used the birds (Raven and then later a dove) to test the environment  before he took action.

There is a lot that can be learned from this activity alone.  Noah listened to God to get his direction on what he needed to do, but then Noah took command of the situation and made sound decisions.  After being in ark for so long, it would have been easy to look for excuses to disembark as early as possible, but it would have been a poor decision.  Noah used tools to give him some understand on when it was the right time to make a move.

How many times have your rushed to a decision, or made a hasty decision, just because you were sick of waiting.  Take a lesson from Noah.  Use the diagnostic tools at your disposal to have some concrete data to help you decide when to move.  Stick to your plan, and have faith in the direction to avoid making rash decisions that could jeopardize the entire operation.

Another lesson that can be learned is to make sure that you surround yourself with a good team.  In this case, Noah was surrounded by his wife, sons, and daughter-in-laws.  Only people who knew each other so well would be able to stand the close quarters for as long as they did.  There is also a bond from family that would make life after the boat possible. 

While you will hopefully never be stranded on an Ark with your team and animals for long periods of time, it is still important to think how your team dynamics will play out in your environment as you choose member to work for you.

The final piece of inspiration that can be taken from this story is that you are never too insignificant to make a huge difference.  Noah was a single man among many.  Yet he and his team were responsible for: 1. Building a colossal floating vessel.  2. Collecting two of every animal without getting eaten.  3. Directing this ship through turbulent times while keeping all of the inhabitants from killing each other.  4. After waiting for the right moment, embarking on re-creating civilization.  Not a bad year’s work for a humble, righteous servant of the Lord.

If Noah can undertake that leadership project with the Lord’s help, what can you do?