What potential distractions from the goals are you facing? (119-4)

Outsiders’ demands have a tendency to sidetrack a leader from accomplishing the goal. Effective leaders stay focused on the vision and goals rather than giving time to every peripheral demand. Read Nehemiah 6:1-9.

Several regional leaders had enjoyed great favor with the Persian kings and had great wealth and power from the area known as Judah before the Jews had resettled the land after the Babylonian exile. Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem were all regional leaders or area governors of Judah and Jerusalem prior to the Jews being allowed to leave exile in Babylon to resettle the land. Every step the Jews made to become self-sufficient and a sovereign nation directly serving the king of Persia threatened their power over them and their ability to tax them. A wall being built around Jerusalem would greatly diminish their ability to intimidate the Jews living there and exacting taxes from this group would be virtually impossible.

They had tried to demoralize the Jewish people through ridicule and rumors of violence but Nehemiah had held the team together and the wall construction continued with great success. They determined to kill Nehemiah and once the head of the snake (the leader) was gone, the whole snake (the project) would die. They invited Nehemiah to one of the cities in the plains to meet together on the project. The obvious indication was that through negotiation the threat of war or at least physical attack by their forces could be eliminated if Nehemiah would meet with them to assure them of his intentions in building the wall.

Nehemiah saw the suggested meeting for what it was and refused to be distracted. Rather than wasting time in a long response, he simply sent a return message stating he had important work to do and could not stop work for discussions.

Effective leaders evaluate carefully their participation in any activity that takes focus from the main elements of a project. There may be times alternate activities are necessary but wise leaders choose their distractions carefully. One of my supervisors when I worked for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association had a memorable way of stating this principle. Whenever refocusing me on the main mission of my area of responsibility he would say, “I’m only playing a single stringed instrument.” We ran every activity through our mission statement to insure we stayed focused and did not confuse activity with accomplishment. One of the great strengths of his leadership was his ability to limit distractions that took us off course.

What potential distractions are you facing this week? Will they move the project forward or will they simply distract you from accomplishing the goals that will make your project successful?