How to Lead When You Don't Have all the Answers

Have you ever felt like you were totally out of your depth in your assignment?

Do you sometimes feel like a fraud because people are looking to you for leadership and you have no idea what you are doing?

If you can identify with this, then you are probably right where God wants you to be.

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It’s an uncomfortable place to be when you know that you are not really qualified to be doing the thing that you’re doing. You spend time thinking about what other people may be thinking about you and before you know it you feel more and more of a fraud.

But what if placing you in an assignment where you felt like you didn’t know what you were doing was all part of God’s plan? What if the things that you feel like disqualify you are the very things that make you the perfect person for the job?

Learning That Who I Am Is Enough

Here’s my journey with this very issue and how I learned to see my lack as what qualifies me for what I get to do.

I remember the first time the Lord really showed me this clearly. Andy and I were in New Zealand doing a Dream Culture course for a few days. Heaven in Business was not yet an entity but after the course we were supposed to meet with a wealthy and successful businessman in the city. I was fine with standing in front of 150 people leading them in pursuing their dreams, but the meeting afterwards was freaking me out. I kept complaining to Andy that I had nothing to offer in that meeting, even though we both felt that I should go.

At the end of the Dream Culture course we had a question and answer session and one person asked me how I had overcome the lack of confidence I had shared about in the course. I gave an answer and then declared, “I have to choose to believe that who I am is enough, because God is with me.” As I said it I felt the power of the declaration and knew that it applied to me for the meeting with the businessman the next day.

So the next day off we went to meet with our successful new friend. He started by telling us his business pedigree. It was impressive. He had many successful ventures and was involved with government and sporting officials at high levels. Finally, he turned to Andy and asked his background. Andy told him what he had been doing before we moved to America…I was a business consultant, I worked as a bank manager…here are all the other things that I’ve done.

When Andy was done, he turned to me. I told him the highlights of my experience but most of what I’ve accomplished doesn’t look that fancy on a business resume. I could see him move me aside in his mind and dismiss me as not relevant to the conversation. My expectation had been realized, and I had a choice to make.

Stay Engaged Instead of Trying to Prove Yourself

When we are put in that position most of us do one of three things:

1. We either pull back, withdraw and become a spectator to fulfill the expectation of the other person.
2. We push in hard and try and prove that their opinion is wrong. Neither usually ends well.
3. The third option is to stay engaged and see what the Lord will do and if there is anywhere to add value.

I chose option three.

I sat and I listened and pretty soon I began to notice some things that were missing in this man’s story. When it was appropriate I began to talk to him about what I was noticing and he started to respond to me.

By the end of the conversation he was poking his finger in my face and telling me that I was, “The real deal.”

He told us that my involvement with the conversation was the critical piece for him to see things a different way.

To be candid I don’t think the man changed after our conversation, but I sure did. I had walked in overly aware of my lack of answers, insight and business acumen. I walked out aware that God could use me in spite of my lack, if will trust Him to do so.

Your Lack May Be Part of Your Qualification

Since then my life has been filled with situation after situation where I am the least qualified in the room. For a number of years I led the equivalent of Heaven in Business for educators. In every single meeting I led, I was the least experienced in the room.

I have a degree in Physiology and Anatomy. I have never had any teacher training, I don’t know how to design curriculum and I didn’t even know what pedagogy was (it’s the method and practice of teaching in case you’re wondering.) I felt ill equipped and asked the Lord why He had not chosen someone who was versed in the ways of education to lead the charge.

What I came to see was that my lack of experience in education was the very thing that allowed me to lead others into new territory. I don’t have twenty years of experience that tells my why a God idea wont work. When He showed me something I simply said,

“What a great idea…let’s do that.”

Educators had to overcome their training and their experience to step into the new things that the Lord was showing us.

But it was awkward and uncomfortable…every single time. Every time, I had to choose to not listen to the inner voice that told me I had nothing to offer. Time and time again I had to remind myself that God had positioned me to lead educators because He wanted someone who wasn’t an expert.

My natural disqualification was the very thing that qualified me because it kept me in a place of absolute dependence on Him.

God's Strength Shows Up in Weakness

1 Corinthians 1:25-29:

"Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." 

I get to choose in every circumstance whether I rely on my own strength, my own expertise and my experience or whether I stay in a place of dependence on His strength and wisdom and insight. And in all honesty I’ve found it’s so much easier to stay in a place of absolute reliance when I know that I don’t have all the answers, that in the natural sense I am unqualified.

I still sometimes feel uncomfortable when I know that those around me think I have less to add because I don’t have the fancy business pedigree that they have but I have learned to embrace the areas where I know I’m lacking because those are the areas where God shows up and ‘shows off’ His extraordinary power.

 What to Do When You Feel Under Qualified to Lead

Here’s some practical tips for leading when you know you are under qualified:

• Embrace your weakness and refuse to listen to the voice of shame that wants to shout at you. Inwardly I acknowledge that I don’t know what I am doing but that God has placed me in the situation and will give me what I need to accomplish His purposes.
• Stay child-like. That means staying in a place of wonder and in a position of being a learner. Children look at possibilities and ask questions. We can trust Him to lead us and guide us as we sit at His feet and let Him be the expert.
• Remain expectant for Him to show up. James tells us to ask for wisdom and He will give it. Let Him lead the way and expect Him to show up in unusual ways. Enjoy the adventure.
• Quickly deal with any inner dialogue that says you can’t do something because you are disqualified. On the forefront of every new frontier are people who do not know what they are doing.
• Don’t use your weakness as an excuse to not up skill. It is not trusting God OR doing self-development. It’s both. Stay a novice and learn your craft.

You Don't Need to Have all the Answers

God often leads us into the uncomfortable forefront of what He is doing on the earth. We feel disqualified and we become fearful that others will find out that we are frauds. Instead of buying into the shame and cover mode of reacting to the uncomfortable truth that you are out of your depth, adopt the fall-on-your-face and acknowledge the truth response.

You are hopelessly unqualified to change the world without Him, but totally positioned for success when you realize that you can only do what He’s called you to do with Him!

Next Steps:

1. Save the date for the Heaven in Business Conference in Nashville: Heaveninbusiness.com/nashville
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4. Share this with someone you know who will be challenged and encouraged.