I find people strange. Especially a lot of the people I know: maybe it’s the inbreeding or something, but it seems that we have a lot of non-confrontational people going around. What I mean is people that don’t merely avoid confrontation whenever possible — which is a good thing, yes? — but avoid it and seem to be afraid of it to the point where the confrontation that actually occurs seems more of a diversionary tactic than anything else.

I give you an example. Image you are in charge of workers at a machine shop. I happen to work in a machine shop, but this isn’t necessarily an example culled from my everyday shop life. Just imagine you’re in charge. Now, there’s this guy running one or two of the machines, and during the run times of his machines, he’s doing a crossword puzzle or something like that, something that doesn’t explicitly involve work. There’s also this unspoken expectation that while machines are running, people should be looking for other things to do (cleaning up, organizing, that sort of thing), but the expectation is unspoken, just merely hinted at.

What do you do? You want the guy to do something other than the crossword puzzle: what’s the quickest way to get him to stop, to do what you consider to be his job? Well, of course, say something. To do anything else implies that you’re afraid, for whatever reason. Or maybe you just want people to like you. Or maybe you’ve grown up hating confrontation because of the overagressive tendencies of your father or mother. Who knows.

All I know is, you can’t always be friends with everyone, especially when those people are under you in an authority structure such as work. A marriage is different of course, on so many levels that this doesn’t really apply. But at work, or even at church, you can’t get anywhere without turning a few wheels. You can’t make a garden without pulling a few weeds: just watch out that you’re really pulling weeds before you do it.

This will, of course, bruise a few egos and get a few tongues wagging. But at least at the end of the day, if you did things right, no one’s going to be right when they accuse you of bludgeoning and browbeating.

But that’s the rub, isn’t it? Leaders aren’t perfect. In fact, the mistakes that you own up to probably make you a better one for all the trouble. No one’s infallible (except God of course). That’s why people who think that they’re God’s ordained mouthpieces on earth, whether they admit it tacitly or not, come to be disliked. That’s hubris. Humility, on the other hand. That’s a great thing to have.

If I could say one more thing that I’ve observed. Don’t be defensive. Listen. If someone points out what they see as a fault, no matter how they come across, listen. Listen, and if need be, correct. And listen to yourself. In the words of an old song, My life is a radio; what songs does it know? Indeed.

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