Which is worse, an irritating naysayer or an easy-going yes-man?
Executives must be wary of both. My father was a deacon. He took confidentiality seriously, never repeating at home anything that had been discussed at a deacons’ meeting. However, he did make one comment about one of his fellow deacons. He said Earl (not his real name) was a naysayer. Earl would question every decision—on even the simplest matters—just to be sure someone had asked the hard questions.
Being a naysayer who asks too many questions can be counterproductive because it (1) wastes everyone’s time, and (2) can cause the naysayer to cultivate the bad habit of simply being negative without reason. As a lawyer, I learned years later that members of decision-making bodies bear a legal duty to ask questions, a duty not to be a “rubber stamp.” Let’s assume Earl had that in mind and was not simply being a burr under the saddle.
However, as irritating as a naysayer can be, a yes-man poses a much greater risk.
Yes-Men go along with whatever the man in charge wants. If the executive is a CEO ready to sell his company to a large corporation, yes-men will ignore their doubts and tell him the sale is a great idea. If the chief is the owner of a sports team who wants to offer millions to an untested rookie, yes-men will stand there with the checkbook open. If the boss is a king contemplating war, yes-men are already hiring caterers for the victory parade.
Yes-men fail to ask questions. They keep the boss happy by agreeing to anything he suggests. And they do him a disservice.
Leaders need people to ask hard questions. Executives do not need yes-men.
But executives are human. Whether bosses, kings, presidents, or pastors, they like it when people agree with them. Like anyone else, they believe their ideas are great and they want to hear positive feedback. But what they want is unimportant. What they need is to face the hard questions, to subject their ideas to tough scrutiny and see whether the ideas survive.
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” Proverbs 15:22.
Israel’s king Ahab surrounded himself with 400 yes-men who claimed to be prophets, and one prophet who refused to be a yes-man.
When Ahab and Judah’s King Jehoshaphat planned to start a war together, Ahab’s 400 prophets said Attack, for God will give you victory. But Jehoshaphat wanted to hear from someone who was not an obvious yes-man, and asked whether Ahab had any other prophets.
Ahab answered, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he never prophesied good to me but always evil” 2 Chronicles 18:7.
The man was Micaiah, a true prophet of God. He was called and told the two kings that Israel would be scattered like sheep without a shepherd—another way of saying Ahab (Israel’s shepherd) would die in battle. Ahab was enraged. “Did I not tell thee that he would not prophesy good but evil?” 2 Chronicles 18:17. Ahab had Micaiah thrown in prison—and then the two kings attacked Ramoth-Gilead and, though Ahab wore a disguise, he was killed as Micaiah foretold.
“Just as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” Proverbs 27:17.
God, help us to appreciate those who ask us hard questions. May we welcome tough questions. May we respect and honor those who make us better by saying the hard things, by confronting us, and by having the courage to initiate awkward conversations. Help us to feel—and express—genuine gratitude to the people in our lives who ask hard questions, who tell us our plans are poor, and who do their best to speak hard truths. Give us the wisdom to discern when they are right and when they are wrong. Lead us by your Holy Spirit, and guide us to the wise counselors around us.
AΩ
P.S. In my experience, YES-MEN may be the biggest problem facing many Christian churches and schools. Organizations that do not exist as part of a larger body–a denomination, for example–tend to have boards populated entirely by yes-men. If a church or school was founded by a single man, particularly if it is non-denominational, there is often a board made up of the founder’s closest friends and partners. Such a board will fail if it supports the founder’s every whim. We must ask hard questions. We must submit to the Holy Spirit and clarify things with the word and wise counsel. And sometimes we defer to the pastor (or private-school founder) simply because we trust him as a God-given leader. However, if the board never challenges the executive, if it never says no, if it serves only as a rubber stamp, approving ALL the leader’s ideas, then that board is not doing its job.
Household Words: 