It has already been two weeks since the sun of the year 2023 rose. Most people open the door to the new year with fresh resolutions and expectations, while bidding farewell to the past year with a sense of regret. However, for the majority, those resolutions end after just three days. They do not even qualify as “starting strong and finishing weak.” To be considered even a “strong start,” one would have had to practice their resolution for at least one of the twelve months of the year. As a result, making resolutions and drawing up action plans at the beginning of a new year can begin to feel meaningless. Yet a great leader once said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” As we enter the Year of the Black Rabbit, what are the two factors that hinder growth and achievement in our personal lives, our families, and the organizations we lead?
Genesis 11:7–8 records God’s intervention that brought to nothing humanity’s arrogant attempt to reach divine status by building the Tower of Babel: “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another.” So the Lord scattered them from there over the whole earth, and they stopped building the city.
On July 4, 1952, American long-distance swimmer Florence Chadwick attempted to swim approximately 21 miles from Catalina Island to Long Beach, California. In the early 1950s, she had already set records by swimming across the English Channel twice, each time taking more than 13 hours. However, the waters off the California coast that day were very different from the English Channel. After swimming for 15 hours, she still had not reached her destination, Long Beach. To make matters worse, the ocean was covered with dense fog that limited visibility to just a few feet. Exhausted, Chadwick finally gave up and climbed aboard the boat that had been accompanying her. The entire nation felt sorrow over her decision, because the point at which she quit was only about 800 meters from Long Beach. At a press conference, Chadwick said, “If only I could have seen the shore of Long Beach, I would never have given up.” But she could not see her destination because of the fog.
John Maxwell compares goals to a destination. If a leader can see the destination from the organization’s current position, they can draw a roadmap to get there. That is the power of having a goal. Even Almighty God declared a clear objective in order to accomplish His will: “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another” (verse 7). Pastor David Yonggi Cho, whose church achieved the remarkable growth of 800,000 members, presented a surprisingly simple church growth principle. His first rule was, “Set goals.” The first factor that hinders our achievement in the new year is the absence of clear goals.
What was the result of God confusing the language of arrogant humanity? People “could not understand one another” (verse 7b), and as a result, they were scattered, and construction of the Tower of Babel came to a halt (verse 8). The English word “communication,” which is derived from Latin, originally means “people who fulfill duties together.” To be an effective leader, one must be able to motivate members of an organization to share the same heart (vision) and to carry out their respective responsibilities together (cooperation). In other words, communication skills are an essential element of effective leadership. Communication means connection. Through communication, leaders connect with their members, and members connect. There is no more effective way to destroy an organization than a lack of communication.
There are many reasons why leaders neglect communication. Regardless of the reason, if I do not intentionally communicate, there is no way for others to know my intentions. The most destructive action a leader can take is to assume that others already know what he or she intends. Only God can know another’s intentions without words being spoken. We work with human beings. Humans do not fully understand after hearing something once. Even after hearing it many times, they may still misunderstand. Moreover, to get someone to listen carefully to my words even once, I must listen carefully to theirs ten times. Public speaking requires knowledge and technique, but listening requires humility and patience. That is why leadership is not a skill, but an attitude and a matter of character.
Here, then, are two foolproof ways to turn this year into another ordinary year with no meaningful accomplishments. First, since you will not even manage a “strong start and weak finish,” do not bother setting any goals at all. Second, assume that everyone in your organization already understands your intentions perfectly and is working passionately to fulfill them—so do not communicate. If you can consistently do just these two things throughout the year, then ironically, you will succeed in achieving your goal: the goal of accomplishing absolutely nothing…