Words are extremely powerful. God created the world with words. Servant leaders need to understand the impact of their words in every situation.

Think about when Jesus slept in the boat with a few of his disciples, and a huge storm blew in. His disciples were extremely worried that he wasn’t concerned, and they woke him in a panic. Jesus simply said to the wind and waves: “Quiet! Be still!”

Three simple words brought calm to the situation.

I was talking to a leader the other day whose organization had just gone through a major crisis. Their Internet connection had been severed somewhere in their community, knocking out their email and web connection throughout their entire organization, including their remote locations.

In times of crisis, a leader can react in a number of ways:

• Fly off the handle, looking for someone to blame.
• Jump in and try to personally solve the problem.
• Calm the storm with a few key words, and allow your people to do their job.

This leader calmed the storm. He illustrated confidence in his team to do what they knew needed to be done to recover from the situation, and improve it for the future. After the problem was resolved, his team thanked him for reacting how he did. They appreciated that he had allowed them to do their job to fix the situation.

Reacting with calming-the-storm words in tense situations can lead to the following:

• Building of self-esteem in your people
• Building of trust with the team
• Quicker resolution of problems
• Development of people’s skills to further equip them for the future

Servant leaders recognize the power of words. They think first, and then speak. They speak with words that people can understand, words that build self-esteem, words that calm the storm, and they do it in as few and simple words as possible.

How are you doing on managing your words, and using them for the impact that you desire?

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
Colossians 4:5