Subject: Leadership - Exodus 17-20

Exodus 18:17 (ESV Strong's)
Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good.

Subject:  Leadership

In the above verse we have the statement from Moses' father-in-law in regard to an observation of Moses' life.  Moses was the leader of Israel and had started a bad practice/habit.    Father-in-law, Jethro, had observed that Moses was the ONLY leader who was listening to the people to judge over their problems.  He was the sole counselor.  As a result, Moses and the people who meet from sun-up to sun-down to get all the people heard for the day.  Remember, when they left Egypt there were 600,000 men (not counting women and children).   Moses was outnumbered.   Jethro would give Moses the art of developing and delegating other men to hear the issues of the people.   However, the focus here is on that above verse.   Jethro, a new believer (as assumed, based upon the previous verses), tells Moses (THE Moses ... the leader of the entire nation), that his habit and style of leadership is not good.   We all need someone to tell us when what we are doing is not good.  Moses, unlike many leaders today, takes the advice from Jethro to heart and changes his leadership style.  He went from hierarchy model to a shared leadership model.   Moses was not opposed to taking correction from someone.   Good leadership does this.   Good leaders listen to multiple voices to improve their leadership.   Being able to be corrected is the key to great leadership.   Leaders who can't hear the words, "What you are doing is not good," will never be better leaders.   We all need someone to correct our bad habits.