I’ve Seen The Lightning Flashing

One of the challenges that I have experienced as a female servant leader is implicit bias. Many are so accustomed to male leadership that they may subconsciously reject you. Some women actually prefer male leadership. It is very subtle but noticeable. Leadership is more difficult for women and even more so if you are a “2nd Chariot Leader” who is married to the pastor. It is challenging for the following reasons. (1) People will report to your husband if they do not like what you said, because they see him as the person of spiritual authority. (2) Some women will say and do things to you that they would never do to a male leader. (3) Some men are okay with you as a servant but not as a leader. (4). You may be held accountable, as a leader when things go wrong but taken for granted when things go well. Female leaders will surely face obstacles when dealing with other women. Women are interesting and complex in our dealings with each other. We can all relate to the joy and the challenges of womanhood. We are observant and intuitive, yet we sometimes come up short, failing to apply these abilities to honor and respect another woman. Women have refined ways to push or derail an agenda. The negative side of this, for some, have been a lifetime practice, so it does not seem wrong. We have an assortment of emotions and behavioral characteristics at our disposal. We can be angry, sad, tearful, sweet, demure, needy, submissive, assertive, strong, and weak, switching between all of these within the same conversation. Women can read it and men will never see it. Men don’t have all of these behaviors at their disposal. It will take men years to recognize feminine trickery because men think like men. In addition, the male ego may be susceptible because some men thrive on being needed and in charge. This brings to mind something that occurred during my years of employment. I was a social worker in Adult Protective Services at this point of my career. Our department had a clerical person who was a very attractive and well-dressed young lady. She had a pleasant personality, and I was among many people in the department who liked her. Personally, I saw her as one who would eventually be promoted and do well with the agency. She became friendly with our administrator who had a large office adjacent the larger room that housed the cubicles of the workers. I saw her go in and out of the office but never gave it a second thought. She apparently gained his trust and confidence. I later found that she was giving negative reports concerning the workers, most of which was not true. How did I know this? She reported me! I was shocked! I thought we were cool! Fortunately, the paperwork and statistics proved that she was not telling the truth and my immediate supervisor, who always looked at the numbers, had my back. However, she did not stop with me. She became so confident in what she thought were her superpowers that she reported the administrator to the director. We later found out, after she suddenly disappeared from the department, that she also had a friendly relationship with the director and his family. She made a big mistake when she turned on the administrator. Someone should have warned her that he was not one to tolerate nonsense. As recorded in Exodus 14:13 - KJV And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. I do not know what happened, but we no longer saw her in our department. She may have been immediately transferred to another office, but eventually left the agency.