Kingdom At Work
Think about someone who shaped you as a leader. Maybe it was a mentor who pushed you harder than you thought possible, or a manager who believed in you when you were ready to quit.
What made them great wasn’t that they stepped in and did your work for you. It was that they stood beside you, asked the right questions, and gave you the tools to succeed. That’s what true leadership does: it doesn’t just solve problems in the moment—it shapes people for the future.
Leadership Pitfalls That Feel Noble but Cost Growth
For CEOs, the temptation to rescue is always present. You see a gap, a missed deadline, or a struggling executive, and it feels faster and safer to step in and fix it yourself. After all, the world says speed matters and the stakes are high.
But over time, rescuing people comes with hidden costs:
- Burnout for you. Carrying your role and theirs will eventually break you.
- Dependency for them. If every solution comes from you, they’ll never own outcomes.
- Frustration for the team. Double standards erode unity and trust.
- Stalled scalability for the business. If every challenge flows back to your desk, the organization can’t grow beyond you.
What feels like leadership in the moment often undermines growth in the long run.
The Kingdom Principle: Steward People, Don’t Save Them
Scripture shows us a better way. When Paul coached Timothy—a young, inexperienced leader—he didn’t take over. He reminded Timothy of his gifts, reframed fear with truth, and gave him encouragement and next steps:
“Fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you… For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:6–7)
That’s Kingdom leadership: calling out what God has already placed inside people and equipping them to live it out.
Our job as leaders isn’t to rescue our people. It’s to steward them—developing both the person and the role. Avoiding a hard decision isn’t generosity; it’s fear.
Coaching vs. Saving in Business
Coaching looks like:
- Asking questions that help leaders solve problems instead of handing them answers.
- Holding people accountable for both mistakes and solutions.
- Building capability and confidence so your team can thrive even when you’re not in the room.
- Empowering decision-making and creating a culture where mistakes become learning moments.
Saving looks like:
- Fixing problems for your executives or managers.
- Shielding them from the discomfort of growth.
- Carrying more responsibility for their success than they do.
- Quietly redoing their work “because it’s faster.”
A leader at Betenbough Companies shared her simple rule: “If I see something, I say something.” She realized that waiting until the end of the week meant the lesson was lost. By giving feedback in the moment, she created space for her people to reflect, adjust, and grow right away.
That’s the heart of coaching. It doesn’t sweep in to fix; it equips people to see and own the truth. For CEOs, the application is clear: don’t save the tough conversation. Feedback, delivered with grace and clarity in real time, creates a culture of accountability and growth.
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”(Proverbs 27:17)
Sharpening isn’t always comfortable. But it’s what makes people—and businesses—stronger.
The Organizational Costs of Saving
When leaders rescue instead of coach, the whole organization pays:
- Culture erosion. Double standards breed resentment and comparison.
- Loss of respect. High performers notice when dysfunction goes unaddressed.
- Team division. Resentment and fatigue fracture unity, creating “us vs. them.”
Saving might look like compassion, but over time it drains engagement, burns out your best people, and undermines trust in leadership. Sometimes the most loving leadership move isn’t to stretch someone further—it’s to help them move on.
Henry Cloud calls this “necessary endings.” Ecclesiastes reminds us there’s a time to plant and a time to uproot. In business, delaying an ending doesn’t make it easier—it multiplies the pain for you, for them, and for the team.
One business leader admitted he had kept a struggling team member in place far too long, convinced that with “just one more conversation” they’d turn a corner. Instead, the delay drained his high performers and bred quiet resentment—until he finally made the hard call, and the team thanked him for restoring unity.
The test is simple: Am I still hopeful? If the answer is no, it’s time for a redemptive ending handled with both grace and truth.
Healthy pruning leads to stronger growth—both for your organization and for the individual who may be released into a season where they can flourish.
What Great Leadership Coaching Looks Like
Great leaders don’t remove every storm from their people. They equip them to stand in it.
- Authenticity. Admit mistakes and invite feedback.
- Compassion + Courage. See the person before the performance, but lean into truth.
- Clarity + Empowerment. Use the right words at the right time, check in consistently, and celebrate growth.
- Safe Stretch. Push leaders just beyond their comfort zone, where capability and confidence are built.
- Progress over performance. Highlight who people are becoming, not just what they delivered.
One Kingdom leader lived this out by making himself “optional” in his managers’ meetings. Instead of running them, he simply observed—spotting strengths and gaps. Later, he invested the time needed to coach on what he saw in real time. That shift moved him from savior to steward, equipping leaders instead of overriding them.
When leaders do this well, people don’t walk away just knowing what to do. They walk away knowing who they are becoming.
A Challenge for CEOs
As a CEO, you set the culture. If you rescue, your executives will too. But if you coach—holding accountability, asking questions, giving safe stretch, and making hard calls—you’ll multiply leaders who can carry the mission forward without you.
So here’s the challenge:
Where in your business are you rescuing because it makes you feel needed—and what would it look like to coach instead?
As the Lord stirs a new perspective on leadership, business, and people, we’d love to help equip you to lead with a Kingdom lens. Consider joining us for a 2026 Kingdom Leadership Workshop for more insights like these.