If you have been in leadership for very long, you have come across such people. In West Texas, they refer to them as. “aginners.” They are the ones who are seemingly against almost everything. They may do what needs to be done, but they don’t seem to have much joy. If you are not careful, people like this can derail the job if we as leaders don’t handle them with love and understanding. By the way, people like this are nothing new. You find folks in the Bible who are part of this group.

As I read through the Bible each year, I try to read all the verses, including the ones of genealogy and the lists of names of people. While it sometimes feels tedious, I am often rewarded with interesting passages.

Recently, I have been reading Nehemiah and his account of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. There is so much to learn about leadership from this Old Testament book. The people in Jerusalem worked on the wall, often right in front of their homes and often in groups. As Nehemiah was listing the workers, he said this about one group:

Next were the people from Tekoa, though their leaders refused to work with the construction supervisors.

Nehemiah 3:5 NLT

I don’t know what the problem was with the leaders from Tekoa, but there was something between them and those Nehemiah had chosen to be supervisors. They just didn’t see eye to eye.

Have you run across folks like that in your organization? John Maxwell has much to say about leading difficult people. Here are some of his suggestions:

  • Find the one percent you agree on and give it one hundred percent of your effort.
  • Give others the benefit of the doubt.
  • Learn to be flexible.
  • Check your own attitudes.
  • Don’t overreact.
  • Welcome the conflict.

Despite our best efforts, we will all have conflict with other people, because they’re not just like us. They have different personalities, beliefs, and desires, so there will be disagreements and misunderstandings.

In the end, these people from Tekoa still did the work of rebuilding the wall in Jerusalem. Later in the same chapter, we read that these folks still helped accomplish the critical task before them.

Then came the people of Tekoa, who repaired another section across from the great projecting tower and over to the wall of Ophel.

Nehemiah 3:27 NLT

Yes, we may encounter folks who grumble and complain. But when the cause is right, and the overall vision and importance are shared, even these people will do the right thing.

Challenging? Yes. But God’s eternal work is worth going the extra mile as a leader and keeping your people on task for the glory of the Lord and for accomplishing His purpose.

God’s best,