Listen to the advice you don't want
Naaman listens at last
Naaman the commander nearly forfeited his healing over wounded pride. Told by the prophet to simply wash in the muddy Jordan seven times, he stormed off in a rage — the cure was too small, too undignified. It was his servants who saved him, gently challenging him: if the prophet had asked some great thing, you would have done it; how much more this simple word?
Naaman swallowed his pride, listened, washed, and was healed. Proverbs names the principle: listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may be wise in the end. The advice a leader least wants to hear — especially from those beneath him — is often the very thing that saves him.
“My father, if the prophet had asked you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it?”
— Naaman's servants — 2 Kings 5:13 (WEB)
Listen to advice even when it wounds your pride. Naaman almost forfeited his healing by refusing simple counsel — accept instruction and grow wise.
“Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may be wise in the end.”
Naaman's pride nearly cost him everything until he listened to lowly servants. A leader formed here receives the advice that stings, especially from those beneath him. He values the counsel that humbles him. The inner work is swallowing pride to accept needed instruction.
Listen to advice that wounds your pride, particularly from people lower than you. Create safety for servants and juniors to challenge you, as Naaman's did. Weigh counsel on its merit, not the status of its source. Accept the instruction that humbles you, knowing it often saves you.
Leaders reject the advice that wounds their pride or comes from below them — which is often the advice they most need. The blind spot is filtering counsel by ego and status rather than truth.
Recall advice you've recently rejected because it wounded your pride or came from someone junior. This week, reconsider it on its merit, and act on it if it's right.
The advice that wounds our pride — especially when it comes from someone lower than us — is the advice we are most likely to reject and most likely to need. Naaman almost lost his healing over it; his servants' willingness to speak, and his eventual willingness to listen, saved him.
What advice have you been rejecting because it wounds your pride or comes from someone beneath you — and might it be exactly what you need?