What’s your dispositional sin?

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.  ~Ephesians 4:31

Dispositional sins.  As leaders, I don't think this requires a specific faith or religious affiliation. Dispositional sins are equally devastating for both the religious and non-religious alike.  There is no discrimination or preference when it comes to dispositional sins.  As A.W. Tozer pointed out in one of his books on leadership, "These sins are as many as the various facets of human nature.  Just so there may be no misunderstanding let us list a few of them: sensitiveness, irritability, churlishness, faultfinding, peevishness, temper, resentfulness, cruelty, uncharitable attitudes, and of course there are many more."  Now to modify Tozer's words just a bit…These kill the spirit of an organization and slow down any progress which the leader may be making in the organization or the community.

So as leaders, what do we do about these ugly dispositional flaws?

As Tozer stated, these are facets of human nature; maybe the first thing we could do about these dispositional sins is admit that we have them.  Yes, that's right, we ALL have them.  It's human nature. 

Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, distinguishes between a multiplier and a diminisher.  Through extensive research, some of the "dispositional sins" that represent diminishers are: controlling, micromanaging, selfishness, not listening, and not delegating.  In a presentation Liz made at the Global Leadership Summit, she described how she frequently used a phrase: "How hard can that be?"  Maybe her optimism is a strength; but it was coming across to her staff as demoralizing, frustrating, and a reflection that she wasn't really listening to their concerns.  Then one day when she made that statement once again, a brave soul simply blurted out, "Would you please stop saying that!"  This was the first time she became aware that this habit had actually become a dispositional flaw.  She thanked the staff member, changed her behavior (even with her children) and saw a significant shift in how others responded to her requests.   She took the first and very important step in addressing her dispositional sin, she admitted she had one! 

Being a perfectionist, faultfinding is certainly one of my dispositional sins.  When faced with a situation, a person, a "thing," my human nature is to first focus on the faults, or what's not perfect.  However, one of my strengths, using StrengthsFinder language, is maximizer—how to get the most, the best out of people.  Taking something that's good and making it great.  That may describe the brighter side of being a perfectionist.  Using that strength, maybe I could practice focusing, first, on what's good and how I could help make it great.  Said another way, how can I use some of my strengths to reframe my dispositional flaws.  Not that I can suddenly turn my sins into saintly actions, but maybe I can work at mitigating those nasty, annoying dispositional flaws with some—okay LOTS—of intentional practice.

When it comes to defining leadership, I’m a behaviorist.  I believe that leadership is all about the behaviors we exhibit.  That means we have to take the good with the bad.  We have to leverage our strengths while recognizing and admitting we've got some dispositional sins that need some work as well.