Leaders often deal with distracting voices that rob them of their focus. The Old Testament leader Nehemiah had to learn how to deal with people-driven distractions while he was rebuilding the wall around the city of Jerusalem. But often these distracting voices in leadership aren’t so visible.

In their book, Ladder Focus: Creating, Sustaining, and Enlarging Your Big Picture, Authors Sam Chand and Gerald Brooks address the importance of focus and keeping everyone in your church or organization vision centered. One of the distractions leaders often face is “Listening to the invisible crowd.” Chand and Brooks state:

“When we find ourselves judging every decision or action by the reaction it might produce from others, we’re listening to the invisible crowd. While this silent form of peer pressure can be subtle, it’s definitely an obstacle to maintaining focus.”

When we listen to the invisible crowd, we’re leading from a base of false assumptions built on fear. If we’re not careful, we’ll let the voices of the invisible crowd talk us out of the vision God has given us. When that happens, we turn the voices into idols.

Questions: Are you letting the invisible crowds distract your focus? What do you need to do to get vision centered again?