A well-planned woman

One of my fondest memories is of the time I spent living with my mother’s eldest sister in Kenya.  She was the headmistress of a high-performing primary school and had a very active presence in community affairs.  In the mornings as I escorted her to the waiting car, she would tell me what she wanted to have for lunch or dinner that day, and I quickly realized something about these debriefing meetings we had.  Mayi as I called her, would delegate the result, not the task.  She would later evaluate the performance, but all the stuff that happened in between, all the minutiae, she didn’t get involved in that.  In her, a woman who was CEO of her home, the cornerstone of which is planning.  

As I read through Proverbs 31 what stands out to me quite loudly is how well-planned this woman was.  Like Mayi, she knew what was in her storehouse and so she didn’t give me instructions to prepare something that I wouldn’t have the resources to accomplish.  She’d planned for it.  So I read Proverbs 31 and see a planner.  A woman who planned for the seasons ahead.  A woman who planned for the future of her family.  What will they wear in winter?  What will they eat in summer?  She was well-scheduled and well-planned and as a result, she was fruitful.  

While many may look at the Proverbs 31 Woman and think, her bar is too high, don’t sell yourself short.  Keep in mind that her results were first, a result of her goal:  to care for her home well.  And so her actions align with that goal.  You too must have a goal, and your goal may be different from hers.  

The other thing to note is that her success was a result of her system.  A system that placed planning at the center. She needed to know when the merchant ships were arriving and work backward to have products to sell or products to source from them.  Planning is essential.  

We make The Goodness Planner, a tool to help organize everything so you can win your day.  Having a planning tool – whether paper or digital – is essential for organizing your days, months and years, but knowing what your goal is perhaps the more important thing.  Where are you headed?  We’re not placed on this earth to move aimlessly.  God has a purpose for you.  Have you figured it out yet?  If you haven’t, spend some time and pray that God would reveal this to you.  Your purpose will anchor you and be the fuel that supports your goals for the year and motivate you to push through the difficult seasons in life.

I don’t think the goal for any of us should be to be the Proverbs 31 woman.   Why? Because the Proverbs 31 Woman was good at being her.  Your goal should be to get really good at being you, the woman that God created you to be, for the purpose that He created you for.   So who is this woman?  Who is she?  Once you know who she is, then it can be edifying to look at some of the great CEO-level qualities that the Proverbs 31 Woman possessed (and other accomplished women who are leading well today)  that can you can cultivate to help you reach your destination.  The destination that God has ordained for you.  

Now one of the things I’ve heard frequently is that it was easy for the P31 Woman because she had a staff.  She had a whole team of people helping her, so how could she fail?  To that, I would say you are correct.  But.  I would also say that it’s entirely possible to have a large staff, and not know how to delegate properly, not know how to train and teach them well, not know how to set your key performance indicators well, not know how to evaluate job performance well, and not know how to give constructive feedback that helps motivate your team to do better.  It’s entirely possible to have a team, but lack the leadership qualities to lead them well.   I can testify to that. 

I once worked as an accountant on a film project where I had seventeen people who directly reported to me and knowing how to assign tasks that fit their strengths and abilities, knowing how to motivate them so that they could help me achieve the goals I had for us as an office, that was a real challenge.  This isn’t a ‘normal’ job where you have the ability to spend time hiring for culture fit and spend months training, and all that stuff they do in the corporate world.  We may have six-months where we meet, work together and say goodbye, but in that short period of time, we would have managed upwards of 100 million dollars in cash so the stakes are high, the tempers are hot, and the stacks of paper that need to be reviewed, approved, and booked can be overwhelming.   There came a time when we were falling behind, and I had other accountants on the leadership team tell me to just add more people.  I looked at them and my heart just sank. I knew throwing more bodies at the problem wasn’t the answer.  The issue was leading the current team well, and I knew I couldn’t onboard someone new, lead the team I already had and do my own job well.  

As Oprah would say, one thing I know for sure, is that it’s not enough to have a team that shows up every day, you still have to be an effective CEO.  You need to know how to lead.  And leadership begins with you.  And so I push back on the idea that the Proverbs 31 Woman was a roaring success because of a team.  No.  She was a success because she learned how to lead well, and it started with her…rising while it was still yet night (v 15).  And when you know how to lead a team of one – you – then you can bring assistants into your ecosystem that can help you move further and faster.  But it starts with you.