When Leaders Must Unmake a Promise

I’m supposed to be in Honduras today.

Tickets purchased.
Suitcases packed.
Six years of planning.

This mission trip had already been postponed twice. There was no way we were missing this one.

But over the past few weeks, the warning signs kept building:

·         Level 3 travel warning

·         Global travel cautions

·         Escalating international tensions

·         TSA uncertainty

·         Uneasy gut feeling.

And yet I had made promises.

To our team.
To our friends in Honduras.

That’s when leadership gets hard.

Because sometimes the hardest thing a leader has to do…
is unmake a promise.

Pastor and organizational leader, Craig Groeschel teaches that strong leaders must occasionally revisit bold commitments made in a different season.

Not because they lack integrity.

But because the context changed.

Businesses experience this constantly:

• Markets shift.

• Cash flow tightens.

• Technology evolves.

• Teams change.

And the promise that once made sense may no longer serve the mission.

Sometimes your gut is the most important metric in the room.

This week reminded me of something important:

Leadership isn’t about stubbornly keeping every promise.

It’s about having the wisdom to adapt so the mission can still succeed.

What promises might you need to unmake today based on what you know now?

-Rusty Fulling

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