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Sep 23, 2021 08:00am

5 Ps of the Peace Index

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Leadership is not easy but it can be very rewarding. The best leaders are always focused on helping others achieve their highest potential. In The 100X Leader by Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram they state, “We need leaders who lead for the benefit of others, not just for themselves.” They make us aware that the two challenges of leadership are the leader accomplishing what they need to accomplish while simultaneously helping others accomplish their highest potential. A leader cannot give what he does not possess in the areas of joy, peace, contentment, encouragement, challenge, or support.

A leader needs to be the healthiest person in the room. Notice that I did not say the strongest, the smartest, the loudest, or even the best trained. If you want a healthy church, it must be led by healthy leaders. Please, if you are not healthy spiritually, emotionally, or physically the first thing to do is develop a plan to become healthy yourself:

What help do you need to seek first?

Whom do you need to seek the help from?

Reach out to a friend, another leader, or someone who has been where you are and has a heart to help you through the challenges you are experiencing. There are many who do care and desire for you to be healthy.

One area of health that is vitally important is experiencing the peace of God in your life. How would you rate the level of peace in your life right now? How would you determine how healthy you are and what you need to work on? Paul challenged believers (Philippians 4:6-8) to not be anxious about anything but instead to allow the peace of God to guard their hearts and minds.

The real challenge of leadership is not eliminating every unpleasant circumstance. The greater challenge is trusting God in the midst of the unpleasant circumstances. God’s peace is what lifts the leader above the most debilitating trials.

Kubicek and Cockram utilize a tool called the “Peace Index” that enables you to determine how healthy you are personally. In some of their training materials they state, “The Peace Index tool will help you understand and express how key factors and specific stressors affect your peace, and consequently your leadership behavior.

When your Peace Index is high, we tend to think more clearly and without distraction. We also tend to view obstacles more as challenges, and we tend to operate from a place of secure, confident, and humble leadership. In short, you will be better able to bring your best and liberate others.”

When your Peace Index is low, you become so focused on navigating your own journey that it becomes increasingly more difficult to lead others to be healthy. Scoring yourself in the five areas of the peace index will enable you to become more self-aware. Then use these indicators to lead you to the areas in your life you need to work on and improve your overall health in. You can score yourself in these five areas on a regular basis to see where you need attention and develop a plan for improvement.

Self-awareness should marry itself to a plan of action in the area that your peace index is the lowest in:

#1 Score yourself (usually between 50% and 95%) in the area of purpose. The question to ask yourself is, “How strong is your sense of meaning and fulfillment in your life right now?” Are you actively involved in something that energizes you?

#2 Score your level of peace with the people in your everyday life. How are your relationships with the people you do life with at home and at your place of service? These two areas, purpose and peace, are the leading indicators that will impact the other three the most. If you lack peace in fulfilling your purpose or the people in your life, you will struggle with your peace index.

#3 Score yourself according to the place you are in right now. How is it where you live, work, and play? Is your environment healthy or unhealthy? Are you going through a major transition right now or has your community gone through a major catastrophe?

#4 Score yourself in the area of physical health. Are you able to rest well and are you sleeping well? Are you able to get a sabbath in order to take a deep breath and relax?

#5 Score yourself in the area of provision. Are you happy with your level of income or is it at least headed in the right direction? Does it bring confidence to you or does it cause you fear and conflict?

Now give yourself a score between 50 and 100 in each of these five areas to represent your level of peace in each one. Add the five together for your total and divide by five. This is the indicator of your overall peace, calm, and absence of anxiety in your life.

Remember that it is subjective and not objective but gives you a metric to see what you need to work on first. The number is not as important as the self-awareness in a particular area that can now marry itself to a plan of action!

Be driven by this principle first: Galatians 1:10 tells us that if you please God, it matters not who you displease, but if you displease God, it matters not who you please.