Often, you hear politicians make claims that they have created an x-amount of jobs when they were in power. Or that when they are elected, they will create so many jobs. This happens in all countries. With politicians from the whole political spectrum. No one exempt.
These are unfounded claims. How can a president, a prime-minister, a premier, a party, or a minister prove that there is a cause-and-effect connection between the number of new jobs and his government?
The only jobs that can be directly attributed to a government are when new government jobs are formed. But often, that is not the intention of a government at all. Usually, they want less government workers and, in that way, spend less money on government.
It is businesses that create jobs. Businesses are willing to create jobs, when there are good business opportunities, and the business environment is stable enough for the companies to have the trust it will pay off. Government meddling with new rules and regulations during the process will only scare businesses away from creating new jobs. Governments might often be the reason why no new jobs are created, or less than what could have been. Businesses like stability and predictability.
Politicians therefore shouldn’t make that claim at all. At the most, they can make sure that the business environment is stable, and they shouldn’t come up with too many changes and no sudden hiccups.
What goes for politicians also goes for people in the workplace. Don’t make claims about your accomplishments that are farfetched. Perhaps you played a role in what has been achieved. Maybe even an important role. But probably a few people or perhaps even a lot of people have played their part. Success has many fathers, but failures are always orphaned.
What goes for politicians and people in the workplace, also applies to pastors and church staff and volunteers. No pastor can say: “Because of my excellent spiritual leadership, this church has grown by so many people.” Or, “Finally we’ve gone deeper then ever before.” At the best, the pastor has played a facilitating and leading role. But mostly it is because many people are facilitated to play their role.
Romans 12:3-5 speaks to this: For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Sober judgment for politicians, for people in the workplace, for pastors, and for church staff and church volunteers. We all play our role. We all celebrate the success. And a really great leader is willing to be the father of the failure.