Maybe they grew up in a family where they were criticized from the moment they got up in the morning till they went to bed at night. Who knows why they do it, but they take everything you say the wrong way.
You can pray for that person, you can minister to them and you can encourage them to change in this area, but ultimately you need to realize as a leader that no matter how careful you are, these folks are always going to be a little on edge.
The measure of your success as a leader will never be governed by the fact that no one ever took offense at you. All you can do is have "clean hands and a pure heart," knowing you have done the best you can to provide an environment in which that is not going to occur. If it does, however, just make sure you do not take offense over their being offended!
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Mac Hammond is the senior pastor of Living Word, a large and growing church in Brooklyn Park (a suburb of Minneapolis), Minnesota. He is the host of the Winner’s Minute, which is seen locally in the Minneapolis area on KMSP Channel 9 at 6:44 a.m. and 11:11 a.m. He is also the host of the Winner's Way broadcast and author of several internationally distributed books. Mac is broadly acclaimed for his ability to apply the principles of the Bible to practical situations and the challenges of daily living.
