There have been so many crises as a leader in my life.

Today I want to share with you one of

them. While I was working as the director of psychosocial services in a non-profit agency, I did
not have a good relationship with my supervisor. The agency I worked for serves a multi-ethnic
population from 15 different countries, but the majority of them were Chinese. There was always
invisible tension between Chinese staff and non-Chinese staff. I was the first non--Chinese
director who was in charge of many programs. So my supervisor who was Chinese always
looked for a chance to demote me to replace my position with a Chinese. One day I was falsely
accused by one of my staff who had a personal relationship with my supervisor. She complained
to my supervisor verbally that I treated her unfairly, without informing me. Although she did not
comply with the grievance filing regulation of the agency, my supervisor thought it was his
chance to demote me and asked the human resource department for investigation.

The HR department started an investigation. They interviewed her and every staff in my
department to collect evidence of my wrong doings. Even my supervisor illegally interviewed
my Chinese clients to find out any evidence he badly wanted to have. They could not find a
single evidence. I officially requested the HR department to have a meeting with the CEO, HR
director, my supervisor, and my staff who accused me. At the meeting I submitted the proof of
her wrong doings such as the client's written complaints of her unprofessional behaviors, my
supervision records which showed my effort to improve her work performance, and the evidence
of her embezzlement. The investigation result turned out totally opposite of what my supervisor
wanted. My supervisor was warned by the CEO and my staff was asked to leave.

The investigation period was the time of God’s testing of my faith. I wondered why God allowed
this to happen because I did not do anything wrong. My supervisor did not give me a chance to
prove my innocence until I formally asked the HR. All the circumstances around me seemed to
be disadvantaged to me. The only thing I could do was to pray to God who comforts us in all our
affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affiliation with the comfort
with which we ourselves are comforted by God (2 Cor. 1:3-4). God answered my prayer through
my staff and clients. They all spoke for me. Not a single staff and client said against me. How
could it be possible? The total number of staff and clients who were interviewed was more than
one hundred. Later I found out that (1) they felt that they were treated fairly regardless of their
ethnic background; (2) they learned the passion I had for the client was what they needed to
have; and (3) my staff were satisfied with their working environment and my clients loved the
services they received. So although they had some part they did not agree with my leadership
style, they all spoke for me.

Since I had been discriminated against a lot in the agency, I had tried to leave. But God always
commended me to stay. So I did my best to treat my staff and clients fairly as much as I could. I
did not have any intention to manipulate people to win favor. I just wanted to change the culture
of my programs differently from the rest of the agency. Through this incident I learned that my
simple action influenced many people who were around me. After that, I paid more attention to
my leadership style. Although it was a top-down structure, I tried to be more humble and genuine
and to lower the hierarchy. Later I realized that God allowed this because he wanted me to focus
more on shaping myself as a servant leader rather than on achieving business goals. Until I left
the agency, I and my staff kept good team work. We accomplished many things together. I
confess everything was done by God’s grace. Praise the Lord.