“John’s clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.  People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John.”

Ever worked for someone who just isn’t relatable at all to the work and the environment around them?  I’ve noticed it more often than I’d like to admit.  We want our leaders to be able to relate to what we do, how we do it, and who are doing it with.  We don’t need our leaders to be just like us, in fact that sometimes is a bad thing as if our boss is too much like us we lose what it is to look up to them or aspire to be in their position.  But, we do want them to be relatable.  How do we do that?  We do it by understanding the work, the challenges, the obstacles, the possibilities of what it is that others do and then we communicate and lead to those things we know.  When we hear, “Out of touch” or “Not a clue” then it is time to stop and rethink where it is that we are not relating.

The Bible gives us the perfect example of how to be relatable in our work.  If we read or heard last month the full Christmas story we would have been learning about John the Baptist who set the way for Jesus to be introduced into His ministry.  People believed John the Baptist so much that many thought he was the Messiah himself or even the profit Elijah in another body.  How did John earn such credibility?  He was very relatable to the people around him. He dressed like what the people knew how Elijah dressed.  He ate the diet of the poor.  He spoke into the metaphors and language that were recognizable and “every day”.  Want to be relatable today for Him?  Take on the way of Jesus and connection will be made because everyone, whether they say they believe or not, admire this way.

Reference:  Matthew 3:4-6 (New Living Translation)