Ruth had every reason to go home. Her husband was dead. Her mother-in-law, Naomi, was a widow with no money and no sons, and Naomi told her plainly to leave.
No law required Ruth to stay. Nobody would have blamed her for going. She stayed anyway, walked to a foreign town, and went to work in the fields to feed them both.
The Hebrew word behind the book of Ruth is hesed: faithful love that goes beyond what duty requires.
The idea. Earning trust is the second step of the LEADS Path. Trust is not earned by doing what the job description demands. People expect that. Trust is earned in the space past the requirement: the call you did not have to make, the blame you absorbed, the promise you kept after keeping the promise became expensive. Nobody can order hesed. That is why people believe a leader who shows hesed.
The action for this week. Find one unwritten obligation. Something a person on your team is quietly hoping you will do and has no standing to demand. Do that this week, and do not announce what you did.
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”Proverbs 17:17, ESV
Jake
P.S. Ruth’s whole story is in Leaders in Scripture. Read Ruth and Boaz.