My Dad Ran a Kid Over With A Camel, Seriously! 7 Ways To Restore Trampled Team Members

Look at that camel. Doesn't he look like he just wants to stomp all over little kids?

by Tim H. Swanson

A leisurely camel ride.

Our camel caravan was returning to Cairo after an afternoon ride to visit the Sphinx and Great Pyramids. Among the amateur camel jockeys were my parents and myself. A couple of tour guides came with us, but they didn't fight very hard to stay in the lead as the camels knew just as well as they did where we were headed. Their large padded feet meandered from the dirt roads of the Egyptian desert back onto the cobblestone roads of rural Cairo as we headed back to return our rented camels. Two and three story cinder block buildings lined the narrow roads. Despite the fact that we knew nothing about controlling the large graceful animals, we each held reigns that were attached to bridles. My dad's camel slowly passed the others in the caravan until he was riding in front of everyone else. I rode just behind and to the right of him, and my mom was behind and to the left. It was peaceful.

A determined young man.

About fifty yards ahead of us a small malnourished boy, who couldn't have been more than seven or eight, came butt first out off an open doorway. He was trying to drag a five gallon bucket filled with water bottles across the narrow street. His feet slipped all around on the dirt covered road as he struggled to move the overloaded bucket. He couldn't have outweighed the bucket by much, so he made inches of progress with every short burst of energy he gave.

A significant problem

It didn't take long for us to start doing the math. Our crowd of long legged creatures were approaching the boy much faster than he was crossing the road with that heavy bucket. If he didn't get out of the way quickly, he was going to end up under our camels' feet. With the herd just twenty feet away, the boy had reached the middle of the road. We began calling out to him, which did little since our warnings were in English. It wasn't until the feet of my dad's camel were just a few yards from the boy that grew looked up and saw us. His eyes grew wide, and instead of letting go off the bucket and running (which is what he should have done) he only tugged at the bucket more ferociously. My dad, now shouting, yanked the reigns trying to steer the camel away from the boy. Undeterred by my dad's signals, the camel continued forward. It was like a slow motion car accident. It was painful to watch and there was nothing we could do about it. In one step, the nine foot tall camel kicked over the boy's bucket of water bottles. The next step landed directly on the boy knocking to the ground. His little body was like a rag doll as the camel stepped on him and kicked him around. When the camel had passed over the boy, he laid motionless on the ground.

The leadership lesson

Have you ever seen this happen within your organization? Maybe you’ve never literally seen a camel trample a little boy. If not, I hope you never have to, it was horrible. But have you heard a team member verbally lose it on someone else on the team. Or perhaps you’ve watched someone use their position to attack a team member, and try to bully them out of the organization.  It’s painful to watch, especially if the person doing the hurting was empowered by you. If you haven’t experienced this, then you will. The reality is you work with infallible people. They make mistakes. And people’s ability to hurt one another will never cease to amaze.

In the same way my dad had no control over the camel he was riding, we cannot control the actions of other people on our team, (nor should we want to). It is our job to teach biblical maturity and equip God’s people for God honoring service (Ephesians 4:11-13). As a leader, it’s not your job to prevent people from doing bad things to each other. That’s going to happen no matter what. Your responsibility lays in the aftermath. Your job is to lovingly confront the situation and assist the parties involved in reconciling with each other. It’s important that we leaders don’t try to fight people’s battles for them. Nobody grows when we do that. So if one of your leaders or a member of your team is hurting or has been hurt by somebody else, here are some good practical things that you can start doing today to lead your people through the mess.

1. Pray. Ask God for wisdom, because He provides it liberally to those who trust Him for it (James 1:5).

2. Lead with Listening. Whether you’re speaking with the offender or the offended, “be quick to listen, slow to speak” (James 1:19).

3. Don’t join the fight. In his letter to the church, the apostle, James says, “(be) slow to anger” (James 1:19). Christians quote that verse a lot, but we don’t talk a lot about the very next verse that explains why, “for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). Whether you have a good reason to be angry or not, avoid becoming angry. Anger is the enemy of self-control. It’s just too easy to say something you’ll regret if you’re angry. I have a mentor who tells me this, and it’s served me well, “If you’re angry, bite your tongue. If you taste blood you know you’re doing it right.”

4. Coach for reconciliation. Once you’ve prayed for wisdom, listened, and steered away from anger. Begin to ask questions about what it will take for reconciliation. Asking questions is good, because it allows you to coach people through situations without taking sides.

5. It’s good to be a facilitator. While it’s important for the growth of your people that you stay out of the middle of it, you can be of great assistance by facilitating a conversation. When you do this, you should repeat the first four steps. Pray, then spend lots of time listening, little time speaking, and zero time getting angry. Your service comes in the form of clearing up misunderstandings if they happen. If one person says something, and the other hears something else, that’s a good time to step in and clarify what the first person is saying. In most problems, communication is going to be the number one offender anyway, so by helping people through misunderstandings, you’ll be helpful in resolving most conflict on your team.

6. When you do have to lay down the hammer, bring a friend. Sometimes, situations are going to get ugly, and I mean really ugly. Sometimes things get so irreconcilably bad, that you have to call the shots. When that happens, don’t go it alone. Collaborate with your boss, your spouse or your mentors. When I find a situation like this, I consult all three of those people. They will help you make a mature and informed decision. Then when you are face to face with a team member, and you have to issue out some justice, you have some accountability. Treat this level of conflict resolution the same way you treat rock climbing. Never do it alone, and always take somebody you trust with you.

7. Keep your number one goal in mind. Never forget that, “the goal of our instruction is love” (1 Tim 1:5). Always look for the resolution that restores first. When you do this, you’ll honor God, which is part of your job description (and if it’s not you should change your job description).

Watching your team grow and work through conflict is incredibly rewarding. And when you’re on the other side of it, your team will be stronger. With a stronger team, you’ll be better equipped to be effective in impacting people for Jesus. Suddenly, the goals God has placed in your heart will become more attainable.

The fate of the boy.

Our tour guides stopped the caravan after the camel was done with the little boy. My parents and I were frozen looking at his little motionless body. I was sure he was dead, and he laid there for what seemed like an eternity. Then a slow and steady cry broke out from the boy, and he sat up carefully holding his injured arm. His father came running out of the door where the boy had previously been headed. He scooped the crying boy up from the street, and ran him back into their home.

When my dad got on that camel, he was putting the camel in control of his direction. When the camel mindlessly injured the small boy, he was all but powerless to watch it happen. That had to be a scary unsafe feeling. Leadership is like that. As we equip others to do the work of Jesus, they are not going to stop being imperfect humans. Eventually we are going to watch as somebody gets run over. When it happens, remember it’s still our responsibility to equip people for the work of Jesus. It’s still our responsibility to teach love, which only showing love will accomplish.