A senior executive I knew spent fifteen years building a reputation for excellence. He was the person you called when a project was on fire. Clients trusted him. His team respected him. Then, in one meeting, a junior colleague challenged his recommendation in front of the steering committee. The executive felt the heat rise. He did not pause. He did not consider. He unleashed a blistering response that questioned the colleague’s competence, experience, and judgment. The meeting went silent. The project continued. But something had shifted. Within six months, three of his best people had quietly transferred to other teams. Within a year, he was no longer the person clients asked for by name. Fifteen years of careful construction, undermined by ninety seconds of ungoverned speech.

Yesterday we explored why urgency is rarely the Holy Spirit, how that sense of “I must act now” is more often a warning sign than a green light. Today we confront the stakes. Why does it matter if we fail to govern ourselves in a single moment? Because one ungoverned decision does not stay one decision. It compounds.

Think of your leadership credibility as a structure built brick by brick over years. Every kept promise is a brick. Every moment of composure under pressure is a brick. Every time you chose the harder right over the easier wrong, you laid another brick. The structure grows slowly, almost imperceptibly. You cannot see it rising, but others can. They learn they can lean on it. They learn it will hold. But here is the terrible math: a structure that took years to build can develop a crack in seconds. And cracks spread.

The executive in that meeting did not just damage a relationship with one junior colleague. He sent a message to everyone present about what happens when you challenge him. He revealed something about the structure he had built, or perhaps about a foundation that was never as solid as it appeared. The cost was not the ninety seconds. The cost was the cascading consequences that followed: the trust that quietly withdrew, the candor that dried up, the talent that walked away. One ungoverned moment, compounding over months.

Scripture speaks to this reality with uncomfortable clarity. James compares the tongue to a small fire that sets an entire forest ablaze and to a rudder that steers a massive ship. The point is proportion. Small inputs create outsized outcomes. A careless word spoken in frustration does not evaporate when the meeting ends. It lives in the memory of everyone who heard it. It shapes how they interpret your next ten decisions. It becomes part of the story they tell about who you really are.

This is why we need a protocol. Not because we are weak, but because the stakes are so high. The Watchman’s Protocol we are building this month is not about becoming robotic or suppressing your humanity. It is about recognizing that you are a steward of something fragile, something valuable, something that took years to build and can be damaged in a moment. You cannot afford to leave the gate unguarded. The cost of one ungoverned moment is rarely just that moment. It is everything that moment sets in motion.

Consider this today: think of a time when you witnessed a leader lose control, even briefly. How did it change what you thought of them? How long did that impression last? Now consider that you are that leader to someone else. Someone is watching you, building their understanding of what you are made of, brick by brick. What will they see the next time the heat rises?

Tomorrow we will step back and look at the complete framework: the four A’s that form the Watchman’s Protocol. ARREST, AUDIT, ALIGN, ACT. These four steps will give you a structure for governing those critical moments before they govern you. But for today, sit with the stakes. Let the weight of what is at risk sharpen your attention. The cost of an ungoverned moment is never just that moment.

I write about leadership at the intersection of timeless principles and modern workplaces. Follow for weekly insights on building teams that actually work. For more articles like this consider subscribing to my Substack at: https://christianleadership.now