Nobody watched him. That is the part of the Joseph story most leaders skip. Before the promotion, before the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams, before the signet ring and the chariot, Joseph managed Potiphar’s household. He managed it well. He managed it faithfully. He managed it in a foreign country where nobody cared about his God, his family, or his future. Genesis 39:3 records that Potiphar saw the Lord was with Joseph and that everything Joseph touched prospered. Potiphar handed him authority over the entire household. The text does not say Joseph campaigned for the role. It does not say he networked his way into visibility. It says God was with him, and the evidence showed through the work itself.

Yesterday we studied Proverbs 25:28 and the image of a leader as a walled city. Self-governance protects the people inside. Today we move from the walls to what happens inside them: the quality of work that governance produces when the audience disappears. This month we are studying what Scripture says directly to the person in charge, and today’s verse strips away every external motivator a leader depends on.

Colossians 3:23 (NLT): “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”

Let that sit. The verse does not say “work willingly at the tasks you enjoy.” It does not say “work willingly when leadership is watching.” It says “whatever you do.” The scope is total.

Paul wrote this letter to the church in Colossae, a small city in what is now Turkey. The congregation likely included slaves, freedmen, tradespeople, and some wealthier patrons. Many of the recipients had no career ladder. They had no performance review. They had no audience applauding their effort. Paul was not writing to people with corner offices. He was writing to people who did hard, invisible labor under someone else’s authority, in a culture that would never reward them publicly. That context matters. This is not a productivity tip for ambitious professionals. This is a command issued to people who had every reason to do the minimum, and Paul told them to work as if the God of the universe were their direct supervisor.

Colossians 3:23 (NLT): “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”

The leadership demand in this verse is not about working harder. It is about working for a different audience. Every leader carries two scorecards. The first is visible: the quarterly results, the board presentation, the performance metrics the organization tracks. The second is invisible: the quality of your preparation when nobody checks your work, the thoroughness of your follow-through on commitments no one will audit, the effort you give to the project that will never make the highlight reel.

Most leaders know which scorecard they actually serve. It is the one that determines their behavior when the visible audience leaves the room. The confrontation in this verse is direct. If your excellence fluctuates based on who is watching, your audience is people. Not the Lord. People.

That distinction changes everything. A leader working for people adjusts effort to match visibility. High-profile project? Full energy. Internal process improvement nobody will notice? Minimum viable effort. The onboarding document for the new hire gets half the attention of the slide deck for the executive team. The follow-up with a struggling employee gets rescheduled three times while the client dinner stays locked on the calendar. The pattern is consistent. Effort flows toward the audience that can reward it.

A leader working for the Lord treats the invisible task with the same seriousness as the visible one, because the audience has not changed. The audience is always One. The onboarding document matters. The follow-up matters. Not because someone will notice, but because the Lord is the one you are serving. He does not grade on visibility.

Paul reinforces this one verse later. Colossians 3:24 (NLT): “Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.” The reward structure is relocated entirely. It no longer depends on whether your manager notices or your peers acknowledge the contribution. The recognition comes from a different place. The Master you are serving sees every invisible hour.

This is where the verse becomes uncomfortable for high-performing leaders. Excellence tied to visibility is not excellence. It is performance. There is a difference. Performance requires a stage. Excellence operates the same in the dark as it does under the lights. The leader who prepares meticulously for the board meeting but sends careless emails to her team has not demonstrated excellence. She has demonstrated audience awareness. She knows where the spotlight falls, and she performs accordingly.

The original audience for this letter would have understood the distinction instinctively. A slave in Colossae could not perform for advancement. There was no advancement. The work was the work. The only question was whether you did it with resentment or with willingness, and Paul said the willingness was not for the master’s benefit. It was an act of worship directed at a God who sees what no human supervisor ever will. The motivation was not self-improvement. It was devotion to Someone worthy of the effort.

Leaders rarely frame their visibility bias in those terms. They call it “being strategic with energy” or “prioritizing high-impact work.” The language sounds responsible. It sounds efficient. It is also a sophisticated way of saying, “I give my best to the people who can promote me, and I give the rest to everyone else.” The rationalization is so common that it barely registers as a choice. It is the water leaders swim in. Paul’s command drains the pool. There is no such thing as low-impact work when the audience is the Lord. There is only faithfulness, or the absence of it.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NLT) presses the point from the angle of mortality: “Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.” The urgency is not about impressing anyone. It is about the finite opportunity to do the work at all. You have a limited number of days to lead. A limited number of decisions. A limited number of projects and conversations and emails. The question is not whether anyone sees the quality. The question is whether the quality is there when you are the only one who would ever know.

I have watched leaders operate differently when they believed no one was paying attention. The presentation voice disappears. The careful word choice relaxes. The follow-through on small commitments loosens. It is not malicious. It is human. We are wired to respond to social incentives, and when the social incentive disappears, effort tends to follow. Paul’s command cuts against that wiring. It says the incentive never disappears, because the audience never leaves. God does not step out of the room when the board does.

Here is the test for this week. Look at your calendar. Find the task that carries the least visibility. The internal documentation no one reads. The one-on-one with a junior team member that nobody tracks. The follow-up email you promised but could easily let slide. Now ask a single question: would the quality of your work on that task change if your most respected peer were watching you do it? If the answer is yes, you have identified the gap between working for people and working for the Lord. That gap is where this verse lives. It is not asking you to add more hours. It is asking you to redistribute your intention. Give the invisible task the same energy you give the visible one. Not because someone might notice, but because Someone already has.

Tomorrow we study Titus 1:7-8, where Paul lists what qualifies a person to lead. The question is not whether you have accomplished enough. It is whether your private life can bear the weight of your public authority. If today’s verse asks who you are working for when no one sees, tomorrow’s asks what they would find if they looked.

Leadership Challenge: Look at your task list this week and find the one item no one will ever see or thank you for. Are you giving it the same quality you would bring to a presentation in front of the people whose opinion you value most? If not, who are you actually working for?

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