I had the honor of seeing Erwin McManus speak at Fellowship Church's C3 Conference this last January. In his lecture to the hundreds of church leaders in attendance he reiterated that God works with those on the move. That God needs for us to be active participants in His plan, we can't simply stay on our knees praying for guidance, at some point we have to stand up and take action. Yes we need to spend regular time in prayer seeking God's will and direction, but we cannot remain there "waiting" on God to act.
Erwin told the story of a friend of his who had graduated from seminary and spent the next 12 months praying for God to show the person where they should minister. Erwin told his friend (I'm paraphrasing here...) "Just go somewhere! I seriously doubt God will be disappointed if He intended for you to lead a mega-church in Atlanta but instead mistakenly ended up ministering to AIDS children in Africa."
How does this relate to software development? Well too often I see people in analysis paralysis or they feel the need to check with someone before moving an inch to the left or right. One of the things I tell my team at Fellowship Technologies is "You don't have to ask for permission to add value". Sure, we have some checks and balances about expenditures, policy changes, etc. And we have mentor reviews for code quality, best practices, etc. But you shouldn't feel paralyzed when attempting to add value to the company or to our clients. One does not need permission to add value. If one of our team members sees an inefficiency or issue and knows a way to correct it, then we coach them to simply go do it!
You might assume that people would do this naturally. Unfortunately, too many of us were raised in an environment through our families, our schools, or our previous or current employers that reinforced the wrong behaviors. Even I have to repeatedly remind myself to be proactive in my own actions and to make sure I'm not reinforcing the wrong behavior by being overly controlling of my team members.
So whether it is in your work, your marriage or your community... spend time on your knees seeking God's will, then stand up and take action.
Curtis S