Every Thursday we do a Lift Your Leadership Training event for our team that is open to the church and public. Here are a few bullet points from this weeks training session titled, "Five things you need to now about leadership."
Feel free to take, apply and teach these principles to you team.
1 – EVERYTHING RISES AND FALLS ON LEADERSHIP
Anywhere you find a great family, business, church or community, there will be a great leader in the mix somewhere. No Leadership = No Progress.
2 – FIND A TIMOTHY AND SERVE A PAUL
2 Timothy 2:2 says, "These things you have heard from me Timothy give to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also."
In this passage we see a cascade of leadership. Paul influenced Timothy, Timothy influenced faithful men, and the faithful men reached others for God's kingdom. If you want to become all that you can be, maximize your leadership, and build something that continues long after you are gone, you need to find a Timothy and serve a Paul.
Find a Timothy that you can train, teach, and raise up to take your place.
Find a Paul that you can serve, love, and learn from.
Who is your Timothy?
Who is your Paul?
3 – IT'S NOT HOW GOOD YOU ARE, BUT HOW GOOD YOU WANT TO BE
You have some measure of influence. You may have influence over yourself, your family, your community, or your church. But you have at least one person that is looking to you.
Leadership is not about the number of people you have following you, it is about the character in which you lead those around you.
So the question isn’t are you a leader. The question is how good of a leader do you want to be.
4 – THREE THINGS THAT WILL CAP YOUR LEADERSHIP LID
LOOKING AT THE WRONG PEOPLE.
If you are a 6′ tall forward in High School that averages 15 points per game for your basketball team in rural small-town America and all you ever do is compare yourself to the local competition. You are going to be in for a rude awakening when you play against Division I Athletes that are All-Americans from the big city.
However, if you constantly study guys that are bigger, faster and stronger than you. It will keep you humble, reveal your weaknesses and help you understand where you need to improve.
The same is true for leadership. If you are a Pastor/Youth Pastor at a slightly above average size church, with a nice website, a few staff members, and a strong offering each week and all you ever do is compare yourself to other leaders with less people, less staff, no web-site, and a small giving base than you are going to feel like you have arrived.
However, just like the Basketball player, you haven’t arrived … you are just looking at the wrong people.
If instead of looking at Leaders that are the same or below you in certain areas, you would look at leaders with larger congregations, more staff members, multiple church locations, and much larger bank accounts, you would stay humble, see where you are weak and understand the areas that you need to improve in.
Far to many Christian Leaders have a “big fish in a little pond” mentality. When we do, we put a lid on our growth. I firmly believe that what we “see” is what we will “be”. Because of this, you and I will never grow past what we are looking at. So make sure that you look at people, organizations, and leaders that are bigger, faster, stronger and more effective than you currently are. When you do, you will stay humble and that humility will allow God to put His grace on everything you do.
I think his Grace is strong enough to open up your leadership lid and help you go to the next level.
REFUSING TO TAKE HONEST CRITIQUE
We all want to be right.
I think it’s just human nature.
We want to come up with a great idea, have it be amazing and then get all of the credit.
But the truth of the matter is, there are very few times in life where we as leaders come up with an idea that is absolutely perfect and cannot be improved upon. In fact I would go as far to say that there is NEVER a time in life where our ideas are perfect … everything can get better.
If you and I want to improve in life and leadership we have to be willing to open ourselves and our ideas up for critique. We have to be willing to have people sitting around a table or living life with us that care enough to say … “I think your idea is OK … but what if we did this instead”.
When we don’t do that. When you and I surround ourselves with a bunch of “yes” men or woman who are too afraid, too intimidated, or too apathetic to offer us their honest opinion …. we will never be better than our last idea. And may I be bold enough to say that our last idea … was OK at best.
If you want everyone in the room to agree with you … get used to where you are.
Because that is the only place you will ever be.
STOP ASKING QUESTIONS
Great leaders never stop asking questions … that is why they never stop growing. I have been around some incredible leaders thru the years, and there is one thing I have noticed about all of them … they ask a ton of questions.There is always someone doing something better than you are.Find them and ask them what they are doing. When you do … you will grow.
5 – THREE QUALITIES FOUND IN THE HEART OF EVERY GREAT LEADER
HUNGRY HEART:
I would take a hungry leader over a talented leader any day of the week.The only difference between an ordinary and extraordinary person, is the word extra. Their extra time, extra study, extra practice will take them places where those who were not hungry enough to do “extra” will never go.
HUMBLE HEART:
Humility always serves it’s authority well.
Humility is being confident that you are good, but not feeling the need to tell everyone.
Humility is the key God’s promotion in every area of our lives.
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
HONEST HEART:
People who have a problem lying really don’t have a lying problem as much as they have a “doing something wrong” problem. When we do the right thing, being honest becomes a lot easier.
When you lie you lose the ability to lead a group of people. Why is that? Because leadership is influence. Trust builds equity in the relationship and distrust erodes it. Don’t believe me, just ask Richard Nixon – Bill Clinton – Roger Clemens or the plethora of Pastors standing on the sidelines of ministry today.