Leadership

During my life I have had the opportunity to be in nearly every position and play nearly every role in the church and in business. Here's a few key things that I have learned:

1 Keep it simple! The more complex you make structures, the less likely people are to be willing to support them. Entwined in this is clear and constant communication.

2 Keep lines of authority and responsibility clear. People need to know the chain of command.

3 Hire well! Hire people for skill, experience, creativity, and potential, not for their education, connections, or who they worked for.

4 Clearly define roles. People need to know the expectations, and limits. In this, provide opportunity to grow. What is their path forward to move up?

5 Provide autonomy. Turn people loose (as much as possible) to accomplish their tasks that fulfill the expectations. Don't micromanage it limits trust.

6 Provide authority. Give people as much authority as their position will allow, even a bit more than you are comfortable with (within reason). If they live up to the trust, give them more, you can always pull back if they aren't ready or able to handle it.

7 Hold them accountable. If someone meets expectation, praise them and encourage them. If they aren't measuring up, let them know, provide opportunity for growth, then cut them loose if they still can't get it done.

8 Inspire creativity. Challenge them to accomplish more than they think they are able. There is a fine line between being challenged and being overburdened so be careful here.

9 Serve the people who serve you! Jesus provided this example over and over, we should do the same. What can you do to show them that they are valuable to you better than serving them? More pay and bonuses are nice in any job, but people want to feel needed and appreciated more than anything else. On that note, pay them better than they expect, and be on the upper end of the scale rather than the lower end. That shows value too.

10 Cast vision and reiterate purpose often. Constantly remind people of the vision and purpose for doing what they do. Keep it in front of them. You must also show them that you are striving to accomplish the vision and fulfill the purpose as well.

I hope that these insights are helpful.

Vision

Vision - It's easy to have, but not so easy to pass on to others! The Bible says that without vision, the people parish. I love the title of a book I read in college that says, "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else."

Getting others to grasp and embrace the vision God has given you is the essential part of leadership. It is also the most difficult part of leadership I believe.

I have realized that I need to do a better job in this area. I know where I want my ministry teams to go, but they don't. I can't lead them if I don't bring them with me! It's so true that if you say you are a leader, but turn around and find that no one is following, than you're not really a leader.

To focus more on this, I'm planning to begin doing these things this year.

1. Meet with my teams once per quarter to hear from them, and share vision.
2. I am also planning an update note of some type every month.
3. I will also pray more for the teams in this area.
4. Continue to pray for God to continually update and clarify the vision He has given me.
5. Re-read some great leadership books I have, and read a couple of new ones. Some are actually secular business management books, but they are right on when it comes to leadership in general and easily applicable to leadership in the church. I'll blog on them as I read them.