7 Small Ways Leaders Can Build Credibility
Credibility is absolutely essential in leadership. Without credibility your great ideas won’t be heard and your big plans won’t be embraced. In the classic work The Leadership Challenge, credibility is offered as the most indispensable quality a leader must possess. I recently wrote about big ways leaders can bolster their credibility, and while those are […]
3 Reasons Your “Time Hacks” Aren’t Helping
If you Google “Time Management Hacks,” you will receive 1.4M search results, meaning you can spend the rest of your life reading about how to save time. If you are not familiar with the term, “time hacking” often refers to experimenting with your approach to life, schedules, and time management to ensure you are finding […]
6 Reasons You Should “Resign” and “Restart” Your Role Once a Year
Don’t do this daily because it requires you to pull away from daily responsibilities for deep thinking and can throw you out of your daily rhythm, but once a year you should mentally resign your role and start over. To be clear, I do NOT mean an actual resignation where you leave the job and […]
6 Questions to Ask Before You Change Jobs
Leaders, especially ministry leaders, have commonly asked me questions about how to process new jobs/opportunities that come their way. What questions should I ask myself? How do I wrestle with changing jobs? Here are six questions, in no particular order, to ask: 1. Am I running from something or to something? Leading is extremely challenging […]
3 Unhealthy Reasons Pastors Talk to Search Teams
Ok, here is a sad secret I have witnessed in nearly 25 years of ministry leadership. I have seen it numerous times, have never written on it, but am doing so now because it is unhealthy, causes confusion, and wastes a lot of time among God’s people. Some pastors play games with pastor search teams. […]
6 Big Ways Leaders Can Build Credibility
You cannot walk without legs, and you cannot lead without credibility. Impossible. As credibility increases, so does a leader’s ability to influence and move others in a direction. As credibility diminishes, so does the leader’s ability to accomplish work through others because the others are losing trust in the person. So how does a leader […]
6 Ways to NOT Waste Your Budgeting Process
Some people believe a budgeting process is a waste of time. I don’t mean the people who have a visceral reaction to budgets and strategy, but there are prudent and wise leaders who view a long budgeting process as bad stewardship. They say things like: We don’t even know how this year will end. “We […]
4 Practical Reasons Character Must Trump Competence
When Jethro confronted Moses for foolishly attempting to do his work alone, he encouraged Moses to develop leaders, to build a team of people around him. According to Exodus 18:21, those Moses invited to join him were to be: Able God-fearing Trustworthy Hating a bribe Look at the list above and notice which characteristics speak […]
My View on the Debate About Annual Reviews
There is an ongoing debate among leaders as to the value of annual reviews. Some insist they are a bureaucratic waste of time. If you want to make a case against providing annual reviews, there is plenty of fodder to bolster your argument. Those who speak against them make several good points. Many managers don’t […]
6 Ways You Know You Failed at Giving an Annual Review
Annual reviews. The phrase causes some to sigh in frustration, both those who give them and receive them. But annual reviews can be a valuable tool for evaluation, for development, and for aligning people to a common direction. The reason many sigh at the phrase is because when haphazardly used, they are not helpful and […]