Without self-awareness, a leader is stuck. In fact, the biggest hindrance to a leader’s development is not intelligence or work ethic but a lack of self-awareness. While self-awareness helps us understand what areas of leadership need focus and development, knowing ourselves is something we struggle with. We all have blind spots, areas of struggle we…
Leadership
The Biggest Hindrance to a Leader’s Growth
Sitting in an airport for a few hours can easily remind you that people struggle with self-awareness. There is the guy who does stretching exercises in a small and crowed space, the guy who talks extremely loud on his phone, and the person who lays down on the row of chairs without thinking others will…
Links for Leaders 9/15/17
Put Your Strengths to Work—Bob Bumgarner Just because you have experience as a leader doesn’t mean you have learned the benefits of applying your God-given strengths to what you do as a leader. Your strengths are unique to you. And using your strengths sets you up to make the biggest contribution over the longest period…
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…
Links for Leaders 9/8/17
The Vital Importance of Respect in Leadership—Scott Cochrane The best leaders I know make it a point to place people in their orbit who will intentionally challenge their ideas. This produces better outcomes and keeps the leader’s ego in check. 4 Lies That Cause Pastors to Neglect Their Families—Jaime Owens Among young pastors and church…
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…
Links for Leaders 9/1/17
How to Work With a Bad Listener—Rebecca Knight You don’t feel heard, and the chances for misunderstandings — and mistakes — rise. Are there tactics you can use to encourage your colleagues to listen better? Should you talk to them about their poor listening skills? What’s the best way to deliver the message? A Necessary…
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…