Five Ways Leaders Lose Credibility
In The Leadership Challenge, researchers and authors, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner claim that the most important leadership characteristic is credibility. Based on extensive research over two decades, they write that “more than anything, we want leaders who are credible. People must be able to believe in their leaders.” Without credibility a “leader” won’t be […]
Three Differences Between Busyness and Productivity
There is a mammoth difference between teams and leaders who run around being busy and those that are truly productive. Busyness can give the allusion of productivity as people are doing things, as meetings are happening, and as emails are being sent and read. But not all busyness is valuable. In fact, busyness can mask […]
Three Ways Your Spouse Can Make You a Better Leader
I don’t claim to be a great leader, but I am much better than I would be because of my wife, Kaye. God has used her and continually uses her to make me better. The relationships the Lord gives us are given to us, in part, for our own sanctification. God puts people around us […]
Three Indicators Your Meeting Should Have Been an Email
Last week I gave indicators that your email should have been a meeting. There are times when a push for efficiency via email backfires and actually creates more work. In those times, a meeting would have been more effective and more efficient. However… there are times when a meeting is really a waste of time. […]
Five Reasons a Team Lacks Joy
Being on a team that is filled with joy, passion, and purpose is invigorating. Being on a team where the collective soul lacks joy adversely impacts everyone. A joyless team harms the people on the team and those the team serves. Here are five common reasons joy eludes a team: 1. An unclear mission When […]
Four Ways to Adjust Your Leadership Style to Fit Your Team
Great leaders are servants of those they lead. Because each person on a leadership team is unique, wise leaders lead each person differently. Instead of insisting that every person adjust to the leader, great leaders adjust to those they lead. Here are four practical ways to adjust to those you lead: 1. Communication If you […]
Three Indicators Your Email Should Have Been a Meeting
Some meetings could have been an email, but some emails should be meetings. There are times that people, in attempts to handle things efficiently, resort to an email when a meeting would have been more effective. Just because communication is efficient does not mean it has been effective. Sometimes a longing for efficiency can lead […]
Five Reasons Leaders Must Constantly Clarify and Communicate Mission
Strong teams, ministries, and organizations are filled with a clear sense of mission. You won’t have a strong culture without a strong sense of mission. A healthy culture is cultivated, in part, by a clear sense of “here is what we are going to do together.” Jim Collins wrote that when an “organization has a […]
Three Ways to Get the Most Out of a Leadership Book
Francis Bacon said, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” You may approach some leadership books with the intention of a quick browse, a read where you are merely keeping up to date with current thinking in your field or looking for some pithy […]
Leaders Must Create More Capacity, But How?
Wise leaders apply their best thinking to the most important things. This is, of course, easier said than done because of the sheer volume of things that leaders are asked or required to think about. Because we are finite and flawed, we have a limited amount of mental capacity. For a leader, there are always […]