5 Questions on Creating an Organizational Culture

I recently sat down with Todd Adkins and Barnabas Piper to discuss leadership and reading for the “Five Questions Leadership Podcast.” You should check out the podcast, which has skyrocketed on iTunes, for some great content. Here are the five questions we discussed about organizational culture, with a few notes I jotted down after each […]

Four Warning Signs You Are Not Listening to Your Team

Wise leaders listen to the people they lead. They recognize they are finite in their knowledge and wisdom, don’t have all the answers, and benefit from the minds of those they serve alongside. It is foolish to not listen to those on your team. Not only do you lose the benefit of their collective wisdom […]

Seven Signs Success Has Outgrown Your Character

Success has plagued many leaders. They experience the Lord’s blessing, see the fruits of their labor, and receive recognition. And many times, the success goes to their heads and hearts and pulls them away from utter dependence on the One who gave success in the first place. King Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26) is an example: […]

Servant Leadership and Strategic Thinking

Last week I gave a sketch of the Eishenhower Matrix, which has challenged leaders to focus on the most important things and to not allow the urgent to dominate and derail them. As a reminder, here is a sketch of the matrix: While many leaders have been served well with the thinking behind the framework, […]

The Eisenhower Matrix and Three Thoughts for Leaders

Dwight Eisenhower is noted as saying, “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” He is credited with the quote because of his emphasis on planning and strategy. From this quote, the Eisenhower matrix was born, which Stephen Covey later popularized. Here is my sketch of it: The matrix has […]

3 Tips on Leading Laterally

When most people hear the word leadership, they think of the relationship between the leader and those he/she is responsible for, serves, and shepherds. But when we understand leadership as Oswald Sanders describes it—as “influencing others”—we must include “leading laterally.” By lateral leadership I am referring to leading your peers, those you serve alongside but […]

Micromanagement or Leadership?

What some people call micromanagement is really leadership providing necessary accountability. And what some leaders call leadership is really micromanagement. For example—when meeting with staff teams, I have often heard conflicting statements from both leaders and those they lead. A leader will say, “I wish I had people I could trust with greater leadership,” while […]

3 Ways to Re-Declare Vision

There has been a lot written about the importance of “casting a clear and compelling vision.” Leaders often invest a lot of time with their leadership teams crafting words, figuring out the best way to capture the direction they sense the Lord leading the church they serve. And leaders often invest far too little time […]

10 Signs You Have a Silo Leader

Wise leaders are often repulsed by the idea of a ministry or organizational silo. A silo is, by definition, “a system or department that is isolated from others.” Silos can cause ministries or organizations to move in a plethora of disparate directions. Thus, a silo sucks funding from the overall mission, causes confusion as to […]

The Myth of Insider Language

The biggest myth of insider language is that there is really no such thing as insider language. “Insider language” will inevitably become outside language that everyone hears—meaning, it does not stay insider language. If it did, the term never would have been coined because no one on the outside would have heard the language that […]