Learning to be a Leader

During my years in ministry I have held many different leadership positions.  Some of those positions have been upfront and in the spotlight, others have been way outside of the spotlight.  As I have grown in my ability to lead people, I can honestly say without any doubt that I still have a long ways to go.  I recognize that I am not the perfect leader and because of that, I am constantly sharpening my leadership tools.  But the thought I want to present to you is that although you might have been put in a position of leadership or maybe you have natural leadership tendencies and characteristics, those don’t make you a true leader.  Leadership is much more than just responsibility, positions, and characteristics.  In fact, it’s more about your choice to consistently influence someone, a group, a team, a church, etc.  Leadership rises and falls on influence.  I have seen so many talented and gifted people perform great in the spotlight, but they were awful leaders because they hadn’t made the choice to consistently influence people.  Leadership is about taking interest in the well-being, destiny, and calling of someone else and helping them along their journey.  If you think back to your years in education, you didn’t just absorb things naturally when you were daydreaming, right?  When you made the choice to zone out, goof off, not listen, or not do your homework, then you didn’t learn!  The only time you truly absorbed and learned something is when you made the conscious decision to participate in your education.  That concept is also something that is learned because most of us naturally would rather be daydreaming than being lectured to or in the classroom.  But recognizing the lifelong importance and impact education has on your life takes precedence over our comfort.  You have to learn how to learn.  It’s the same principle in our leadership.  We have to learn how to be a leader.  We might have been born with the most amazing natural leadership qualities ever, but if we don’t consider ourselves a student of leadership, we will miss the boat on continual growth and influence.  It’s a choice we have to make!

As I mentioned before, I am still learning how to be the leader God has created me to be and I don’t pretend to know it all, but here are a few things that are currently helping me strive towards greater influence and leadership in my life:

1. Learning from God’s Word – Andy Stanley, Miles Munroe, Nelson Searcy, John Maxwell (just to name a few) are all great leaders and have amazing literature and resources on leadership, but let’s just be honest, none of them are God and none of them have authored a story that will last forever!  The Bible is the greatest leadership book of all time.  If you want to learn how to be a great leader, read God’s Word and study individuals like David, Paul, Peter, and Jesus (of course).  Read the Psalms and Proverbs and allow the psalmists and King Solomon’s teachings to sink in and touch your heart (There are so many great leadership principles written in that portion of Scripture).  We also can’t forget the teaching of Christ.  Study the Beatitudes, how he responded to public criticism, How he explained God’s love and mercy through the many parables and stories he taught, and most importantly his example of sacrifice in the work on the cross!  We can learn a lot about being great, godly, and gifted leaders from the Word of God!
2. Make the Choice to Influence – Don’t rely on your God-given gifts and talents to define your leadership.  Rather make the choice to influence people in ways that will help them, not to boost your reputation as a leader.  Make the choice and stick to it!
3. Be Willing to Admit When Your Wrong – There is nothing worse than a leader who thinks they are always right.  Seriously, when you can’t learn from your own mistakes and be big enough to admit you made a mistake, then you aren’t even close to arriving as a great leader.  Step up to the plate leaders!
4. Be Able to Delegate with Empowerment and Inspiration – If there has been anything I have learned in a major way, it is this.  Early on in ministry I tried to do it my way.  I had the “take it by horns” approach to leadership and if I wanted it done right, I needed to do it myself.  This is until I recognized my leaders were frustrated with me and about to quit, I was wearing myself out, I was getting sick because I worked too much, and I just wasn’t being productive!  When I had that epiphany, things began to change, I began to delegate many things that I had been doing “decent” and now the leaders I delegated to where doing those things “GREAT”.  The key is not just to give responsibility away, it’s to empower and inspire someone else to do the work of the ministry and team up with you.  If I just unload my unwanted responsibilities on someone, they aren’t going to want to do it.  But if I give them an opportunity to serve and support them, inspire them, and empower them to influence lives, then I have just expanded my influence by teaming up with someone else who’s influence is growing!  It’s crazy how this works!
5. Be Yourself - Not much to say here except for, if you aren’t you, then who will be you? ( I think that might be an Andy Stanley quote, but not sure..lol)  our time as leaders is way to short for us to try and be someone else, look like someone else, sound like someone else.  Work hard at being yourself!
6. Lead with the End in mind – Everything we do is about the Kingdom of God!  Every group, every ministry, every church, every network, every meeting, every service…(you get the point), is all the advancement of God’s Kingdom and leading people to the love, forgiveness, and life of Jesus!  If our motivation is the opposite, all we are creating is an earthly club of sorts.  Rather, if our agenda is the Kingdom of God and everything we do filters through that lens, then the impact we make wont just last for a day or even this lifetime, it will last for eternity!  Lead with the end destination of our souls in mind!  The Kingdom of God!

There are obviously more ways we can learn to be great leaders.  I just chose a handful to talk about in this post, but I encourage you to learn how you can be the leader God has designed you to be!  It makes all the difference in the world!