Leadership Torque

Build your Leadership Cred: Follow Through

It's my estimate that close to 75% of the daily stress leaders expereince would immediately disappear, if just one thing were to happen. I bet I have your attention now!

The greatest area of weakness in leadership I see on a consistant basis, would have to be people failing to deliver on things they have agreed to do. I know how easy it can be to promise something and then forget, get side-tracked, offer an affirmative but have no real desire to do it, become too busy that there simply isn't enough time. I mention here a few reasons, but we all know there are many more, that explain why things we say we will do, do not get done.

It is my opinion however, that when we repeatedly do not follow through on that which we say we will,  we loose credibility. Sometimes this can be an excellent indicator as to whether someone is fit for leadership. Presently, I am waiting on a couple of people - who have expressed a desire to step into leadership - to return one of the multiple phonecalls and advances I have made to meet with them. After 3 weeks I'm beginning to see a pattern emerge, whereby leadership credit has been spent, before it has been issued. This goes along way toward helping me decide if someone is ready to lead.

THE CALL TO ACTION: Everything you say you will do, make sure you do it. Devise a mechanism to remember to do it, to make sure it gets covered, to bring your best to the task. If you know up front you can't do it, then say so.

My observation and experience is that when things are not followed through on, leadership credibility is only slowly warn away. If the pattern is persistent and constant, then regaining leadership cred is a long, long road. If it's not addressed at all, eventually you'll find that know one trusts you to do anything and here ends your leadership. So don't let it get to that stage, if this is you, arrest this now, change what you need to change,so you can rebuild your credibility.

What Differentiates a Leader From a Follower? "Unleashing Other's Potential"

On the most part I think people generally want to develop themselves. I used to think everyone wanted to, but have met to many people who don't. Every leader wants to better themselves. If in fact you are in a leadership position and you don't want to better yourself then I don't think you should be there in that position!

More than this though, every leader has this in built desire and drive to not only better themselves but add to the lives of those who they lead, those who they know, those who they are friends with, in order to help them reach their full potential. Essentially this is how leadership is played out on a personable level. On an organisation level leadership is all about fulfilling the vision of the cause. On the personable level leadership is all about helping people to understand, believe in and then fulfill their individual potential.

Who are you wanting to help reach their full potential?

What are you doing to make that happen?

Are their people who you are responsible for who you don't want to help reach their potential? This needs addressing in you if you are leading them.

What areas and by whom do you need to be equipped (in), in order to carry out the above?

 

Coaching Greatness

I find myself getting frustrated at times with people in leadership roles. Sometimes because I feel they don't take it as seriously as they should, other times it's more that they aren't seeking to grow in their giftedness, occasionally it's because they repeat dumb mistakes, sometimes it's because they haven't thought things through... all of which I know, I too, from time to time am guilty of. But the other day as I spoke with God about this issue something sprang to mind:

"Every leader wants to be a great leader and make a significant impact on the lives of those they lead."

I believe this to be true, because leadership is tough, and only those who endure it, do so because they want to. If it's not tough at times, then you probably think you're leading but you're not. But those who are leading, are doing it because they want to impact someone else's life in a positive way, which is why people follow others, to be impacted in a positive way.

As I was reminded of this it occurred to me, that those I lead with, and around, and view from a distance, are leading because they want to impact people, and grow in their effectiveness of that. The onus of responsibility then becomes ours: How do I help them become great? How do you help the leaders you know, become great?

Be a leader or do leadership?

I have a hunch that lots of people want to be a leader. Who wouldn't want to? It's glamorous and sexy, every follows you and cheers you and thinks you're the greatest, you have all the power, and at the end of the day you receive all the glory. Well I think that's what most people who want to be a leader think. But those of us who do have the honour and privilege to lead, also know that this is far from the reality.

Leading people in the Church must be one of the most difficult and heart wrenching occupations a person can do. Of course there is great joy and success, but it's unequal to the amount of disappointment, heartbreak, frustration, sleepless nights and pain you have to endure. But the flip side is that if this is your experience and people are still following you then you are doing leadership not just being a leader by title!

Leadership that Clings 2

To leaders in the second position (see blog post below for further reference) I would want to say:

To empower leaders fully always means that you will need to relinquish something. Often that is control. If you cannot let go of that which you were once in control of, and give it to someone else then growth and development of that ministry and of that leader will never be able to fully occur. It is your role as a leader to work your way out of a job. To become so good at identifying, training up and releasing people that they end up doing your job. When this happens it means that growth has occurred and if growth has occurred there will most certainly be other tasks that God needs you to do.

If you lead with too much of a controlling desire, that everything needs to be done your way, the way you would do it, then such much is actually lost.

I think also when empowerment occurs and when permission for another to go for it occurs then as a leader you need to be very careful about whether you take that back and under what circumstances.

Maybe too, that if there is something occurring that only you can do, but you need to find someone else to take it on because you can't sustain it, but there is no one to take it on. Then I would challenge you that either this endeavor or another item on your To-Do list needs to stop.

If we hold onto ministries too tightly we actually fill the space where God's spirit could move both to stop, start, continue or change direction of things and people that are already in place. Maybe if this is you, you need to take a step back, take a breath, say a prayer and work out if your leadership is a leadership that clings or holds something loosely. The more loosely we hold it, the more tightly God can!

Leadership that Clings 1

I received and email from a friend of mine the other day who is facing the issue of taking over a ministry area from someone who knows it's time to relinquish it but isn't finding that easy. Maybe I'll start with an exert from my friends email:

"The thing is as I was driving off today I thought its so hard for God to do what he wants when we hang on to stuff that he wants us to let go of. Its like our hands are full and nothing else can fit in. If we release and let go of the things we are holding on to he can fill our hands with new and better stuff.  I know that if I let go and wait he will do his thing and it will all work out but <name of leader> had real fear/something in her face and I just wonder about leadership that doesn’t allow freedom to those who want to serve to be all God is calling them to.  Leadership that clings."

To leaders in my friends position I want to say:

Be careful. Leaders who are passionate about something but need to let it go will struggle to, none the less you can help by helping that leader know it will be left in good, capable and safe plans. That the past and what has already been put in will be honoured and valued. That the passion you bring to it will be to see the work that has already occurred strengthened and continued. What you can't afford to let happen is to be railroaded into a certain course of action or way of operation. You have to help the leader see that you have been chosen, asked and called by God to continue non this task and their final act of servanthood to these people and this ministry is to free you and support you to do that.

And to those leaders who are struggling to let go... REad more in the next installment!

To delegate or not to delegate?

"Have you any advice on delegation? We have just had a classic when <insert leaders name> delegated a task last week which then blew up in her face. Its so much easier to do it yourself but then its not good leadership practice is it?"

That was the question I was emailed which I do have some thoughts on:

When you delegate you have to make things clear. The person you are delegating a task to must need to know exactly what is expected of them.

They need to know the time frame and that they will be held account to it and how that will happen. Ie. "So I'll be checking on Friday to see how you went".

They also need to know the importance of the task. What balance gets upset if failure to complete happens? Who misses out if the task isn't completed? Who benefits and is relying on you to complete the task?

They should be well resourced to achieve the task, whether that be people, money, equipment, etc.

They should be only asked to do it if it sits within the range of their potential. Asking someone to do something that is outside of what they are capable of will never work. I have learned this the painful way! Some people who we lead are simply not up to some of the tasks we may assume they are.

I think they are some good pointers to go by when thinking of empowering leaders! But when/if it 'blows up in your face' which can and often does, then it's important that the leader who you gave the task to but did not perform knows they came up short. Affirm their success, but point out their shortcomings and the affect of these. IT's important that you don't attack the value of the person at this stage. They should know they've let you down.

Finally I would be reluctant to give them another task in the immediate future (certainly not with the same level of responsibility) without giving them lesser tasks first and seeing if they can prove themselves.