There is a huge difference between (a) leading and (b) knowing how to lead or being familiar with different leadership philosophies, models or styles.
To read a leadership book, doesn't make you a leader. To go to a conference doesn't make you a leader. To write about leadership doesn't make you a leader.
But a mistake so many leaders make is that they refuse to do these things and still go on trying to lead people. Why is this a mistake? Because when we lead over a period of time inevitably we slip into unhealthy patterns so if we're left to our own uninformed devices, we only learn one method of leading, which leads to us getting stagnant in it and increases the chances of us becoming a destructive force rather than a creative force.
Going to conferences, reading books, watching blogs, doing research, talking to and listening to better leaders causes us to be stretched, to be informed, to be challenged and to be equipped to lead in new, fresh and effective ways.
If you've been avoiding this, now is the time to change, if not for yourself, then for the people you lead and the Church or organisation within which you lead.
