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Category Archive: Career Development

10 Signs Your Leadership Is Driven By Selfish Ambition

Posted by on October 29, 2019

Great leaders can determine what needs to be done quickly and how to do it well. They can pick who needs to do the work and when it needs to be done. The most important question that should be asked on the front end is Why? This post by Carey Nieuwhof answers that question:

Let’s ask an awkward, difficult, and at times piercing question: What motivates your ambition?

That’s an important question to ask. Why? Because if you don’t ask it, I promise everyone else around you will. Mostly I don’t like that question because I don’t like the answer to that question.

Sometimes my motivation is selfish. I recently interviewed Gordon MacDonald on my leadership podcast (if you missed it, it was one of the best episodes we’ve done to date, listen here).

Gordon observed that most leaders in their thirties are driven by ambition. Gordon is a little more accurate than I want to admit.

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There Are No Bad Teams, Just Bad Leaders

Posted by on October 1, 2019

I read the book Extreme Ownership that drives most of the content of this post. I agree with almost everything in the book about leaders casting blame instead of assuming responsibility. I also know in some situations, their can be great leadership from the top and the failure is driven by others who either will not or cannot do their jobs. So you be the judge and see what you think of what J.D. Greear has to say:

“When we are involved in a group endeavor and something goes wrong, our natural instinct is to point the blame. Navy SEALs Willink and Babin recognize this from years of military experience, but we could just as easily arrive there through theological reflection. What happened after Adam and Eve committed the very first sin of human history?”

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10 Traits Of A Humble Leader

Posted by on September 30, 2019

When your significance comes from the approval of the crowd you will do almost anything to be liked and followed. Many leaders fall into the ego trap and eventually it always becomes more about them than the people they were called to lead. This post by Moses Y. Lee is a great read:

“Recent stories of celebrity pastors and worship leaders apostatizing has me thinking about the idea of Christian leadership. Whether leaders reluctantly fall from grace due to moral failure or publicly renounce their faith on Instagram to be more “authentic,” one thing is clear: humility is not a contributing factor.

Even though I don’t consider myself a humble leader—I can be brash and bigheaded (both literally and figuratively)—by God’s grace, I’ve been blessed to serve under many humble leaders. I’ve watched many more from a distance.”

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How To Lead With Compassion As A Leader

Posted by on September 22, 2019

In leadership today what was once considered soft skills have become hard ones. What I mean is that in areas of character: honesty, trust, integrity and compassion, these are no longer preferable personality qualities but required leadership competencies. This Forbes Coaches Council post will help explain:

“As an executive leadership mentor and coach for over 15 years, I have noticed that organizations that are managed and led by toxic leaders often experience discord among employees and a breakdown of their cultural norms, which may lead to a dysfunctional working environment. On the other hand, organizations with compassionate leaders at the helm tend to experience harmony and cohesiveness among employees, which leads to a prosperous, harmonious, efficient and effective working environment.”

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3 Types Of Stress For Leaders

Posted by on September 19, 2019

Too much stress can be caused by many things. Routinely too many demands without enough capacity leads to a loss of margin. Poor alignment between what you are doing and your motives for why. Working in a toxic culture that you have no control to change. However, as this post by Eric Geiger points out, all stress is not bad. This is a great read for all of us:

“Right before Dr. John Townsend walked up to shred a guitar to some old Blink 182 songs with the band he has with his sons, I asked him if he was nervous. In a brief moment he talked to me about leaders and the three different types of stress for leaders we can face.

Before I share his insight, let me set the scene.”

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A Sobering Reality For Pastors And Leaders

Posted by on August 11, 2019

The voice of your character must be louder than the opinions of the crowd if you are going to sustain great leadership over time. People can make you think you are better than you really are or they can convince you that you have nothing to offer. I learned a long time ago to live my life before an audience of One. Ron Edmondson has some excellent advise:

“There is a sobering reality every pastor and leader needs to understand. Knowing this one can protect your career—help keep you from burning out—and guard your heart.

I see this impact leaders from all generations—but, I must be honest—I probably see it even more in our youngest generation of leaders entering the workforce.”

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6 Reasons We Make Bad Decisions At Work And What To Do About Them

Posted by on August 4, 2019

Harvard Business Review has been my go to resource for best practice leadership development for over ten years. Everything they publish is high quality and occasionally they absolutely hit it out of the park. This post by Mike Erwin is one of those times:

“Research has shown that that the typical person makes about 2,000 decisions every waking hour. Most decisions are minor and we make them instinctively or automatically — what to wear to work in the morning, whether to eat lunch now or in ten minutes, etc. But many of the decisions we make throughout the day take real thought, and have serious consequences. Consistently making good decisions is arguably the most important habit we can develop, especially at work.”

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10 Habits Of Transformational Leaders

Posted by on April 8, 2019

Leading a local church may be the single most difficult leadership challenge I know. You must have a high level of spiritual security and your significance primarily comes from you’re calling not the response of the crowd. You need to be inspiring and highly relational to move people to change. This Forbes post offers a great list for every pastor:
“A growing number of companies are looking to hire transformational leaders. These are the people who create positive changes in their employees and companies. Transformational leaders are billed as leaders of the future who can help their companies through turbulent times full of change and innovation. But what does it actually mean to be a transformational leader and how can you become one? Here are 10 habits of transformational leaders:

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What Does It Mean To Be A People Leader

Posted by on March 17, 2019

One of the greatest problems facing the church today is that we have the wrong metrics for success. As long as we place a higher priority on how many people are coming to the building over how many lives are actually being changed, we are going to fail. All leaders fall into the trap of measuring the means and loosing site of the end result. This Forbes post is a great reminder of what all great leaders know:

“Leadership can mean many different things to different people, but it often directly ties back to how a person’s contributions impact a business’s bottom line: “My efforts saved us X amount of money,” “My strategy resulted in X amount of new clients,” “I closed a huge sale that brought in X dollars.”

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6 Lessons For Every Leadership Style

Posted by on March 4, 2019

One of my passions is to help church leaders develop the ability to lead in their context with the same level of effectiveness of any corporate leader I coach. So as a regular priority, I will be posting best practice leadership development content to increase our potential to impact the kingdom. This Forbes Post will be helpful:

“In my experience as an entrepreneur and coach of business executives, I’ve seen that great leaders can at times be treated as if they’re invisible. Not many people see what goes on behind the scenes to create and shape new leaders, whether you’re in charge of a team or an entire company. And unfortunately, leadership training isn’t always a priority.”

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