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Category Archive: Personal Leadership

8 Ways To Add Margin To Your Day

Posted by on November 12, 2019

Leaders of non-profits and for profit organizations face the same challenges when it comes to personal leadership. If we do not define our priorities, then someone else will gladly do it for us. That puts us in a constant reactive mode instead of a proactive one that makes sure the important things get done everyday. This post by Ron Edmondson is very practical for every leader:

How do you fit more activity into an already busy schedule?

Isn’t this a great question?

How do you create more margin in your schedule – to do the things you want to do and the things you need to do?

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7 Practical Thoughts On Forgiveness In Leadership

Posted by on November 3, 2019

Leadership in a church culture is probably the most difficult challenge any leader can face. Your customers are your volunteer work force and financial investors all at the same time. Therefore, they have lots of power and they can use it to say hurtful things. This post by Steve Tillis is a must read for all leaders:

“Forgiveness in leadership is absolutely critical to leading people.

“You hate me! You pick and choose which members you love!” Years ago, those words were screamed in my ear over the phone by a church member who felt like I had not greeted them well on Sunday morning. In fact, they went on to tell me in the conversation that I only gave them one hug instead of two on that day and then they hung up on me. Maybe the moral of the story is always give your members two hugs on Sunday.

Seriously though, forgiving people and asking for forgiveness is tough work. Forgiveness is to the leader what oxygen is to the lungs.”

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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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We Become What We Watch

Posted by on October 14, 2019

It is an already admitted reality that we have too many inputs on any given day to process. When we add to the chaos, by adding information that is stealing our margin, we become the problem. We must guard what we allow into our minds, if we hope to have the perspective we need to lead ourselves well. This post by Abigail Dodds was excellent:

Perhaps one of the more obvious discoveries of my life is that the majority of the thinking that I do is passive, not active. When I read my Bible each day, I am often actively holding up specific beliefs against the light of God’s word to see if I believe anything wrongly. Simultaneously, through the mere act of reading well, a hundred other truths are making themselves at home in my mind, even if I’m not wrestling with any one of them in the moment.

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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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Embracing The Day God Has Made

Posted by on September 24, 2019

One of the most important things I have learned is how to live one day at a time. We are provided with the daily grace we will need if we do not waste it. Using today’s faith on the pain of the past or worry about tomorrow, will cause us to not have the strength we need for today. This post by Carolyn Mahaney is wonderful:

“Nine years ago this month, my dad went home to be with the Lord. One of my sweetest memories of him is how he loved to sing hymns. Whether he was fixing stuff around the house or leading our church’s congregational singing on Sunday mornings, I remember my dad’s strong baritone lifted in praise. Among his all-time favorite hymns was Horatio Spafford’s “It Is Well.” Even now, I can picture him singing, with great gusto,”

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Why The Smartest Leaders Do This

Posted by on September 23, 2019

If productivity simply means that you are doing all the wrong things faster, then in the end it will be a waste of your life. Getting things done will never be as important as why you are doing them to begin with. Leadership today places a higher priority on the character of the person than the list of their results. This post by Carey Nieuwhof is a great read:

“But the longer I live and lead, the more I realize that you can accomplish all the tasks you set out to accomplish in a day or even over the course of your life, and still completely miss the point.

The news is littered with stories of leaders who were at the top of their game skill-wise, but who aren’t in leadership anymore, not because they weren’t smart, not because they weren’t skilled (some were arguably the best in their field), but because their character didn’t match their competency. Here’s the truth for all of us: Competency gets you in the room. Character keeps you in the room.”

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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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Finding God In Life’s Waiting Room

Posted by on September 18, 2019

I have been in the waiting room far too many times in my life. At times, I was there because I was making bad decisions with wrong priorities and it was time for change. Other times, I have been there in the midst of a time of spiritual renewal. I have learned the hard way, to stop asking Why and transition to What. What can I learn and what is my next step. This post by Alica Akins is a heartfelt story of grace:

“You have a plan for me.”

Each day I wake to these words, the opening lyrics to a worship song I set as my alarm some rejections ago. If I’m untroubled, I stop the song there and start my day. Other mornings, when my pillow is still damp from the previous night’s cry or my heart worn from waiting—35 years for a spouse, 15 months for a job, indefinitely for the resurrection of friendships lost—I let the whole thing play. Battling waves of envy, frustration, and shame I wait, echoing the psalmist’s heavenward cry: “My eyes fail, looking for your promise” (Ps. 119:82).

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The Secret Of Successful Leaders

Posted by on September 13, 2019

The tipping point for the source of successful leadership starts with how well you lead yourself, not the results you accomplish. Getting the right things done is critical but if you lose touch with why you are doing what you do everyday, you will eventually crash. Today must be self-awareness day and this post by Jenni Catron is outstanding:

“Today’s leaders have the tools to grow things rapidly but lack the emotional and intellectual health to sustain it all. And the fallout is killing us.

Our culture has minimized the responsibility and elevated the celebrity of leadership and with this I believe we’ve lost the realization that leadership is a sacred privilege.

Leaders have the power to change or affect the lives of others and therefore leadership is sacred work.”

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