Principles of Leadership, Day 26 Are you a “Yes-man”? Read Proverbs 16:13. True leadership values the opinions, questions, and insights of others. As leaders, we cannot surround ourselves only with people who think and act like we do. We need diversity at every level. Diversity of thought, diversity of opinion, diversity of insight, even diversity of perception are all essential to be able to lead effectively. Having only people who tell us what we want to hear, instead of what is actually happening is a recipe for disaster. Then, we must allow those people to have those thoughts and share them and act on them. As a leader, do we…

Principles of Leadership, Day 25 Do you mean what you say? Read Matthew 5:37. Words matter. When we think about the words that we say every single day, sometimes we can get carried away with what we say. We often think that a quantity of words means the same thing as having quality of words. However, when it comes to the commitments that we make and the promises that we give, we are to be so consistent with our follow through that simply telling someone yes we will do that is the strongest commitment we could make. People need to believe our words. They need to trust that when we…

Principles of Leadership, Day 24 Delegation. Read Exodus 18:21. This entire story is fascinating. Moses has been leading the people, but he was feeling overworked and not able to focus on all of the goals that he need to. So he learned the valuable lesson of the importance of delegation. When you’re looking at delegating to individuals, this verse also speaks about the importance of diversity, capability, and fit. Moses was to choose people that came from all of the people. It wasn’t supposed to be just from one area or one type of individual. Moses needed diversity amongst those he chose. Additionally, there were criteria set for what made…

Principles of Leadership, Day 23 Who do you spend your time and energy on? Read Proverbs 23:9. Part of our responsibility as leaders is to grow and develop the team that we have. We are to focus on helping them to become the very best that they can be. So who do we spend the majority of our time with? Are we spending our time with those who are under performing, trying to help bring them up to an acceptable level of performance? Or are we focusing our time on those who are our top performers first so that they can grow even farther? Often, we find that we are…

Princliples of Leadership, Day 22 Unity and Leadership. Read Psalm 133:1. When we think of leadership, we seem to always imply unity. However many teams that I’ve been on are not unified. The leader is the one who ultimately is responsible for creating that sense of unity and purpose. What does that look like from a Christian standpoint? Our unity should be around the purposes of Jesus Christ. We are unified and seeking half God’s will and God’s glory made known throughout the world. When we are leading others, it’s important to stay unified around that purpose, not our own individual purpose. How are we unifying our teams today? How…

Principles of Leadership, Day 21 You cannot be a servant leader if you do know know the master. Read John 13:16. The idea and principles of servant leadership are a mainstream through all leadership material. You see studies done on the importance of servant leadership and many talks and lectures and training material have been launched detailing the importance of being a servant leader. However, I would argue that it is impossible to be a servant leader if you do not truly know the Master. You cannot emulate or copy the Master if you are not familiar with the Master. Many people have tried to live live out the principles…

Principles of Leadership, Day 20 Focus on others. Read Philippians 2:3-4. We have already discussed the importance of humility for a leader, but today we’re going to look at this from the perspective of how others around us feel. Leaders who are following Godly principles put other people first. They are focused on how what they do impacts others around them. Are we lifting people up and helping them to be what God wants them to be? Are we pointing others to the one who can truly impact their lives? When we are leading others, we have a unique opportunity to impact their life in a way that no one…

Principles of Leadership, Day 19 Leading through your gifts. Read Romans 12:3-8. Today is my birthday, so it’s natural to think about gifts on today. Interestingly, God has given all of us a gift when we surrendered our lives to him. Those gifts are to be used to bring glory and honor to him. As we read through the list here of various gifts, we realize that the ability to lead is actually a gift from God. Are we using that gift to honor and glorify God? Are we diligent in leading others to Christ? God has given us gifts, how are we using them to bring glory to Him?

Principles of Leadership, Day 18 Protection and Defense. Read Acts 20:28. One aspect of leadership that we haven’t discussed yet is the responsibility of a leader to defend those that they lead. We are all going to make mistakes at some point. And we are all going to facr difficulties and opposition. As leaders, we have a responsibility to help lead people into making right choices, but also to help defend them from attack. Are we willing to stand up and shoulder the brunt of the attack on one of our team? Do we understand how to balance allowing people under us to grow and flourish while still giving them…

Principles of Leadership, Day 17 Accountability. Read Luke 11:48. Reading through this verse, and the verses around it, it becomes easy to see that people in positions of leadership and authority have an increased accountability. When God allows us to have responsibility over many things, we are more accountable then others who do not have as much responsibility. When we think about leadership, anyone in a leadership position has an additional accountability to God for how they are utilizing that position. Are we taking the opportunity do as much with and for and through that leadership opportunity as what we should? Are we truly allowing God to move and work…