My thoughts often center around Leadership, especially in the areas of Christian Business and Christian Ministry. As a ministry leader, I often pray that the LORD would allow my heart to grow in leadership matters and that He would reveal to me the area(s) that He would have me improve in. And although I wish this was a "download" situation, it's almost always growth through experience - sometimes really challenging and painful experience(s). In these situations Galatians 6:9 helps me "hang in there."
My need for real improvement is sometimes difficult to discern, especially when I fall into the company of manipulative, controlling leaders. In the years that I spent under the influence of such leaders, inside of me developed a tendency toward people-pleasing behaviors - which sabotages actual, sustainable growth. As the LORD works in me, I am able to recognize these tendencies in myself early on; and while this is a definite blessing, having the inner strength to do the next right thing is still exhausting for me.
As I mentioned above, I have experience with leaders in the greater community of Christendom that have chosen to use their influence as a leader to manipulate outcomes of their own preferences. Sometimes, I've sensed this was done from a place of fear; likely fear of the unknown. In these cases, the leader surrounds themselves with the familiar and the things they excel at, and with those people who will not rock the boat, introduce a need for new skills, or challenge the usual agenda. Other times I've sensed that a controlling leadership model was engaged from a place of ignorance (not knowing) - i.e. the leader believed that there was no need for change or growth, that the old way of doing things was sufficient and they subsequently vilified change and thereby squelched growth.
In each of these scenarios, I witnessed that reaction to a new ideology was the withholding of support, encouragement, and relationship when their preferences were not at the forefront; and the pattern of lavished praise and promotion when their preference was the order of business. Rarely, very rarely, a Leader who was operating in a routine out of ignorance has opened up to a higher level of thought and made an adjustment to incorporate growth. BUT, this has happened! These are the most rewarding experiences in leading Leaders!
Okay - moving on...
To function well and get things accomplished, most of us need to know the leadership styles that we're interacting with. This is a point of survival, figuratively speaking. For example, there's only so long that I can go without receiving feedback or my tanks on empty and I'm out of gas. Because of this, I need to know some truths about the leader that I'm working with. How relational are they, how well do they communicate? Do they expect me to mind read? Do they communicate displeasure by the look on their face? These are some key points to explore with your leader(s) because communication is a major key in any relationship.
For me to function well as an independent (not co-dependent) self-motivated individual, I need to know what a leader is thinking about future goals, current struggles, stuck points, etc. I am very willing to ask questions and I'm more than willing to follow up, but when I have to ask for every smidgen of information and feedback, I will eventually burn out. This is very true for me, and it may be true for you too. Explore that and make some key points about yourself and your team, I believe you'll experience improved relations all around!
Leaders, let's not make our team work hard to get information from us! They may need to mine/dig for information as part of their assigned job, but it shouldn't need to happen within the team. Our people tend to go hard in each role that they're assigned to and if they don't have complete information they may end up in no man's land, emotionally bankrupt with too few resources to get back. I have ended up in no man's land, emotionally bankrupt and that's why I can talk about this... it's happened to me. When we spend a lot of energy for results and go without a deposit now and then our account gets overdrawn. As a Leader, do not emotionally bankrupt your people. Also, do not allow your own emotional account to be perpetually overdrawn!
As I get to work with leaders who are interested in a strengths-based, grace-based leadership model I point to Christ first and then visit Philippians 2. This is to help leaders discover their driving force for being in a leadership role. Namely, if one's desire for control is greater than your desire to see your people grow - you're in ministry/business leadership for the wrong reason and people are suffering for it. Philippians 2 gives us a model of Christ-like leadership that has a long proven track record. We may find that there are areas of leadership that need adjustments from time to time, let Christ be the standard.
If we know each other at all you know that I write and speak mostly from my experience with some education thrown in there now and again. Both my experience and education have shown me that in business & in ministry, a Leader's lack of follow through in any area (communication, planning, etc) will result in our team(s) having to work longer and harder. The sad fact is that this is simply because we, as leaders, did not have the self-discipline of follow through. Thoroughness and follow through on the part of any leader will set the family, the team, the ministry, and the church/etc up for long-term growth and benefit the Kingdom.
#leadership #ministry #lizchatter
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