Key Elements Of Leadership
// January 27th, 2010 // 11 Comments » // My Life, My Thoughts
I recently began thinking about leadership and decided to write down some of the things I have learned about leadership over the past few years. There is no lack of experts that have opinions on the subject of leadership… and I am by no means an expert. however I figured I would share my thoughts.
There are some fundamental ideas about leadership that I feel are important for good leaders to understand. Some, if not all of these are already established and accepted ideas in some perspectives of leadership. Some of them go directly against the grain of everything we are taught about ” Alpha Wolf ” style leadership… and for good reason!
- Authority is given not taken
- Leaders should be able to follow well
- A role of leadership is functioning to promote unity and forward momentum with minimal exercise of authority.
- It is critical that a leader recognize that the role of a leader is to
- Lead in humility
- Develop a mentoring relationship with those he leads
- Promote mentoring relationships in upcoming leaders
- Demonstrate proper boundaries in dealing with issues of
- Pride
- Personal conflict
- Burn out
- Life choices
- Balance
- Discernment
Leading in humility is a tough job, it requires a selfless determination to recognize that your authority is given to you and is something that you must measure and use with discernment.
some questions a leader should consider asking.
Will you recognize me as your leader?
If so will you respect the authority that you have given me and trust me to make decisions for you?
Do you give me permission to speak humbly, honestly, and directly with you when I need to talk to you about how you are dealing with the subjects of:
- Pride
- Personal conflict
- Burn out
- Life choices
- Balance
- Discernment
A good leader should promote healthy boundaries yet still welcome to questions and even challenges to their opinions. Often it is difficult when others challenge our vision and ideals.
It is critical that a leader develop a good balance of gracefully accepting criticism, instruction, and even condemnation; Without feeling threatened.The best way to develop good balance is to hold loosely to ideals that are not based on rock solid principals. We often set our full weight on issues that are largely unimportant, and forget to defend the core principals that are worth saving.
By regularly revisiting core values; re-establishing their truth, and by evaluating and holding loosely to the less important ideals and preconceptions of your vision: you can maintain a healthy balance in your leadership.Maintaining good balance as a leader gives the team you are leading the freedom to truly thrive and challenge you in new areas of leadership; instead of wallowing in mediocrity and internal squabbles over meaningless issues.
So if you feel like you are having trouble as a leader try applying some of these principals and you may just discover that leading is easier than you thought.
So how about it… any leaders out there that want to weigh in on this?? what do you think?
Tags: Leadership, spiritual leadership, worship leader, worship leadership
