Leadership can be lonely, but it shouldn’t be.
Leadership is only lonely at the top if you create your organization or team to function that way.
Yes, you are responsible for the big, hairy, tough decisions, but you don’t make them all alone. You have a team. You have people you talk to.
So, who do you talk to? I mean REALLY talk to?
Of course, God is at the top of the list, but who are the people in your inner circle?
Building an extraordinary team is a huge endeavor. It’s exciting, rewarding but it’s also hard work. It’s just never done.
It’s a little like gardening. You just get everything growing great and looking good only to have a severe weather change, or you got busy and forgot to water or fertilize. Maybe a pest gets in your lawn. We’ve had a gopher now for two or three years. It’s a battle and he’s winning!
But if you work hard and stick with it, the result is beautiful. It’s organic, so it’s never perfect and always changing, but it’s worth the effort.
All great leaders are devoted students of human nature.
The more effort and energy you invest in understanding why people do what they do, the better leader you become.
That’s the practical essence of human nature – why people do what they do.
Your biblical view and theological bias play no small part in what shapes your thinking. Sin, selfishness and a broken world is obviously part of the equation. But equally so is redemption, the Holy Spirit’s power, and purpose through Christ.
The tension between both of those powerful forces for good and evil is real and active.
The daily choices we all make in what sometimes seems like a fine line between good and evil, forms the ongoing patterns of human nature.
People pleasing is common among leaders in the local church.
People pleasing is when you lead in such a way that you attempt to keep everyone happy. You receive affirmation and therefore feel good.
The congregation is happy, so they feel good; seems harmless enough.
But the ill-gained affirmation you receive will hurt you and your leadership over the long-haul. And of course, you can’t keep everyone happy even if that was a good idea.
You will end up exhausted, and some of the followers that are happy with you at the moment will turn against you the first time you attempt to make a tough decision that doesn’t go to their liking.
Dan Reiland is the Executive Pastor at 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He previously partnered with John Maxwell for 20 years, first as Executive Pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, then as Vice President of Leadership and Church Development at INJOY.
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