A great post by Ron Edmondson
I’m constantly thinking about how I
can help people on our team improve as leaders. Of course, in order for that to
happen, it means I must constantly be improving as a leader. I realize our
team’s potential to get better at leading others is limited to the extent I am
willing to become a better leader.
I’ve learned along the way to
being a better leader that there are some things that simply keep leaders from
being effective. I used the word “cripple” in the title and I don’t think that
is too strong a word. The things I’m going to list have all crippled me during the seasons of my leadership. There are some actions or characteristics which can
simply derail a leader’s potential for success if not identified and addressed. Understanding these and
disciplining ourselves to avoid them can make us better leaders.
Here are 7 actions
which can cripple a leader:
Trying to personally handle too much.
Too many changes at one time.
Too much on your plate. Refusing to delegate. You can only do so much and when
you try to do more you almost always lose efficiency and effectiveness.
I realized this as our church
plant was growing quickly. I was trying to meet with people, be active in the
community, lead our staff and organizational structure and still preach
effectively on Sunday. Something had to give. I started giving some things away
and it was amazing how much better my messages became on Sunday – and how much
more effective I was in my other responsibilities.
Refusing to rest.
Resting isn’t just a nice
quote on a 10 commandments plaque. It’s a command for a reason. Our bodies and
minds need time to rejuvenate and recover. Burnout is almost always a result of
leaders who fail to say no or are never still.
I have had more than one hard
learning curve in this area. Thankfully, I’ve matured and now I can say the
more stressful the season the more I discipline myself to exercise and get away
from the office. In the busier than normal season, I don’t have to work harder,
but smarter.
Allowing critics voices to dominate.
You will always have critics.
And, you shouldn’t ignore learning from them – even when you don’t agree with
them. As leaders, we must remain humble and teachable. But, this doesn’t mean
we allow the dominant voice to be those who aren’t even supportive of
leadership or where we are leading. In my experience, most of the time there
are some people that are critics regardless of who is leader.
I’ll never forget the time
this one lady continued to blast me about the “satanic” music our church sang.
It wasn’t satanic at all. In fact, we were careful with our lyrics on every
song we used in our worship services. The problem was it wasn’t her style. For
a while I let this haunt me every Sunday. I was paranoid about what others might be
saying. But, then I realized there were lots of people who were better engaging
in worship because of our style. Plus, there were plenty of other churches
that might have more closely aligned with her preference. I couldn’t allow her
preference to control what was leading a couple thousand other people in
worship every week.
Ignoring the hard decisions.
Leadership isn’t needed if we
simply manage the status quo. Leadership takes people to unknown places. This
requires change – and change can be uncomfortable. Let me correct that – change
is always uncomfortable – to someone. In my experience, leadership is often
crippled until someone is willing to make hard decisions. As leaders, we
must not lead to be popular but to do the right things to achieve the worthy,
pre-established visions of our organization.
This has been true so many
times as we have had to change or stop programming in an established church.
I’ve learned “we’ve always done it this way” is rarely true. When a church is
over 100 years old there’s nearly nothing done the same way it was when the
church started. They’ve simply done it that way long enough to be comfortable.
But, part of our success has been the willingness to move forward – strategically and cautiously – with needed improvements towards our vision. This has included hard decisions involving programming, but even harder decisions regarding people. (And, the people decisions are always the hardest – but, sometimes the ones most needed.)
Controlling everything.
When the leader has to know
everything happening in the organization or when they are paranoid because they
don’t, we know there is crippled leadership somewhere – either with the leader
or those being led. Most leaders don’t want to be surprised on major things, but when they have to be intimately involved in every decision and every detail it usually indicates they don’t trust their team. That’s crippling to any leader – and the team.I’ve always been pretty good at delegating. It may have come when we bought a small manufacturing company and I was completely in over my head as a leader. I quickly realized if I was going to have any success I had to release control and trust other people – often people more qualified in areas than me. That learning experience has surely helped me as a pastor.
Impatience.
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
And, neither are healthy organizations. Leaders must learn to have patience and
perseverance, even when those on the team are growing weary. Many times we quit
just before the turnaround.
I have sat with so many
pastors – especially attempting revitalization – who were short-term at their
churches – not because the work was finished, but because they were not patient
with how long the process of change was taking. The best leadership happens
over seasons and years – not over days and weeks.
Developing a sense of entitlement.
The leader who ever feels
they’ve “arrived”, stops learning, or begins to take all the credit for success
in the organization has become a very crippled leader. The team will no longer
support the leader fully. They will trip on their own ego. It’s simply the
quickest way to failure. I could spend a whole blog
post – and probably should – on how I have personally witnessed egos lead to
moral, spiritual and professional failure. Chances are, however, you have
witnessed this plenty of times also. Pride always goes before the fall.
Those are a few actions or attitudes which I have seen cripple good
leadership. It’s always sad to me to see a good leader fail. My prayer is this
could be a check for any leaders who may be struggling in any of these areas.
