Incredible leaders have incredible tools that they use regularly, because they flat-out work.
I’ve been blessed to serve among some incredible leaders, and here are 5 common tools that I’ve learned they use, and that I strive to use myself as well, not only in ministry, but in my family as well. If you are a leader in any capacity, how many of these tools do you utilize?:
1. PRAISE regularly. People respond positively when praised. It’s part of our make-up as human beings. We desire to be appreciated, valued, and made to feel important. Good leaders know this, and so they make it a conscious choice to go out of their way to regularly praise both privately and publicly those who serve with them and under them.
2. EVALUATE consistently. My pastor is the best at this. He evaluates Everything. After every event, every big service, every time, we are evaluating what went well, what didn’t, and taking notes for future reference. This goes for details about the pros and the cons, the effectiveness of our approach, the response of the people involved, etc. If your repetitive events and programs are not getting better with time, there’s probably a good reason, and part of that reason is likely a lack of evaluation. Because if you’re never evaluating the success, or lack thereof, of what your doing (in your family, ministry, job, etc.) you could be spinning your wheels but going nowhere. Good leaders are constantly and voluntarily evaluating themselves and their team’s performance in order to make it better for next time.
3. SERVE willingly. While no leader can do it all themselves, every leader should be willing to do what they can. There should be times when the people we oversee or have recruited to serve with us see us in the trenches getting our hands dirty and our backs bent. A good leader is not someone who simply manages people, but someone who actually leads people, which requires being on the front lines. It’s hard to follow a leader who is always behind you making demands. It’s easy to follow a leader who is in regularly in front of you being a servant.
4. REFUEL privately. A leader can lead people no farther than he is willing to go himself. This is “the law of the lid” as John Maxwell puts it. We cannot give to others what we do not first posses ourselves. So we are not only the cap to our own success, but often the cap to other people’s potential as well. If we don’t continue to rise above neither will they (at least not while they are following us). Good leaders refuel privately by regularly investing into themselves. Because they know that when they grow, everything around them naturally grows as well.
5. TRUST passionately. As a leader, we sometimes get burned. But that’s because it’s our calling to equip people by trusting people. This requires that we delegate, that we let go by duplicating ourselves in others, and that we are willing to trust our people with resources and responsibilities, even if they fail. This necessitates a healthy balance of both wisdom and risk. However, regardless of past hurts, good leaders are not willing to let setbacks of the past prevent them from advancements in their future. They will continue to take chances, to trust, and to believe the best in people. Good leaders trust passionately.
Whether you’re a leader in your home, your church, or your work, all of these can be applied. Which of these 5 tools could you focus on utilizing more this week?
