There are a lot of leaders I really want to be like… and there are a lot of leaders I really DON’T want to be like!
Here are a few…
1. The INCONSISTENT Leader
“People don’t have a problem with AUTHORITY as much as they have a problem with INCONSISTENT AUTHORITY.” – Wayne Cordeiro
2. The EXAGGERATOR
In our line of work, CREDIBILITY is everything.
If you are credible, you are trustworthy.
I work really hard on being accurate. If anything, I will downplay things, so that I never lose my audience (or people’s respect). I never want people to think “Oh, that’s not true” OR “Divide that in half and that’s probably how many people were there.” (Or how many calls a day you really get, etc.)
The thing about the EXAGGERATOR is that they don’t realize that most of the time they are LYING… and somehow, someway… intuition, discernment, whatever… everyone else knows they’re lying too!
3. The SELF-PROMOTER
Self-promotion is really self-validation. Ultimately, it stems from the feeling of, “I haven’t been validated enough by others so I need to validate myself,” OR “I haven’t been validated enough so I need you to see that someone else is validating me.” (Hence the RETWEET a compliment)
Let’s all make sure we’re on the same page: The bible says, “Promotion cometh not from the east nor the west; promotion cometh from the Lord” Psalm 75 (my version)
Great leaders are always BEING PROMOTED. They NEVER feel like they have to promote themselves because everyone is doing that for them.
Whack leaders work hard to be able to NAME DROP….
Great leaders, their name is always being DROPPED.
You have to decide what kind of leader you want to be when it comes to this!
4. The ISOLATED
“A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment.” Proverbs 18:1
I have seen a lot of great leaders make this mistake.
When you are isolated, you lose two important things; COMMUNITY and ACCOUNTABILITY.
Community: Having friends, meaningful relationships, laughter (like from the belly type stuff ya know), health, etc.
Accountability: Having people that are close enough to you to call you out on your junk.
Another thing that hurts the isolated leaders is that they only care about themselves or “their thing” (i.e. their goal, their life, their thing, their church).
Living for “our” thing will only limit how powerful we can be together.
5. The “MOUNTAINS OUT OF MOLE HILLS” Leader
Please don’t ever be the leader that makes a BIG DEAL about things that are SMALL; and a SMALL DEAL about things that should be BIG.
This is always a sign of immaturity. Most punitive leaders will tell you that they are not punitive… the only reason why they say this is because they KNOW that THEY ARE! Punitive leaders are experts at making “mountains out of a mole hill”
They REACT rather than RESPOND. Highly emotional leaders tend to fall prey to this dysfunction and the cost is high (loss of respect, trust, peace, etc).
Great leaders MAJOR in the MAJORS.
Weak leaders MAJOR in the MINORS.
6. The Leader that STOPS GROWING
When a leader stops growing, it is usually because they think they have “arrived.”
Why read more, study more, podcast more, inquire more, research more, find out what Brian C. Houston is doing more???
Arrival is a nasty disease. It creeps in slowly and takes a long time for it to do it’s work. It really doesn’t show it’s TOTAL DAMAGES for quite awhile. In fact, it could be years before you can calculate the damages of ARRIVAL.
Great leaders are ALWAYS GROWING. They are learning, asking questions, reading, etc.
My pastor always says “ANYTHING THAT IS NOT GROWING… IS DYING”
I think there’s a lot of truth in that statement.
The solution is: stay HUMBLE and stay HUNGRY!