I meet with pastors weekly either in person or online. It fuels me to invest in younger leaders and always challenges me as I learn from them. I’m a better leader because I intentionally invest in other leaders.
(There’s a hint for some of you more seasoned leaders.)
It always seems the so-called wisdom I share gathers in seasons. When I say something to one pastor, I usually end up repeating it to another. It could be that the nugget is in my schema or it is another way God stretches and teaches me so He can use me. I learn best with repetition.
But, eventually, once I’ve repeated it several times, I write it down. Then it becomes ingrained in my memory bank.
(There’s another hint there.)
This post is a collection of some of the more recent nuggets:
Here are six of my most repeated leadership nuggets:
1. Copy principles, not practices. Principles are almost always transferable. Practices seldom are. You can’t be someone else as effectively as you can be yourself. You’ll lose if you try to compare yourself to someone else’s success. Your success will likely look different from anyone else’s.
2. Don’t trip over your own humility. It’s great to be humble. I’d advise it if you want to please God. But don’t refuse to do the right thing because you’re afraid it appears to be self-serving.
3. Limit your energy to a few key areas. Delegate the rest. I’ve found I’m seldom effective past four or five major initiatives. There are some who think they are super-human. But they are almost always wrong.
4. Don’t be afraid to make people wait for excellence. I see leaders burnout and be far less effective because they try to do everything at once. It’s OK to say no. In fact, it’s actually healthy.
5. If you ever lack energy inside the building—get outside the building. I see pastors get so frustrated at the lack of progress. They beat themselves up because things aren’t changing fast enough. They lose their energy dealing with the negativity of change. I say to those pastors, get back to the coffee shops.
Talk to people outside the church. Fuel yourself with a world that’s changing faster than we can capture on the nightly news. It’s actually what most of us have been called to do. Make disciples. And when the disciples in the church start arguing over potlucks, get outside
—into the community—and refuel your passion with people searching for hope. And watch your energy rise.
6. Invest in a few key leaders. You can’t invest effectively in everyone who’s trying to follow you. Jesus had lots of followers. He had 12 disciples.
