10 Leadership Traits of Jesus (Plus 1 Guiding Principle)
Jesus was a leader on a mission to develop leaders for a movement that needed to last after he left.
How did Jesus lead?
1. Jesus always spoke the truth.
2. Jesus called his followers to more.
3. Jesus balanced compassion and conviction.
4. Jesus was an authority living under authority.
5. Jesus led by serving.
6. Jesus set boundaries.
7. Jesus developed leaders through delegation.
8. Jesus saw leadership as stewardship.
9. Jesus modeled curiosity.
10. Jesus encouraged the heart.
In summary, Jesus led through humility.
In this NEW POST, I outline each of the 10 leadership traits.
If you are a Christian leader, growing in Christ-likeness should be a primary goal. Which of these leadership traits is your greatest struggle?
A Leadership Lesson From Abraham: God’s Way or My Way?
The below is Lesson 9 from our Leadership Lessons series.
LESSON NINE: God’s way is always better than my way.
KEY QUESTION: How can we discern between God’s way and our way?
As a follower of Jesus (this is a leadership conversation for sure!), there’s no argument about whose way is the best way.
God’s way is always the best way. Always.
As a leader (or human), the problem we have is trying to discern God’s way from our way.
This is a “God’s will” discernment conversation.
Think about the decisions you’ve made in the past. There were times your way and God’s way aligned. There were also times you knew unequivocally that your way wasn’t God’s way. You did it anyway, but you knew. Then there were times you believed your way aligned to God’s way, only to find out you were mistaken. Of course, there have also been times when you felt your way aligned to God’s way, but others disagreed.
So how do you know? How can we know when we are heading in God’s direction versus choosing our path?
In this NEW POST, we’ll consider the call of Abraham. His first interaction with God gives us a massive clue for our life, too.
Expectations: Perhaps the Worst Part of Being a Pastor (or Human)
LESSON SEVEN: Integrity eclipses image
KEY QUESTION: How can we grow our integrity behind the scenes?
As a teenage tennis player, my idol was Andre Agassi.
Agassi was the rockstar of professional tennis. I loved everything about him and his game.
When I needed new tennis shoes, I would only agree to wear his new Nike Air Tech Challenge. Remember these? White shoes with black trim and a hot pink swoosh.
As a super fan, I didn’t stop with his shoes. I had the entire fit. I wore his black denim shorts with hot pink spandex at every match. I paired the shorts with his diagonal black and hot pink fade Nike shirt. I had everything Agassi had… except the hair and game.
It turns out Agassi didn’t have the hair, either. He did initially, but losing your hair at an early age doesn’t play to the “image is everything” brand built on your physical image (and luscious hair!).
John Maxwell is right. Integrity eclipses image. The question is how can we stop living up to the image and expectations placed on us by others so we can experience personal integrity.
As a pastor for 15 years, I faced my share of expectations! In this NEW POST, I discuss my expectation journey and how I found personal integrity to be the me God created.
7 Positive Attitude Adjustments to Deploy in Negative Circumstances
LESSON SEVEN: My attitude is more important than my actions
KEY QUESTION: How can we maintain a positive attitude regardless of the circumstances?
As the inspirational poster says, “Our attitude determines our altitude.”
Cheesy, but true.
Equally cheesy and true is this:
As a leader, YOUR attitude determines everyone’s altitude.
Attitude is an amazing thing. We choose it. And it determines so much about our organization and team.
How can you choose to manage a positive attitude during negative experiences?
In this NEW POST, I give you Attitude Adjustments to Deploy in Negative Circumstances.
Which one should you employ today?
Why a Month Away from Leadership Saved My Leadership Life
As we continue with our Leadership Lessons series…
LESSON SIX: Brokenness and failure are necessary
KEY QUESTION: How did a month’s sabbatical away from my leadership role save my emotional world?
In this NEW POST, I get pretty personal.
I spent an intensive week in therapy to unpack some emotional issues and begin rebuilding my leadership life.
In this post, I walk you through some of that experience and give you seven specific actions you can take today to find more emotional health.
Brokenness and failure are not an end. They are ends to greater meaning. When we embrace brokenness and failure, we learn to live and lead with more grace. In a way, experiencing and embracing brokenness and failure is how we become leaders worth following.
Two Specific Ways You Claiming “Follower of Christ” Could be a Liability for Christ
REALLY QUICK: I relaunched a new site. Let me know how it looks!
In today’s NEW POST, I unpack our leadership issues with power and autonomy.
I suspect this post will ruffle quite a few feathers, especially the “Let’s Go Brandon” segments.
My only request is that you separate political ideology and biblical theology as you read. They aren’t the same, and they shouldn’t be treated as such.
Well… here we go.
Six Actions to Become a More Vulnerable Leader
The below is Lesson 4 from our Leadership Lessons series.
LESSON THREE: It’s essential to be real
KEY QUESTION: How can honesty and vulnerability increase your leadership influence?
Great leaders discover their strength in their honesty. The superpower of great leaders is vulnerability. That’s a buzzword these days. Everybody talks about openness, but too few leaders are genuinely vulnerable because real vulnerability exposes us emotionally. When people get to know the “real” you, they may not like you.
But, let me ask you a critical vulnerability question: How does it feel when people like the fake you?
People who love the pretend version of you don’t love you, which is emotionally painful. When I decided to become a more vulnerable leader, people rejected me, but they rejected the real me. I discovered that it is more emotionally taxing for people to love the pretend me than leave the real me.
In this NEW POST, I outline some things bad leaders do, how to become more vulnerable as a leader, and why I have vintage skateboards hanging on my office walls.
10 Leadership Lessons You Can Learn The Easy Way
This is the first post in a leadership series. Make sure you subscribe to remain part of the conversation.
HERE WE GO…
Fifteen or so years ago, I attended my first-ever leadership conference. This was my first exposure to John Maxwell.
What an incredible leader, pastor, and communicator!
During his keynote, he unpacked 10 lessons on leadership. I took a lot of notes. Now, 15 years later, I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing each of the 10 lessons.
In this post, I give you the list of 10. In future posts, I’ll unpack each one through my personal, leadership experiences. More, I hope these posts give you plenty of practical advice.
The life of a leader is full of lessons. Most are learned the hard way through experience. My hope is too allow you to learn from my previous experience.
See you on the blog!
