Lead May 24, 2018

This month, I want us to look at some very important aspects of leadership—including why leaders fail. But I also want to try and equip you with some lessons I have learned over the years, about being a leader. For this reason, every Thursday this month, I will share one of my leadership tips. If you are just beginning your leadership journey, it is my hope that these will give you some practical help in fully embracing your current role. Or, if you’ve been leading for a while that they will assist you as you begin empowering others to lead.

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.

—Ray Kroc

Leadership tip #3: Good Leadership begins with Self Leadership

I have heard it said that you can’t lead someone where you have never been. As a leader who has lead people in situations I hadn’t been in before, I have to tell you this saying does not apply to external situations—it applies to who we are within. In order to be good and effective leaders, we need to start by leading ourselves towards places of growth and maturity. We need to make the right choices and do the hard things when no one is looking. Otherwise, how can we lead others, or expect those we lead, to do the same?

A season in my life where this became most apparent, was in the middle of my time working in youth ministry. Personally, I had hit a hard patch in my life. I felt stuck in some areas, and broken from a few relationships. As a leader, my first reaction was to bottle it all up, and push through for those I was leading.

Thankfully though, my two closest friends at the time both encouraged me to consider counseling. At first it was scary. No one in my family was going to counseling. In some ways it went against our family culture on how to handle things. But deep down, I knew I needed to take my friends’ advice. Going to counseling during that season, brought so much healing and wholeness to me as a person and as a leader.

Self Leadership sometimes looks like taking a hard, deep look within. Other times it means taking classes or getting a mentor. And most often, it looks like reading content or listening to podcasts that will both challenge and encourage us as leaders.

If life or our jobs have put us in a position to lead and influence those around us, we need to take that responsibility seriously. We need to do all we can to be the best leaders we can be. And this begins with leading ourselves well.