Saturday May 3, 2014
Building People of Substance for Works of Power
Lead with Excellence, Friend.
As I was preparing my notes for our monthly Leaders InCharge meeting it struck me that there might be someone out there who would benefit. If not, hit delete. If so, praise the Lord!
Excellence: Striving to exceed where we are and get better at what we do. Do the right job well, then ask how to do it better. We are pursuing excellence in ministry, not just excellence in facilities and performance and peripherals: First things first.
Leadership: Accomplishing a vision through other people. I have to sweat less and lead more.
Excellence in leadership requires preparation, communication, and perspiration.
1. Excellence in Preparation: Nearly every success is just the final step in a long process. I prepare myself by soaking in the vision and purpose of the team, then owning the vision and purpose of the team. How do I know I am improving if I don’t know what I am trying to do? Why do it if it is someone else’s responsibility? Pray and plan: Sunday’s great service started during last Sunday’s service at the very latest. Remember: If the first time you think about your ministry is when you show up Sunday morning, you are not a leader yet.
2. Excellence in communication: Communicate the vision and purpose: Job #1 of every leader is to impart vision to his team. It’s not my vision. It’s not your vision. It’s God’s vision, and He has asked you and I to help Him with it. Leaders communicate to all stakeholders. The work team needs to embrace vision, understand expectations, and sense appreciation. The target population needs to know what is available, how to get it, and what to expect. Remember: change provokes anxiety, knowledge reduces it. Other leaders need to know about any potential impact on their area. Take a broad look and communicate anything that may present a problem or a conflict with someone else?
Communicate intelligently using a method appropriate for the content and audience. Don’t use email or text messages for important conversations. It is too easy to misinterpret with no voice and/or facial contact. You hear it in your head the way you mean it. They read it in the light of whatever attitude they have at the moment. Communicate facts in writing with precision and economy, and at a time when the target is likely to be able to hear. For every decision and action plan think about who needs to know, what they need to know, and when they need to know it.
3. Excellence in perspiration: Most leaders, especially in church, got to be leaders by being diligent and faithful workers. Going from being a worker to being a leader is hard work. For a leader, the perspiring needs to increasingly be done by other people. If you are still doing the task you haven’t succeeded yet. We work hard at getting others to fulfill the plan. If your workers understand vision and purpose, they can make decisions on the fly based on what they know. Training is more than tasks, it is attitude and paradigm. Watch how your people react and adapt on the job. Build on successes and use deficiencies as teaching tools: Rehash after every event: how could I have done that better?
The leader’s perspiration comes between events in planning and preparation of his team. Once the service starts, it is too late to lead today. It is time to lead for next week, next month, and next year.
Somebody Said: When your dream is bigger than you are, you only have two choices: give up or get help. John Maxwell
Scripture Reading: "When leaders lead in Israel, When the people willingly offer themselves, Bless the LORD! (Jdg 5:2 NKJV)
I love to hear myself say, “You’ll have to ask so and so about that. I don’t do that anymore.” All the jobs that I do myself are limiting us to what I can do. Every job done by another multiplies our potential. Excellence is when we each do what we are gifted to do in the way God designed us to do it.
vls
pastorvirgil.com 