Why Learning Insulation is a Leadership Limitation (And 3 Reasons to Learn From Others)
It’s only been eight weeks on the new job, but I’ve already learned so much.
One Critical Lesson: Every leader can quickly and unintentionally become insulated from the outside as they attempt to lead on the inside.
I didn’t realize how easy this was until I left North Point Ministries.
I worked for one of the best church organizations on the planet for nearly 13 years. Leading alongside the team at North Point Ministries (Andy Stanley, Lane Jones, Rick Holiday, Bill Willits, Jeff Henderson, Clay Scroggins, Joel Thomas, Adam Johnson, Andy Jones, Al Scott, Tensley Almand, and more) felt like the equivalent of a master’s degree in church. These guys are great.
What I didn’t realize along the way is how easily I became insulated from the broader leadership and church world. This segregation was not intentional. Protecting myself from other churches and industries certainly wasn’t encouraged by my peers at North Point. It’s just one of those natural leadership drifts within any organization.
We get so focused on leading well within our organization that we only pay attention to our organization, automatically limiting our exposure to other leaders and organizations.
It’s completely unintentional. And it’s insanely dangerous.
In this NEW POST (4-minute read), I explain the danger of organizational insulation and give you three great reasons to learn from people different than you.
Bottom Line: The breath of your leadership learning determines the depth of your leadership growth.
Why Adding “For Now” Will Keep You Relevant Forever
If you’re a leader of any kind, you have a strategy or plan.
I’ve got bad news: It’s dated.
Strategies are made for moments, but moments never remain unchanged.
I wish I understood this earlier in my leadership journey.
If you have 6 minutes, give this NEW POST a read.
I think adding two words to your strategy might be the solution to bringing a renewed flexibility to your current approach.
Stop Waiting For Someone Else To Solve Your Leadership Problem
The pandemic birthed a multitude of secondary pandemics.
One of significance is how leaders are currently making decisions and solving problems.
During the early stages of the pandemic, leaders spent so many days, weeks, and months second-guessing and being second-guessed that a version of analysis paralysis set in for good.
More than ever before, I am watching leaders stare down the barrel of a problem, but rather than solving it, they are waiting on some other leader in some other organization to make the first move. They’ve developed a habit of abdication.
Rather than waiting on some other leader who doesn’t know your specific situation or problem to offer a solution for you to mimic, ask yourself these 5 problem-defining questions and start making some decisions.
In this NEW POST, I give you these 5 questions and some additional thoughts on leadership decision-making.
7 Actions to Take When Leading Toward a Future You Can’t Predict
NEW POST: 7 Actions to Take When Leading Toward a Future You Can’t Predict
QUESTION ANSWERED IN THIS POST: As a leader, what should you do when you need to lead forward into a future you can’t predict?
Some context:
Anyone else exhausted by bold leaders and their convincing statements about a future they can’t actually predict?
Of course, I get it. A leader’s calling is to LEAD. Leaders consider present situations to inspire future direction.
We are not called, however, to pretend we know what the future holds.
We are leaders, not fortune tellers.
I refuse to be bold enough to prescribe a strategy. I will tell you what I believe great leaders do when looking at the future.
In this post, I give you 7 leadership actions to take when you are unsure about the future.
The REAL Story: Why I Left Woodstock City Church
In this NEW POST on leadership trust and transparency, I give you 10 things trustworthy leaders always do.
I’ve wanted to write it for some time, primarily because of how many times people have asked me or those around me for the “real” reason for leaving Woodstock City Church.
There is no “real” or hidden reason.
So why did so many assume there is? Or believe I wasn’t being honest?
I believe it’s because we live in a world where most leaders aren’t trustworthy. We don’t believe we can believe what they say. Therefore, we struggle to trust leadership.
I get it.
And I think we should do something about it.
If you’ve got 10 minutes, I encourage you to give this a read. It might explain some things you’ve experienced. It may give you and your team something to discuss. Or, perhaps you’ll invite others to help you see what you might not see.
Thanks, Gavin
7 Key Questions to Avoid Romanticizing the 2019 Church
Some of you are on the verge of destroying the future of your church.
I realize that sounds like one of those silly, bold statements people make to get your attention. Perhaps it is. Possibly restarting the ministry of your past is exactly what your community needs today.
I doubt it.
I’m skeptical because:
1. The pandemic changed things in our world and our communities.
2. Much of what we were doing in 2019 wasn’t working in 2019.
The fastest way to destroy a church is to build a ministry on an outdated model. And that’s what too many church leaders are doing today. Taking old methods and deploying them in this new time.
The reason: We remember our 2019 ministry models with rose-colored glasses. It’s human nature to romanticize the past, but in the case of church leadership, attempting to implement a ministry model that wasn’t working in 2019 in 2021 is a death wish.
In this NEW POST, I give leaders 7 Key Questions to Avoid Romanticizing the 2019 Church.
Answering these questions will help you more accurately remember the past while making decisions in your present.
5 Leadership Methods to Start Preparing for an Eventual Ending
My last Sunday at Woodstock City Church was August 1.
I’ve had that date circled on my calendar for several months.
It can feel that the race to end well begins when an ending date is defined. The ending date sets a public finish line, giving you a target to run strong through the tape.
Unfortunately, and to stick with the race analogy, finishing well is more about race preparation than the race itself. The finish line may mark the end of your time in the organization, but your race success is determined long before the race even begins.
You probably aren’t leaving your church or company soon, but you will one day. If you want to end well, you need to prepare now. Your leadership race to end well begins today.
In this NEW POST, I outline 5 leadership methods to start preparing for an eventual ending.
I realize it doesn’t feel urgent, but it’s extremely important. When you do eventually transition, you’ll be so grateful you began preparing now.
How can I help?
Coaching ministry and marketplace leaders through change, transition, and transformation is why I created Transformation Solutions. Let me know if I can serve you and your team as you work to make things better and make better things.
Can We Stop Equating Stage Charisma to Leadership Competency?
I recently listened to the Podcast “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.”
Have you heard it?
There is a LOT to take away, but toward the end of the second episode, one moment stopped me in my tracks.
You can read this NEW POST for the details, but in summary, it reminded me that we too easily equate stage charisma with leadership competency.
We need to stop this, like now.
Hear me out: I love my friends that are great on stage. Some of them are equally great leaders. Some aren’t. Some don’t even want to be. But because they are charismatic in front of people, we assume they’ll be competent at leading with people.
In this article, I discuss this difference and provide a simple solution.
Thanks, friends!
6 Strategies to Keep the Mission Ahead of Your Ambition
Like you, I was born with some ambition.
I feel like ambition gets a bad rap.
For a leader, personal ambition isn’t too problematic until it supplants the organizational mission.
That’s when selfish ambition takes control, dominating the organizational mission, hurting others in the organization, and imploding the leader over time.
In this NEW POST, I offer 6 strategies to help keep the mission ahead of your ambition. I also gave you a key question to ponder with each strategy.
I’d love to hear which strategy feels most helpful to you in your current season of leadership.
As I’m transitioning off our church staff, I’m heavily focused on strategy # 4.
As always, I’d love to help. That’s why I created Transformation Solutions.
Recently I’ve been helping churches with their:
1. Hybrid church strategies, and
2. Staff culture.
Both seem to be needed as we emerge from the pandemic.
Two Steps to Make Everyone Else the Hero
As a leader, have you ever played the role of hero?
Perhaps a difficult decision needed to be made and you stepped in? Or maybe an employee made an error and you took the public blame? You played the part of hero by delivering great news or offering a job or increasing a budget.
Point leaders often have opportunities to be a hero, but what about the other “leaders” in the organization?
It’s an important question. There are lots of people in every organization leading something or someone. There is one point leader, but there are numerous other leaders.
What I see too often (and maybe you’ve seen this a lot, too), is point leaders hogging the hero moments while lower-level leaders are forced to handle the day-to-day, non-hero stuff. And unfortunately, there are not enough “hero” moments day-to-day.
I’m guessing the hero-hogging is mostly accidental. In leadership, there are few things more rewarding than feeling like a hero, mostly because leadership can at times feel more like the “art of disappointing people at a rate they can stand (John Ortberg coined that little gem)!” So hero moments — although few and far between — are to be cherished for sure.
But here’s a thought: The lower-level leaders in every organization — those involved in the more day-to-day tasks — are leading people more directly than anyone. They are closer to the action. If Ortberg is right, then these leaders are disappointing people more frequently than anyone. Pushing people more frequently. And saying “no” more frequently. If anyone needs “hero” moments, it’s these leaders. That’s exactly why point leaders need to ensure they are never “hero hogging.”
Here’s an easy way to avoid being a hero hog: As a point leader (of a company, department, etc.):
1. Choose to own the disappointing stuff.
2. Choose to pass along the good stuff to other leaders in the organization.
Literally, that’s it.
Read the rest of this article to discover easy ways to allow other leaders to be the hero.
