accountability
Healthy Habits For A Leader
I didn’t always consider myself a leader. Early on in youth ministry I saw myself as someone who was meant to just hang out with teenagers. As I grew...
Building a healthy leadership is a challenge when you start out in youth ministry. As a young adult I was nervous about leading people twice my age. I wanted to make sure people knew I was serious and that I had control. Instead of leading and inspiring I was stubborn and immature. Fortunately, I had a loving volunteers who were able to humble and guide me through my mistakes.
Courtesy of Newhaircut/Creative Commons License
Healthy leadership is not quickly gained, it’s something earned over time. If you have recently taken on the reigns of leadership you are now faced with earning the trust and respect of your team. While trust and respect can be earned with healthy relationships, it can also be damaged when a leader makes these 3 basic mistakes :
- Acting As If A Task Is Beneath Them: Leaders should know how to delegate; however, they should also never be above any task. We have a cleaning crew that comes into our building twice a week; however, you’ll still see our pastor emptying his own garbage can. Leaders are people willing to get the job done no matter how dirty or small the responsibility.
- Assuming They’ve Been Heard: Leaders have a lot to communicate and they need to be clear and consistent. It’s easy to assume that because you are a leader that you’ve been heard, but that’s not always the case. You need to be clear and repeat your points over and over again. You’ll know you’ve been heard when people can effortlessly repeat back you what’s been communicated.
- Using The Leadership Card: A leader should never have to demand respect. Anytime you need to tell someone, “You are going to do this because I’m the boss.” you’ll lose them. People will respect a leader because they feel respected in return. You’ll inspire your team to follow you by serving, loving and challenging them to grow. You’ll lose them by throwing around your authority.
Healthy leadership comes from knowing that you are limited. While mistakes will always be made, it’s important to avoid the basic ones. Make sure you:
- Build An Accountability Team
- Learn From Other Leaders
- Allow God To Lead You
If mistakes are made respond by owning them, learning from them and responding with love and humility. Even though you are not perfect people will still follow you.
What other leadership blunders do you see?