Leader: The misconception

• Loud makes you a leader: Just because you are loud, boisterous, A-type personality, talkative, extrovert, etc. – doesn’t make you a leader.
• Leaders are confident: Leaders are human, and we all fall victim to self-esteem and insecurities issues.
• Leaders know everything: WRONG! They may come across like that, but trust me, they don’t. They tend to know what’s in their lane and maybe some overlap.
• Leaders never make mistakes: Any good leader will tell you the mistakes that taught them the most.
• Leaders need to do everything: I’ve seen people consider themselves to be leaders and try to do it all. Only do be a hot mess and not accomplish hardly anything.
• Leaders never get their hands dirty: You have to understand the process to lead, so you may have to roll up your sleeves and get hands-on. Football coaches tend to be ex-players.

Leader: The Lifelong Pursuit

• Discover your passion – We all have different talents and should learn what they are and use them. Pray that God leads you to a place to serve.
• Seek Wisdom – Praying for wisdom is the best thing a leader can do for themselves. We tend to chase all kinds of shiny objects. Pray that God directs your steps.
• Building your team – Surround yourself with people strong in their faith and more intelligent than you.
• Work on communication – Never stop working on your communication skills. The “leader” who can’t communicate is not a leader.
• Keep learning/growing – Never stop learning and growing in your walk with Christ. Maturity comes with time and seeking God’s will for your life.

On the shelf

• Deep work: Rules for focused success in a distracted world – Cal Newport
• Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of Less – Greg McKeown
• Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when the stakes are high – Patterson, Grenny, McMillan & Switzler
• Canoeing the Mountains: Christian leadership in Uncharted territory – Tod Bolsinger
• In the name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership – Henri J. M. Nouwen
• Wild at heart – John Eldredge
• Becoming a king – Morgan Snyder

 Truth & Grace

• Leadership falls in the category of you get out what you put in.
• Romans 12:3-8 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Challenge: Never stop becoming more like Jesus because that will allow you to become the leader you were meant to be.