Scripture
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitudes of your minds; and put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)
Thought
Over the month of November we’re going to take a deep dive into the principles of leaders who last. Back in January we released the book Stay The Course: Five Transformational Principles of Leaders Who Last. If you haven’t picked up a copy, this month will be a great time to do so. (There are also hours of bonus video content available for FREE with the book as well as our guided workbook with team discussion questions.)
In this book, we study sixteen elite leaders and their path to the top of their profession. What we uncover is that their journey often looks the same as yours and mine. Full of setbacks, delays, frustrations, rejection and failure. It takes a rare mentality to stay the course in leadership life. In the month of November, we will unpack the five principles to build the stay the course mentality and get a running start on the year 2022.
Principle #2: Just Keep Showing Up
Principle #4: Play The Long Game
Principle #5: Live A Higher Standard
The fifth principle of leaders who last is they live a higher standard. For leaders who last, it really all comes down to leveraged impact. How can this temporary leadership assignment be leveraged for a kingdom purpose? That is the higher standard that drives all transformational leaders.
How can your temporary assignment be leveraged? The classroom you lead in, the team you are in front of, the staff you manage, the orders you fulfill, all of the running around and day-to-day wrangling of outcomes and operations. How can it all be leveraged for a transformative experience IN you and IN those you share this experience with?
In every season, a higher standard is available if we set our minds. Transformational leaders are not content stopping at the minimums. For leaders who last it is all about how they can:
Live Different
Love More
Give Generously
Pause for a moment and think of the most impactful leader you’ve personally been around. It could be an old teacher, coach, or boss. The reason why, decades later you still remember their impact is because of their ability to leverage the mundane, day-to-day, short term result driven, ordinary, temporary assignments to live a higher standard.
They lived different
They loved more
They gave generously
They lived a higher standard. That’s why years later you are thinking about them right now instead of the other hundreds of transactional leaders you’ve encountered in your years who failed to leverage their position to usher in a transformative experience.
If we’re not careful we will do the exact same thing.
We will focus on all of the things we think are important now but won’t be important in three-to-five years instead of focusing on how our interactions in leadership set trajectories for other people.
We will be consumed with self-promotion and advancement instead of serving and encouraging other people.
We will lazily hate our “jobs” instead of realizing we’re in a temporary assignment that has the capacity to transform us from the inside-out and build in us the real “stuff” of the great transformational leaders.
We will wish away our days, complain on Mondays and live for the weekend instead of fully embracing this life, leveraging our days for our transformation and the transformation of those around us.
But it does not have to be that way. We can choose to chase a higher standard for leadership.
Live Different
Love More
Give Generously
Leaders who last live a higher standard. They know each day is just ordinary, but a string of ordinary days leads to extraordinary influence in the life of a transformational leader.
Call to Action
Don’t coast to the end of 2021. Head over to staythecourseleaders.com/book and start your transformational journey. Tap into hours of free video content and guided reflection questions. Also listen to part one of our new podcast series around the principles of leaders who last!