Welcome to the final week of 2021. What a year it has been. We hope it has been fulfilling and rewarding for your leadership life. Maybe there were weeks you were sprinting, maybe there were weeks you were limping. Hopefully there were weeks you were growing.
“I’ll show you how to take a real rest..”
Thousands of years ago when Jesus uttered these words he was uncovering truth for the day we’re in. It’s as if he knew the human experience well enough to know that there is a foundational truth for the person in the ancient times, the dark ages, the roaring twenties, and even today.
Are people following you? Or are they merely following the position you have? Do you have an audience because of your leadership, or do you have an audience because your title in the organization requires people to listen to what you say?
Is conflict a part of leadership? It absolutely is. A leader must be well versed in handling conflict. It comes with the territory and must be carefully managed. Not all conflict is bad, and much is necessary for advancing the organizations we’re a part of.
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.)
The fourth principle of leaders who last is they play the long game. Every leader who possesses any longevity at all, has had to submit short term outcomes for long term gains. The ability to endure for a period of time, in order to thrive in the future.
The third principle of leaders who last is they embrace change. This isn’t a “throwing your hands in the air helplessly” type of embracing change. It’s a pressing into what is going on type of embracing change.
Leaders who last recognize change is inevitable. Whether we like change or not is often irrelevant. I believe we all experience two types of change in life. “Chosen change” and “Unchosen change.” The first is when you decide it’s time to move on. The latter is when someone else or some event decides it’s time for you to move on.
A leader who lasts knows that just merely stating a goal doesn’t mean there’s progress made. We know we must embrace humble beginnings but the next principle of leaders who stay on their transformational journey is the ability to keep answering the call.
Leaders who last aren’t afraid to start small. One of the loudest indicators of leadership immaturity is the idea that we can skip steps on this journey. The truth is, we must crawl before we can walk and walk before we can run. That may mean starting at the bottom of a corporation in the call center. Or starting with the long-term substitute role, or as the volunteer assistant. Or it may mean going back to the fundamentals of personal leadership in time management or organization (more on those in 2022). Study the path of any elite leader and we will surely see seasons in which they were mastering the basics. Working away in obscurity.
If you’ve been leading for any extensive time at all, you know the hardest person to lead - is you.
There is so much you want to do, but you don’t do. There is so much on your list, but you don’t get to it. You’ve been wanting to get up earlier, read more, write more, exercise more, whatever else ___ more.