Kingfisher Leadership
1st February 2017
Kingfisher Leadership news My top four leadership lessons (we will unpack these over the next couple of issues):
Leadership lessons I have learned- part one
I did not appreciate the importance of tending my own I have been in various leadership roles for most of soul. Laying down our lives for the my Christian life, which now spans 37 years. These sheep and pouring our lives out like a roles have ranged from leading drink offering are very small groups, being part of a biblical practices, but unless local leadership team, pastoring we take steps to tend our My big local churches, leading leaders own souls, maintaining a and overseeing an international healthy spiritual life, we will leadership network. Although these are have nothing to give and mistake not widely differing leadership will quickly burn out.
prioritising the
situations, the lessons I have
I have allowed my learned over those 37 yeas of tending of my leadership calling to being a Christian and 36 years become blurred. All own soul. Learn of leadership are relevant to all leaders need to respond to from my mistake! of these categories. Although crises by putting on life lessons can only really be whatever ‘hat’ is needed: a learned through experience, I ‘firefighters’ hat’ if there is a wish someone had flagged up fire that needs putting out, a for me in advance the most important lessons I ‘police hat’ if there is an intervention would need to learn. Over the next few issues of that needs to happen, and so on. Leadership News, I want to highlight some of these However, that hat should only be worn really important lessons. Here’s the first one: short-term. If the leader has no strategy for how they will take it off, You can’t pastor others if you don’t pastor they will end up having no space to yourself. wear the hat that represents their Perhaps the biggest mistake I have made over 36 actual calling. I let conflict become personal. Leaders will always be the focal point for peoples’ unhappiness and unresolved issues. Being that focal point can
years of leading others is the lack of attention I have given to looking after my own soul. Leaders tend to be ‘others-focussed’ by nature and will work long hours and put up with a great deal in order to see the mission fulfilled. As such, they commonly tend to overlook the need to look after their own soul - their own emotional life, the balance they need between 1 giving out and receiving,
Kingfisher Leadership
feel very personal and that can lead to a loss of confidence and can build towards resentment of others and feeling let down by God. There are of course occasions when the attack actually is personal, but most often, although it is couched in personal terms, it is just coming our way because we are in the leadership position and people tend to vent at leaders. Realising that it isn’t personal makes it possible to step back from the personal hurt and deal with the issue in a more effective, balanced way.. I forget that leadership is all about change and start allowing my desire for peace and stability to be the driving factors in my ministry. All change has cost attached to it; cost in terms of people being insecure, people dealing with the loss that this change will bring; people misunderstanding or misrepresenting our hearts and motives in this time of change. After a while, this can become a heavy burden, and our leadership becomes focussed on keeping the ship steady and people happy, which makes us increasingly risk-averse and resistant to making changes: we no longer want to pay the price.
I have made each of these four leadership mistakes - and many more! However, I have found that there is a way of not only addressing these mistakes but overcoming them and moving forward in a healthier and stronger way, which in turn has enabled God to use me in increasingly strategic ways. On the basis that it is good to learn from our mistakes, but even better to learn from other peoples’ mistakes, we shall be unpacking each of these over the coming few issues of Kingfisher Leadership News.
1st February 2017
I have discovered to my cost that, left unattended, the leader’s soul does not grow automatically. Even in the midst of ‘leadership success’ - a growing ministry, life change in others happening regularly, prayers being answered, miracles happening, we overlook the need to tend our own soul at our peril. Compassion fatigue sets in as we find ourselves becoming increasingly irritated by people who don’t perform as we want them to. Grace gets replaced by demands to do more, give more, try harder. Joy becomes a thing of the past as we get more and more serious, seeing the negatives increasingly replace the positives. Tending our soul becomes a luxury that, frankly, we don’t have time for. I have struggled in this area over the years seemingly blind to the irony of the advice I am giving out to others, advice which I, myself, seem unwilling to take.Tending our own soul takes many forms and many books have been written about this, but I have found a good starting place to be the advice that Rick Warren gives: Divert daily, withdraw weekly, abandon annually. Divert daily. No matter how much you have to achieve in a day, no matter how many thoughts you are juggling, you need to have a set amount of time each day that you are seeing as an investment in the tending of your soul when you turn aside from ministry concerns, leadership issues, people problems, and you simply bring ‘you as an individual’ into your Father’s presence. This time is not a luxury, it is a strategic investment - probably the most important investment you can make as a leader. Withdraw weekly. It’s good to have that basic time each day, but we need a more creative time each week to recharge our batteries and refresh our weary souls. Do something different from the daily leadership routine once every week - your soul needs balance! Abandon annually. Each year look for a way to be spiritually fed that is away from your local church and therefore away from your responsibilities as a leader. Find a place where you can receive, so that you can come back refreshed and ready to lead others with a revived soul once more. 2
Come to receive a fresh touch from