The 4th Characteristic of Leadership looking at Jesus' life is Self Control. We have all had those moments in our life that we lose self control, maybe it is financial situation, or our anger, or in other situations. I think of this time when my wife and I started dating. She lived in Montana and I lived in Washington. We began to communicate on a daily bases via email, phone, carrier pigeon (just kidding) and any other means that we could communicate. At this time it was year 2001 at the start of the cell phones age, so they were really expensive to use. I did have a cell phone, but it was for emergency use only. However, my emergency was to talk to Katie as much as I could (We all get it right). We would talk at all hours of the day, late in the evening and sometimes maybe 3 or 4 hours at a time. We would do the whole, you hang up, no you hang up bit. It was so great until I got the phone bill. I rang up a $500+ cell phone bill. A cut back was in order, however it took some time for that to happen. After another month of a $500+ cell phone bill, I knew that self control must take place. Which it did, but it took time in the process. We all have these instances and sometimes it takes us to have something happen in order for us to get a fresh perspective of our need of self control. However, Jesus' life was always in control. He lived a sinless life, where many of us hope to live a sinless hour or day, but Jesus lived his whole life in complete self control. His example is powerful to understand that having self control is critical in leadership. I am sure in Jesus' time with his disciples, there were many times of frustration, but he used his self control to help alter the outcome. We can learn so much in life and leadership from this example of understanding the importance to keeping self control. I believe self control happens when we think of ourselves less and Christ more. When Christ is the focal point of our life, we look at things with a fresh perspective and through the lens of Jesus. Will we slip up, YES!!! That is where grace comes in. The goal is to consistently get better and it is a work in progress. I know that I have been planning on talking about the 10 Characteristics of Leadership from Jesus, which is still in the plan. I am taking a little detour to talk about 10 Leadership Reminders.
Here they are: 1) Make prayer your 1st response, not your last resort!! 2) Strive to serve 1st no matter the position. 3) Organizational change is hard, policy change is harder, personnel change is the hardest. 4) Mistakes happen, they are a great way to see how adversity is responded to. 5) The posture of how you lead is more important than the job title that follows your name. 6) Leaders carry a lot of weight in the words you say! 7) Balance is the essence to organizational & personal success 8) Be a mentor have a mentor (secure one & serve one) 9) Talent is no good without your team!! 10) Take the blame share the credit! From my last post, I stated that in the coming weeks I am going to talk about the 10 Characteristics of Leadership from Jesus. These characteristics are not in any specific order, nor are these the only ones. These are the characteristics that I picked. The first one is Vision. The Definition of Vision is- 1) Unusual competence in discernment or perception; intelligent foresight: a leader of vision. 2) The manner in which one sees or conceives of something. 3) A mental image produced by the imagination. 4) The mystical experience of seeing as if with the eyes the supernatural or a supernatural being. 5) A person or thing of extraordinary beauty. (From www.thefreedictionary.com) Vision is something that is in front of us not behind. A practical way of looking at this is comes from a car. As I get into my car, I look through the windshield for what is in front of me, compared to the rear view mirror which looks behind me. When I think about that, I notice that wind shield is far bigger than the rear view mirror. So my vision for what is in front of me should be greater than what is behind me. This is critical to notice, reason is that if all I do is focus on what is behind me while I am driving. I am destined to crash. Much like vision within an team/organization. If all we look at is what we accomplished in the past, our future is intended to crash. Which can be painful. Instead, we should focus on what's in front and occasionally look behind to take reference to what's behind us. As you look at the life and leadership of Jesus, all of his leadership strategies were preparing his disciples/followers for the future of what is to come. He would referenced the past, but wouldn't live in it. He led by casting vision for what was to come. As great example of this is when he was in the garden of Gethsemane with his crew. As he was walking with Peter, James & John and told them in Mark 14:34 (NIV), "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." Although this particular example was in the last few days of his life, he was giving vision for what was to come to prepare them. As a Leader, it is important to see what is down the line. As you lead a group of people, it is imperative that you do like Jesus did and prepare them for the future of where you are going. Leader create other great leaders. This happens through transparency of vision. One of the greatest ways to get fresh vision is through prayer. I believe that we should remember our past, we live in our present and we pray for our future. Our vision is what is in front of us, which is our future. God has vision for all of us. When we are in alignment through prayer with his vision, we ultimately understand our vision with more clarity. Which we then can communicate more effectively to those we lead. Vision is a substantial characteristic of the way that Jesus lead. It so should be with us as well. We as leaders need to strive to have vision to make things greater that what they have been. I challenge you to prayer for fresh vision for your life and leadership. Since working for the Rescue Mission in Tacoma, I have pondered the thought of what makes the team I serve on work. It comes down to one word. That is Diversity!!! It is amazing to see how all our diverse strengths work together to achieve success.
I pondered this today while I sat in our team staff meeting. As I looked around the table I was amazed how the diversity of who we are as people. We all come from so many different backgrounds which contribute to form who we are. Although we are all different, we have a common goal to support the Rescue Mission, each other and the clients we serve. The diversity of each individual team member contributes to the importance of our success. As a leader it is imperative to have people around you with diverse strengths. Many leaders struggle with this concept. They choose team members that are most like them. Unfortunately this sets them up for a long road ahead. For example, one of my strengths, based on Tom Rath's book Strength Finder 2.0 is Positivity. Meaning I always try to create a positive environment wherever I am. Understanding this personally, my limitation is that I can be so overwhelming positive that I could lose sight of some perspective. Knowing this, it is important that I have people on my team that have a great way of keeping a good perspective. We as leaders should not look at this as a threat, but a way to helping us achieve great success. Diversity within our team/organization is healthy. It contributes to molding us and shaping our leadership styles. I have heard many times that, "Leaders are Learners." If that is the case we should always strive to learn from those we surround ourselves with. When we have diverse team members, they can contribute in a way that you personally can't. I encourage you to look at your team members diverse strengths and how the contribute to success. Strive to set your team up for success, by giving them tasks that are within each strength. This will maximize your team/organization and increase the team/organizations productivity. |
Coach Corrigan
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