Tweet There are no perfect leaders — except for Jesus. For the rest of us, we each have room for improvement. Most of us live with flaws in our leadership…
Recently I posted 7 Characteristics of Cowardly Lion Leadership. In that post, I discussed the characteristics of leaders who fail to have the courage needed to lead well. I thought it only fair to share the reverse post. There are many courageous leaders in our world today, as evidenced by the strong organizations that thrive even during difficult economic times.
Here are 7 traits of a courageous leader:
You remember the cowardly lion from The Wizard of Oz don’t you? He was supposed to be the king of the jungle but he had no courage.
Sadly I see this missing in much leadership today. Let’s face it. Leading others is hard. There is often loneliness to leadership. (I wrote about it HERE.) Leadership takes great courage.
Here are 7 characteristics of cowardly leadership:
Tweet The longer I’m in leadership, the more I realize I don’t always fully know the real health of my team or organization at any given time — at least…
Let’s be honest! Criticism can hurt. No one enjoys hearing something negative or finding out that everything you are doing isn’t perceived as wonderful by others as you hoped it would be. Criticism, however, is a part of leadership and, if handled correctly, doesn’t have to be a bad part of leadership. Learning to let criticism work for you rather than against you is a key to maturing as a leader.
Recently I posted 5 Wrong Ways to Respond to Criticism. A companion post is in order.
Here are 5 right ways to respond to criticism:
Criticism accompanies leadership. The only way to avoid criticism is to do nothing. If a leader is taking an organization somewhere, and really even if he or she isn’t, someone will criticize his or her efforts. The way a leader responds to criticism says much about the maturity of the leader.
Here are 5 wrong ways to respond to criticism:
Tweet Leaders need to remain motivated so they can help motivate their team. Leaders also need to be keenly aware of how motivated their team is at any given time….
Tweet We must make good staff hires in the church. That’s seems common sense to me , but there’s a definite reason. In most churches it is often difficult to…
Tweet After one of my posts about controlling leadership, I received this question: Any chance there is an upcoming post or two on how/when/where to confront a controlling leader? Especially…
I have written a good deal recently about controlling leadership. As most of my posts do, this stems from current or past experience in leadership. Within the past 6 months I have talked with close to a dozen individuals in ministry who are experiencing this type of leader. It is effecting their personal leadership, as well as the health of their organization.
If you missed any of these posts you can read:
7 Warning Signs You May Be a Controlling Leader
3 Results of Controlling Leadership
7 Reactions to Controlling Leadership
The obvious most frequent question I receive as a result of these posts involves what to do about a controlling leader? I previously wrote a post about “leading up” called 5 Ways to Influence those Who Lead You, but it addresses a leader who may not be giving you a seat at the table, but not one who is necessarily a controlling leader. Controlling leadership appears to be a more difficult issue. A leader who attempts to control everything within his or her realm is much harder to influence.
So, here’s my best answer. Here are three ways to respond to a controlling leader: