This is a random post, but I was thinking recently about the “backside” of leadership. Here’s what I mean…
A great leader:
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The longer I lead and manage people, the more I realize that the most important element in leading and managing people is….
Wait for it…
Have you forgotten that principle?
Leadership is about people. It’s relational. It depends on learning how to interact with people, how to encourage them, how to have healthy conflict, how to recruit them, and how to keep them informed.
You get the idea.
That’s not new information, but the problem is that every decision a leader makes impacts people. Some make the leader popular. Other decisions make the leader unpopular. Therefore, it’s easy for many leaders to become people-pleasers, trying to make sure everyone is happy. Other leaders go to another extreme and become a controlling leader; never allowing anyone input into the leader’s life or the decision making process.
One solution for me has been to do a stakeholder analysis of the situation. When I consider the person’s interest and power or influence in the organization, it can help the way I respond in making the decision, who’s involved in that process, and help us stay focussed towards the mission, while still valuing people.
This diagram shows a typical stakeholder analysis model:
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Great organizations don’t just appear. There is a method to the madness. I wonder sometimes, however, if we make it seem more difficult than it is to create success in an organization. While nothing worth doing well is ever easy, certain attributes seem to exist that successful organizations share with one another.
From my observation, here are 7 attributes of success as an organization:
Tweet It would be difficult to conclude Paul was not an effective leader. He was the arguably the most successful church planter of all times. Paul managed to plant churches…
I write and speak a lot about wisdom. I think wisdom is critical to good leadership. Leadership demands consistent decision-making and a wise leader has developed certain attributes that protect the leader and the organization during this process. A leader learns wisdom from the personal experience of success and failure and from the insight of other leaders.
Here are 7 attributes of a wise leader:
In my first management position, I was a 19 year-old college sophomore working full-time and leading a small staff of four people in the men’s clothing area of a major department store. I was placed in the position almost by default, because the previous manager left unexpectedly and I was there and eager to lead. Everyone working for me was older than I was, including one man who was in his sixties.
Today, even though I have aged considerably since then, I continue to be in a position where people older than me, with more experience than I have in many areas, report to me by position. Since I work with many pastors and church planters who are starting out in their ministry and will likely encounter the same experience with either volunteers or paid staff, I am hoping this will be helpful information.
Here are 7 tips for leading people older than you: