Tweet One of the best things a leader can do is ask questions. I love to say to teams I lead, “I only know what I know.” The leader can…
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Frankly, finding that balance has always been difficult for me, and at times in the life of the organization, one area does require greater attention than other areas. The key for me is to always keep the big picture in my mind of what we are trying to accomplish, while recognizing the individual contribution, each area needs to bring to that success. I can never allow one area to cloud out my perspective of the other areas.
Tweet I was meeting with a young pastor who wants to grow as a leader. He lives in small town. He is young, but his staff is even younger. There…
Tweet I worked with a pastor on a leadership issue once, which was causing harm to the church. The pastor wanted me to help him think through how to address…
Tweet In one of my first vocational leadership roles, I managed a large retail division of a major department store. The division had several departments within it and each department…
Tweet Do you want to know if a leader has high character? You simply have to observe them long enough. We demonstrate whom we really are by what we really…
Tweet Years ago a very successful business mentor of mine gave me a vital tip about a necessary meeting all leaders should consider. Unfortunately, since I received this advice, I…
Tweet This is an opinion post. In fact, this is an opinion blog. Unless I’m quoting Scripture you can dismiss everything I write as one person’s opinion. Mine. But this…
This is a random post, but I was thinking recently about the “backside” of leadership. Here’s what I mean…
A great leader:
The longer I lead and manage people, the more I realize that the most important element in leading and managing people is….
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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: