Principles of Effective Leadership - Lesson 8

The great hope of the world is the church and the great hope of the church is great leaders.

Leadership is difficult to define. It is a mixture of science and art.

An institution doesn’t necessarily die, but it will tend to die without good leadership.

Leaders shape the values of an organization, bring together a common vision, act as catalysts and keep things going. Four important aspects of pastoral leadership are prophet, priest, sage and king.

Are leaders born that way or is leadership an acquired skill? The people who think it’s innate believe that leadership is revealed in crisis not produced by crisis. Some people say it’s acquired because it is an ability that anyone can learn. Some people say leaders are summoned by circumstances and rise to the occasion.

A person will only excel by amplifying strengths never by simply fixing weaknesses. Your personality does not change as you grow. Once you find your sweet spot, spend the majority of your time working on your strengths. Convergence is where your greatest passions and strengths line up with the greatest opportunity.

Every leader must understand the context in which they work in order to be effective in having the impact they desire. Three contexts you face as a leader are cultural context, social context and situational context.

The situational context can be described by saying that leadership style must match follower readiness. We have influence with someone when we adapt our behavior to the performance needs of the individual.

One of the greatest challenges of leadership is self-leadership. We can only take people as far as we are willing to go ourselves. Core values are our inner beliefs, not what people think we are but what we know we are.

Three core values of a leader should be humility, compassion and courage.

It’s important to have values and skills. Values are critical but they aren’t enough. There will be some variation in the way leaders express these skills that will depend on their personality.

Good leaders apply their values and skills effectively as they think and analyze situations intuitively. Building and working with teams is an important element of being a successful leader. 

Having good people on your team is important because the team is only as strong as the weakest link. Get the right people on your team and the wrong people off your team. Trust lies at the heart of a functioning team.

It is essential to have a mission that defines the key objectives. Key elements of a mission statement include one that is focused, inspiring concise and memorable.

A Mission is a philosophic statement that answers the question, “Why are we here?” Vision is a strategic statement that answers the question, “Where are we going?”

The further you can look back, the deeper you can look into the present enables you to better look out into the future. Great leaders don’t impose a vision, they liberate the vision that’s inside their constituents.

Without an effective strategy, a vision will lack credibility and remain an illusion.

Identifying objectives is the process of moving from vision to reality. Objectives are the tactics employed to carry out the strategies, the action plan of what needs to happen now. Decisiveness is an important quality of a good leader.

Leadership is transformational by nature. Leaders are those who are committed to deep changes in themselves and those they lead. Change equals dissatisfaction plus vision plus strategy plus support systems that overcome resistance.

Expect challenges because it’s normal for people to challenge those in leadership. Good leaders are able to adapt to challenges and learn from them. We will eventually leave what we are leading, so do what you can do to lead in a way that will make the transition easier. The most significant test of leadership is not present performance but the legacy you leave behind.