Last week, I posted a blog about lessons in leadership from the John C. Maxwell leadership Bible. In the Introduction of Deuteronomy, he lists eight lessons in leadership. We discussed the first lesson: Develop your core values and beliefs before taking new territory.
What I love about these eight lessons is that each one of them builds off each other. As you develop your core values and beliefs before you take new territory, you begin to build the foundation for the remaining seven lessons in leadership.
Lesson two: Leadership must be proactive, not reactive.
Definition of reactive is tending to be responsive or to react to a stimulus.
Definition of stimulus: An agent, an action, or a condition that elicits or accelerates a physiological or psychological activity or response.
Definition of proactive: Acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty.
Now I don’t know about you, but as a woman who has emotions, there are many different things that can stimulate me which cause me to react!
However, as a leader, we must learn not to react on these emotions because if we do, we can respond in a manner that is not appropriate. No matter who we are leading, we need to make sure that we are not reacting to situations out of emotions or something that has gotten under our skin. This is whether we are leading our children, in the job force, in ministry, in church etc.
There are many leaders out there leading by reacting to what is coming at them rather than going on the proactive side and begin to act in advance to deal with the expected difficulty.
We all have those times when things come at us that we don’t foresee or have any clue what is around the corner. As a leader, these are the most critical times for us to learn how to be proactive rather than reactive. Will things come along that will attempt to distract us or throw us off track? You bet. But as we grow in leadership, we can begin to grow in how we respond and making sure that we are not losing sight of the goal.
Lesson three: Activity does not equal accomplishment.
WOW! Now this one could be a touchy subject. Have you ever met someone who has their hands in so many different places that they are so busy that they are ineffective? They have many wonderful ideas but because they have themselves stretched so thin, none of the areas they are leading is effective? How does this happen? We get caught up in activities or these “good” things that they distract us from what God is asking us to do.
In leadership, we have a job to do. For each one of us, that goal is different. The focus is different. But we must be like a trained solider who has been given a mission and task to complete. No matter what comes at him, he must complete the goal. Many things may come to distract him or make him busy but nothing can take his focus off the goal. Why? Because it puts him in danger along with everyone else around him. Plus, it takes his focus off the goal.
I encourage you today to not let your emotions get the best of you so you react to things but that you take a proactive stance to focus on the goals ahead and not allow yourself to be distracted.
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