One of my favorite authors on Leadership is John Maxwell. One of my closest and dearest friends brought him to my attention many years ago. I love to read his books on how to grow as a leader but one of my favorite things he has is his “A minute with Maxwell.” Due to my hectic schedule, I do not have large amounts of time to sit and read a book so being able to fill myself with these nuggets, encourages me to grow as a leader.
This morning I listened to his one minute segment on PRIDE. Here are a few things he said:
"There are two types of pride. One pride helps and the other pride hurts. The pride that hurts is when I put myself before others. The pride that helps is when I am doing my work well, being a person who is affective, and a person of excellence, a person setting the bar high for the standard that I have to perform and lead in.
One pride will make you and the other pride will break you."
Over the years, I have seen this to be so true. I have seen many leaders care only about one thing – themselves. I have seen leaders’ use and abuse people only to get out of them what they need in order to make them succeed. I have seen people destroy precious ministries that were founded on a dream by God because they wanted to make it all about them. Everything they say and do has that underlining factor of ME.
On the other hand, I have seen amazing leaders who long to strive for excellence within themselves and with those around them. I have seen leaders push their people to grow in their gifts and abilities so they can become the leaders God is asking them to be. I have watched powerful leaders encourage and sometimes push their people to grow past their hurts, struggles, attitudes, heart issues etc. so they can grow more into the imagine of Christ. So they can grow into the leader that God is calling them to be for the call He has on their life.
One leader hurts. One leader helps.
But what has amazed me the most is how people will actually follow the one that hurts rather than the one that helps. Why is that? What makes us do that? All I could do was look at my own heart for the answers.
In my 38 (almost 39!!!) years of life, I have followed both types of leaders. I know for me, it was easier to follow the leaders that hurt because if you followed the ones that helped, it meant I had to change. It meant I had to raise the bar of the standard of who I wanted to be and take the steps toward change. Take the steps towards transformation. Take the steps to not be the same person I have always been. Sometimes it was easier to follow the one that hurts rather than the one that helps because it causes us to look deep within ourselves.
Make a list of all the leaders you follow in your life. Think about who they are and what they say and do.
Then make a list about yourself. An open and honest list about who you are. Are your conversations, emails, blogs, motives and thoughts always about you? If yes, then come to the Lord and ask Him to change and mold you. If you have a teachable and trainable heart, He will do this with you. Don’t beat yourself up. Focus on changing and allowing God to teach you His ways about leadership. Just think of the leader you will become!!!
If you are a leader whose thoughts, conversations, emails, blogs and motives are about striving for others, helping others to succeed and helping others to grow, then praise God. Go get yourself some chocolate and have a party. But beware! The enemy knows that you are a good leader. He will attempt to side track you and slowly bring in pride in a way, shape or form that you are not expecting. When that happens, deal with it immediately. Pull it out and burn it. Then shake the dust off and get back into the game.
Which leader are you and which leader are you going to follow?
No comments:
Post a Comment