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March 30 - March 30, 2019
Before others can lead you, you must learn to lead yourself.
no one can lead you any further than you’re leading yourself.
“I would much rather steer racehorses than carry racehorses.”
“Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does on a day-to-day basis to lead himself.”
One thing that is not going viral is what you’re doing to lead yourself. I say this because it’s not sexy. It’s not newsworthy. It might not even be noteworthy, but it’s definitely worthwhile.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much” (Luke 16:10),
With the small choices you make when no one else is looking, when it’s just you and God, you are proving or disproving to him
your future ability to lead others.
Self-Leadership Principle #1: Model Followership.
learn how to model followership.
Your moral authority is vastly more important than your positional authority, and nothing erodes moral authority more than undermining the person you claim to be following.
Your self-leadership in these situations will develop influence and prepare you for future situations you may face.
Monitoring your heart involves checking those deep-rooted motives and emotions that lie inside you and give direction to your behaviors. With
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Leading ourselves requires monitoring those dark corners of our hearts where these dangerous emotions lie.
healthy curiosity should drive your efforts to monitor your behavior. And not just curiosity for curiosity’s sake, but curiosity for the sake of growth. You need to cultivate interest in how others see the way you act and lead. There is feedback orbiting around your world that could change you, grow you, stretch you, and make you better, but the responsibility for soliciting that feedback is yours!
What got you there will not get you where you want to be.
“Truly great [leaders], no matter how successful they become, maintain a learning curve as steep as when they first began their careers.”
rarely will someone love you enough to give you the full truth.
Most of the big employment decisions in your career will happen when you’re not in the room.
It doesn’t help you if there is something keeping you from an opportunity—but you are the only one who doesn’t know it.
Before you put a plan together for your own growth, you should ask your boss a question: “If an opportunity for promotion came available, what would keep you from fully recommending me?” The answer to that question could be the genesis for your personal growth plan. A word of advice on this: I wouldn’t ambush your boss with that question. Send him an email to tee it up, and mention that you would like to ask him some questions to help you in your job performance. Then follow up in person. And be aware that most people will resist answering that question because it is difficult to answer.
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Once you know where you are, the next step is to develop a clear vision for where you want to go.
Self-leadership means spending the necessary time and effort to determine your own personal vision for your future.
It’s dangerous to hold too tightly to the plans we’ve determined for ourselves, but it’s just as dangerous to have no vision or direction for stewarding the gifts, talents, and opportunities God has given us.
There are a few questions that have helped me zero in on how to respond to what God has put in front of me. • If money were no issue, what would I choose to do with my time? • What really bothers me? What breaks my heart? • What makes me pound the table in frustration or passion? • What gives me life or makes me come alive?
If you’re relational, maybe you need to create a group of your peers to learn and grow together.
A “Lead Me Plan” must also build in means of pressure and systems of accountability to help execute it.
What if God wants to accomplish something in you more than he wants to accomplish something through you?
How we see the world has less to do with the way the world is and more to do with the way we are.
As you seek this wide-lens perspective, you may be able to better see and feel how your role is connected to what the organization is ultimately trying to do.
Researchers have identified this panoptic view as one of the key drivers for employee satisfaction. They’ve found that the satisfaction employees have in their job is directly correlated to their ability to see how what they do fits into the big picture.
Those leaders who feel a strong sense of ownership and have made the crucial connection between what their job is and how it drives results for the organization are more deeply engaged.
What you’re doing matters most in light of what your organization is trying to accomplish.
There is no wasted time in God’s economy.
Somehow, some way, Paul was able to lift his head in the midst of his dark situation and see the bigger picture of the opportunities in front of him.
he did not allow the chains to determine his vision.
Seeing what you do have will allow you to overcome what you don’t.
There is a confidence that comes from believing that God has you where he wants you.
Throughout history, God has put specific people into particular positions for definitive reasons.
Hope is a confident expectation of something good to come.
You can choose positivity. This is not just positive thinking, a self-delusion that ignores reality. It’s based on a different perspective of your reality, a panoptic view of your circumstances.
the hardest time to choose positivity is when you’re handed a decision you didn’t make and might not like.
positivity is attractive and produces other qualities in leaders that are naturally attractive to others.
The greatest benefit I bring my team is not my talents, gifts, experience, or education. It’s my energy.
A deep trust in God and a persistent hope for the future will push you to keep growing and learning because you believe God is getting you ready for something he will lift you into.
when I’m ready, my time will come.
Focus on cultivating the panoptic view and waiting for the opportunities God will provide.
Every good leader is also a critical thinker.
But leaders who are critical thinkers don’t just criticize and whine; they learn.
