#Beingaleader means you often have to stand alone. At least at first. Your job is often to inspire others to join you but it presupposes that you are alone at the beginning. The idea is yours. The stance is yours. The product or service is yours. Alone. Are you willing to stand alone? To press … Continue reading Alone
Category: All In
Persistence
#Beingaleader means you need persistence. Persistence is defined as the obstinate continuation in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition. That's an interesting combination of words. Persistence and obstinate in the same sentence. Obstinate can be a stubbornness on the part of a leader to not change course even in the face … Continue reading Persistence
Building
#Beingaleader means you need to always be building. Building on the past. Building for the future. Building on what you have to work with. Skills. People. Experiences. Continuing to grow your building blocks. Building on your past includes all of the things you've experienced this past year: the good and the bad. The easy and … Continue reading Building
Hope
#Beingaleader means you need to have hope. Hope for yourself. Hope for your team. Hope for the future. Not hope in. Hope for. Hope is placed on something or someone outside of yourself and your circumstance that you can know is going to change everything. Hope is more than being positive about life or the … Continue reading Hope
Spending
#Beingaleader means you need to understand the importance of spending. Specifically, money. Spending to make things happen that need to happen. Spending to procure the right talent. Spending to make progress on your project. Too many leaders are spendthrifts and therefore not wise with money. Read that again. How can it be wrong to save … Continue reading Spending
Birth
#Beingaleader means you need to give birth. To new ideas. To new projects. But most importantly to new leaders. #Beingaleader means you need to be birthing and growing new leaders. Do not let the knowledge, experiences and lessons you have learned be lost when you are gone. Pass them on. Birth new leaders. In your … Continue reading Birth
Generous
#Beingaleader means you need to be generous. With your time. With your money. With your praise. So what does being generous with your time mean? It means giving of yourself whenever possible to help others achieve their goals or the goals of the team. It means you show up when the team shows up. It … Continue reading Generous
Fun?
Can #Beingaleader be fun? Can it give you energy and not just take it? Can it be what gives you life and not just have it take it from you on a regular basis? Can it give you pleasure? A sense of satisfaction? Something that propels you forward in a positive manner? We talk a … Continue reading Fun?
Confidence
#Beingaleader means you need confidence. In yourself. In your team. In the future. Confidence in your abilities. Your decision making. #Beingaleader means you need to teach yourself to be confident in who you are and what abilities you have learned and are learning. Confidence. Not arrogance. It's not about other people or a comparison to … Continue reading Confidence
Challenge
#Beingaleader means you have to challenge your team. To see things they can't see. To achieve more than they think possible. To help them win when it seems impossible. #Beingaleader means you need to challenge your team to see things they can't see. You are the one seeing the vision. Oftentimes you can challenge your … Continue reading Challenge
Motivate
#Beingaleader means you have to motivate yourself. Again and again. To do the things that need to be done. To do the things you may not want to do. To set yourself on the path to success. There is no easy success. And often it is not flashy. Sort of like raising a child. It's … Continue reading Motivate
Virtual
#Beingaleader in today's world means you have to lead virtually. Zoom. Email. Focused on the task but also building the culture you want. In the cloud. "Seeing" them but not really. Working on the tone of your emails to stop or at least not start, misunderstandings. #Beingaleader means you have to learn to lead virtually. … Continue reading Virtual
Show Up
#Beingaleader means you need to show up. Physically. Emotionally. And for them. #Beingaleader means you need to show up physically. People need to see you. To see what you value. To encourage them to show up as well. To set the standard. Whatever you want to call it, it means that you can't hide for … Continue reading Show Up
Dare
#Beingaleader means you have to dare. Dare to try. Dare to dream. Dare to be you. #Beingaleader means you have to dare to try. To experiment. To do something new. Regardless of potential for success sometimes you have to just try. It's important to try new angles and new approaches to see if you're able … Continue reading Dare
Influence
#Beingaleader means you are a person of influence. Influence is having the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something. People are looking for leaders with positive influence, coordinated influence, and impactful influence. #Beingaleader means you need to exert positive influence. Influence can be used both for positive … Continue reading Influence
Remember
#Beingaleader means you need to take time to remember. The good. The bad. Successes. Failures. What worked and what didn't. All are lessons you can learn from for the future. This is blog #100 for me. So I wanted to take a moment and remember almost 2 years of intentional weekly writing with the focus … Continue reading Remember
Family
#Beingaleader means you need to take care of your family with your Time, Money, and Focus. Whether you are the father or the mother or guardian, your family needs to be your top priority. #Beingaleader means you need to take care of your family first. They are your top priority and you need to spend … Continue reading Family
Wisdom
#Beingaleader means you need to be growing in wisdom. Wisdom can be defined as applying facts and experience to a new situation with soundness and soberness of mind. It's the application of internalized knowledge and understanding to situations you have not encountered before. I was fortunate to hear a sermon many years ago that was … Continue reading Wisdom
Teacher
#Beingaleader means you are a teacher. People will listen to what you have to say. Follow your example. And strive for things you determine to be important. #Beingaleader means that people will listen to what you have to say. Be careful what you say. Your words should be measured. Congratulatory when earned. Encouraging when needed. … Continue reading Teacher
Bold
#Beingaleader means you need to be bold. Being bold means you take risks, are confident and have courage. #Beingaleader means you take risks. Being bold requires you to see challenges as opportunities, hurdles as stepping stones and obstacles as exercise. Too many say "think outside the box". Instead, I say "blow up the box". Stop … Continue reading Bold
Uncomfortable
#Beingaleader means you are often uncomfortable. Uncomfortable conversations. Uncomfortable meetings. Uncomfortable decisions. Dealing with things most people would rather avoid. And in fact usually do. That's what #Beingaleader often means. Uncomfortable conversations could include facing our fears, helping others do the same, telling someone "no", etc. One of your fears might be these uncomfortable conversations. … Continue reading Uncomfortable
Impact
#Beingaleader means you have impact. Known and unknown. Close and far reaching. Generational. To me it's sad that we often only hear of the impact someone had on another person's life at the funeral of the first person. Regardless, the impact was there. The person might not have even known that they had that impact … Continue reading Impact
Flexible
#Beingaleader means you have to be flexible. The level of flexibility depends on your level of leadership and the current status of your project or circumstances surrounding you. During the current Covid-19 pandemic, we have to learn to be flexible or show the level of flexibility we already have. Budgets change. Staffing changes. Timing changes. … Continue reading Flexible
Completion
#Beingaleader means you are trying to accomplish a goal. To complete a task. But there are some things bigger than that. Bigger questions to ask. What does completion of your life look like to you? What will you have accomplished? What do you want others to feel at the end? This is in fact the … Continue reading Completion
New Day
#Beingaleader means you need to look at things with fresh eyes. A clean slate. Like it's a new day. The canvas of a new decade is before us. What do you see? Challenges? Victories? Sadness? Joy? How do you want to spend the next 10 years of your life? What do you want to look … Continue reading New Day
Buy-In
#Beingaleader means you have to understand the 80/20 rule and work hard at overcoming it. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people. We've all seen it. A few people doing most of the work. The rest are helping in some capacity but frankly, you're not sure … Continue reading Buy-In
Work
#Beingaleader means you have to work. Hard. Strategically. Effectively. Continually. #Beingaleader is about working hard. There is no substitute for perspiration. There is no easy success. Success comes from hard work, even if unseen by others. Getting up. Doing your job, business, career etc. Repeating this process over and over. #Beingaleader is also about working … Continue reading Work
Next Generation
#Beingaleader means you need to think about being replaced. Succession. Carrying on the vision. And you are never too young to start thinking about or preparing for this. If your vision is important enough for you to spend your life on isn't it important enough to keep it going after you're gone (whether moving on, … Continue reading Next Generation
Can-Do
#Beingaleader means you have a can-do attitude. The dictionary defines this as "being positive about your ability to achieve success." Positivity and confidence in your ability to achieve a goal or complete a task go a long way to making that a reality in your circumstance. Last time we talked about Belief Breakthrough (https://beingaleader.blog/2019/09/10/belief-breakthrough/) and … Continue reading Can-Do
Energy
#Beingaleader means you need to bring energy. Energy to yourself; to your team; to your goals. In order to bring energy you must have energy. So how does one get energy? I am seeing that we all have the energy we need within us. The issue is whether or not we are willing to have … Continue reading Energy
Focus
#Beingaleader means you need to focus. Not just on the end prize of a project or task completion but on the specific step in front of you. Studies have shown over and over that we are not really as good as we think at multi-tasking. If we are trying to accomplish a task, it is … Continue reading Focus
Leading Leaders
Not everyone you lead will be a follower. Sometimes #beingaleader means you have to lead leaders. This is a different level of leadership and requires a different skill set, mindset and demeanor. You cannot treat other leaders as followers but rather co-voyagers on a journey. They are already people of vision, inner strength and motivation. … Continue reading Leading Leaders
Keep Going
#Beingaleader means you get tired. Keep going. I've touched on this topic before but it's forefront in my mind. My month has been full of funerals/memorial services. Sometimes you just get tired of it all and want to quit. Is it really worth it? Keep going. Press through. The darkness will dissipate. God's mercies are … Continue reading Keep Going
Lead Something
#Beingaleader means you lead. Something. All the time. Small. Big. It doesn't really matter. You hone your skill in the doing. There is no substitute for this action. Reading and listening to the advice of others are important and good and can give you examples of how you should do things. But you learn more … Continue reading Lead Something
Stand Firm
This coming weekend I will be speaking at my church's men's retreat on the subject of Standing Firm (see 1 Cor. 16:13 for context). What was surprising to me as I prepared was that we are told to stand firm. Not to stand still. It is an active thing. Not a passive one. #Beingaleader means … Continue reading Stand Firm
All In
In the book The Last Arrow by Erwin McManus, he uses a phrase that struck me as critical for being a leader. He says "leave nothing for the next life." What he means by that is that we need to give ourselves totally to the cause for which we have been called and not keep … Continue reading All In
Being A Leader 