Time
Management
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8 Steps to Effective Christian Leadership
Author:
Sean Mize
As a Christian leader, you are held to
high moral, ethical, and social
standards. As a leader, you are held to high standards, but as a
Christian leader, that bar is raised even higher. Why? Because both the
Christian and non-Christian social environment has tended to expect that
Christians measure up to their self-proclaimed moral and ethical
standards, as they rightly should. What can you do to be sure you ‘stand
up
to the test’ in the area of Christian leadership?
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Probably the most important thing you can do as a
Christian leader
is to clean up your act---if there is anything in your life, moral
or
ethical, which would not stand up to scrutiny if the entire world
found out---you must eliminate it immediately. Do not give
anyone an occasion to think that you are a hypocrite.
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Be sure that every decision you make is honest and
ethical. You
cannot effectively lead, as a Christian or not, when your decisions
and
actions are not above-board, fair, and honest.
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As a Christian leader, commit to telling the truth
no matter what.
As a Christian leader, when you lie or tell half-truths, people tend
to
feel that your entire faith is a sham. In fact, if you are
habitually
lying and telling half-truths, your faith may indeed be a sham.
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Learn everything you can about the tasks at hand,
even if it means
working in the trenches for awhile. No one likes to be led by
someone
who has never done what they are doing. This doesn’t mean you
have to
become an expert, just participate in the menial work long enough to
understand the frustrating aspects of the work. Another
benefit to this
is, when you have actually done the work, you can more effectively
brainstorm solutions to challenges when they arise.
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Lead by example. Do you expect your
employees or secretaries to
arrive on time for work, and dressed well? Then you must do
the same.
Sometimes it is so easy to think that you have earned the right to
come
in whenever you feel like it, or to return from lunch whenever you
wish.
Sure, you may have earned the right, but you gain far more by
setting
the example for performance. Do you expect others to work
overtime when
a project is behind projections? Then you must be willing to
do the
same.
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Although you may feel you have earned the right to
delegate away all
the work, continue to be involved in productive tasks. By
doing some
of the work, not only do you gain the respect of your employees, but
also you keep in touch with the flow of things. As a leader,
it is easy
to become disengaged from the actual productive segment of your
business, and resultantly make decisions that look good on paper and
sound good
around the boardroom table, but are actually worthless when the
rubber
hits the road.
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Constantly reevaluate your own performance.
Often, you may spend so
much time correcting the actions of others and solving crises you
didn’t create, that you develop a sense that others aren’t as
capable as
you. Consequently, you may not recognize when you are falling
into bad
habits that also need to be corrected. Be the first to
recognize and
correct your own short-fallings.
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Avoid pride. Once in a position of
leadership, especially if you
are good at what you do, it is easy to begin to feel that you are
invincible. Once that occurs, you become vulnerable to pride,
and may make
decisions you would frown on if your subordinates made the same
decisions. Maintain full responsibility for your actions, and
keep them
above-board at all times.
Bonus Step:
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Learn to manage your time. When you are in a
position of leadership
and find yourself delegating away most of the time-consuming tasks,
it
is easy to lose control of your time. Again, when your
employees see
you wasting your time, they will tend to do the same.
To subscribe to a free weekly newsletter with more
Christian success tips like these, click here:
Christian Success Newsletter Written by: Sean Mize, Christian
entrepreneur and Christian time management author.
Christian Success
Network
Note: You have my permission to reprint and distribute this
article as long as it is distributed in its entirety, including all
links. © Sean Mize 2006
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