Good communication is essential for effective leadership. Whatever talents you may bring into the organization, if you are not a good communicator you will struggle to get the loyalty of followers and achieve goals for the organization.

The winning communication style is assertive communication.

Developing trust takes time, effort and intentionality. You have to be conscious of the fact that you are working on building trust with the people you are leading. Do not expect to be trusted simply because of your title, power, authority, or job description. Trust is something you must earn from the people you lead.

In the world of organizational performance, the church stands apart in a significant way from all other organizations. At the same time, the church continues to incorporate organizational skills used by secular organizations, many of which have assisted the church in doing great things to spread the Gospel.

Many larger churches have taken on the management structure of corporations with the lead pastor and numerous supporting staff mirroring corporate CEOs and managers or vice presidents. Organizational structures which help churches operate effectively reflect good stewardship of resources.

As leaders in this COVID-19 new normal, we will have to learn how to function outside the box of our normal way of doing things or our comfort zone if we are going to be effective going forward. But before we can function outside our comfort zone, we first must learn how to think outside our comfort zone.

When things are new and different and we must learn how to function in them, we tend to get nervous, anxious, afraid and sometimes plain angry. Sometimes, the new way of functioning is not as difficult compared to the mental shift we have to make in order for us to start functioning in it. It gets even more difficult when you had no say in the new normal and you have to go along with it anyway.

In this new novel coronavirus environment, one of the challenges many leaders face is how to empower their people to work effectively and efficiently. For many, working from home has become the norm. That means you as the leader are not physically present with them, so you are not sure how effective they are being.

I believe if you come up with ways to empower your team, you will be as successful if not even more successful than pre-coronavirus.

What makes some leaders stand out as great while others are seen as average? Why do some leaders succeed wherever they are while some leaders struggle?

You may be familiar with the saying, “Leaders are born not made.” While the saying remains debatable, most will agree that there are certain core qualities, whether natural or learned, that all successful and great leaders possess.

How prepared are you to deal with opposition?

Too many leaders, when facing opposition, leave their responsibilities and move on to a place of less opposition. In some cases, this is because they are not prepared to deal with the hardships that come with being a leader. Some leaders believe that leading should be easy and without opposition because they have the authority and power to lead and make decisions; they believe people should follow them, not oppose them.