For the past two weeks I have been focusing on the leader and prayer. First we focused on the importance of prayer in the life of the leader. Then we identified some reasons why the leader needs to pray. I want to conclude the topic this week with some practical suggestions leaders can apply with the aim of improving their prayer life.
Make time for your personal prayer life.
Every leader I know aspires to be a good leader. They want to lead their people to the best of their abilities with the direction of God.
Many attend school for years to learn how to be a good leader. Then once they begin their roles as leaders, they continue their training by attending workshops, seminars, conferences, retreats and special events, all in an attempt to be a good leader.
Some become part of a group of leaders that meets regularly to help each other be good leaders. Some leaders have a mentor or hire a coach to help them be good leaders.
If you spend any time talking with a leader in ministry, it will not be long before you hear of all the things they are doing as they try to lead their people well. You hear about books or blogs they are reading, podcasts they listen to, twitter feeds they follow, all in an attempt to stay relevant and be effective as a leader.
There is one topic, however, that I hear too few Christian leaders talking about as essential to their leadership: prayer.
I recall a time in my life as a leader when I bought into the myth that being busy was normal, even necessary. I was on call 24/7 and felt I was needed; that gave me a false sense of value, power, and control. In the process, I neglected my family, my health, and my spiritual and psychological well-being.
In today’s world, it is common to think that unless you are crazy busy, you are somehow neither effective nor normal. Unfortunately, we have bought into the myth that busy is expected and necessary.
Let me suggest some red flags to look for as signs that you have probably bought into the myth.
As you look forward to this new year, what are you taking with you from the past year? That may sound like an obvious question, but in reality many of us don’t take time to reflect on what we are taking into the new year from the previous one.
While you may be making plans for what you would like for your life in the coming year, I want to challenge you to take a look at what you are carrying with you from the past year. If you do not take inventory of what you are bringing but focus only on what you want to achieve, you may find yourself struggling to achieve your goals for 2017 mainly because they are being sabotaged by things you brought with you from 2016.
As you celebrate this Christmas let’s not forget the reason for this season of celebration: it is God with us. God became flesh, reaching us with His love, mercy, and grace. It is very easy to get caught up with all of the cultural trappings and commercialism, and miss the real meaning of Christmas.
Hanging the lights, decorating, shopping, giving and receiving of gifts and all the goodies to eat is certainly part of Christmas celebrations in North America. But these are not the reason for Christmas; the Lord Jesus Christ is. If we are not careful, we could celebrate Christ’s birth without Him being present.
How can we make sure we celebrate Jesus?
We frequently hear about the many requirements for being a successful leader. Characteristics such as gifts, talents, and personality are often highlighted. Many books have been written with the intention of guiding leaders and potential leaders in developing these aspects of their lives so that they can succeed as a leader.
A leader could be at the top of her game in gifts, talents, and personality, yet still not succeed. We are familiar with the leader who is smart, motivated and talented but seems unable succeed. For many such leaders, the missing element consists of just two words: THANK YOU!
One thing you know about having a checking account is that before you can make withdrawals, you must make deposits. Sometimes you may make a withdrawal for more than you have in the account and with most banks, rather than refuse to honor the withdrawal they will charge you a fee for exceeding the amount in the account. Other banks will refuse to allow you to exceed your balance.
This same concept may be applied to your role as a leader. Leaders who lead well are aware of these principles at work in the relationship with those they are leading.
They know that getting followers to support them and help achieve the goals of the organization, they must first invest in relationships, especially with those she/he works most closely.
Here are some ways you can make deposits into the relationships with those you lead, so they will trust and follow you.
Growing up in the Caribbean I was used to only two types of weather patterns: rainy season and dry season. Where I grew up the average annual temperature was 80 degrees. In the Caribbean, we only paid attention to the thermometer, which served to tell us the temperature at any given time.
I don’t think I even heard about or knew what a thermostat was until I came to the Unite States in the mid-1980s. For most people in the Caribbean, we only need to know what the temperature is so we can dress appropriately. We had no use for a thermostat because few of us had air-conditioning–and certainly no heating–in our homes.
Seeing the excitement and focus on each athlete’s face at the summer Olympics in Rio indicates that they have come there with a plan in mind and a goal to achieve one thing and one thing only—win a medal. They don’t care who the competition is, they are not backing down at a chance to win a medal.
One thing that occurs during the athletic events is a number of false starts. A false start is when a competitor begins before the official signal, or when the attempt to begin something is unsuccessful. An athlete’s false start is usually caused by the excitement and nervousness of getting a shot at winning a medal. Once the false start has occurred all the athletes are given a chance to start over, and many athletes who had false starts went on to win medals because they corrected their mistakes during the second try.
Leaders also will have false starts. Sometimes the false start occurs when they first arrived, or it could happen after they have been there for 10 or 20 years. When it comes to leading, false starts can happen anytime and every leader can have one.
When was the last time you enjoyed a 24-hour period without doing anything you regard as work?
How regularly do you have a 24-hour period in which you do not do anything you regard as work?
How is your health? How are your most important relationships? Are you thriving, or merely surviving?