Last week I looked at respect as the first of what I refer to as the three essentials of a healthy team. Today I want us to look at the second of those three essentials — honesty.

Let’s face it; honesty in the workplace is hard, even in the context of a Christian organization. People are not sure who to trust. They are not sure if they can speak their minds without the fear of their boss making them pay for their honesty.

Plus, their opinions and ideas may snake through the office in the form of gossip or a series of conversations with other team members. The result is usually underlying internal frustration in the organization.

One of the biggest challenges most leaders face is implementing change. Let me say, I know change is inevitable and necessary, and there is no way to avoid it. Change generally is never easy for most people. And it gets more difficult when a leader comes along and attempts to change things that people are used to.

Many leaders find it challenging to implement changes either because the people are resisting the change, or the way the leader has decided to do it.

I can recall while pastoring I came up against having to make changes with some inflexible people who I knew would resist the changes. It was difficult, I was able to make some of the changes, and some I had to accept were not going to happen under my leadership.

Here are some things I have learned about implementing change.

As a leadership coach, one of the comments I most often hear from leaders is about how overwhelmed they are by all they have to do. I know very few leaders who are not feeling constantly overwhelmed.

Some are so overwhelmed they are unable to sleep well, relax on vacation, or be present in the moment. Too many leaders have lost the ability to fall asleep naturally; their minds are unable to rest when they are trying to sleep because they feel so overcome.

You lead because you want people to follow; but not all leaders know how to get others to follow. Many think others will follow because of their knowledge. Others think their positional authority as a leader should be reason enough for others to follow. Good leaders need neither of those things for others to follow them.

Someone once said, “Leadership is influence.” People are more likely to follow because they are influenced by the leader than by the giftedness of the leader or the positional power which comes with leadership.

How does one become a leader that leads through influence?

In the story of the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-22) Jesus tells the young man to go and sell everything, give his money to the poor, and follow Him.

The man left very sad because his riches meant more to him than following Jesus.

Jesus also said that to follow Him we must be willing to hate/give up the most important relationships in our lives (Luke 14:26).

By Jesus’ own clear instructions, we are told we should not allow anything [riches] or anyone [parents, spouse, siblings, etc.] to stand between us and our relationship with Him.

Jesus wants our undivided, uncompromising loyalty and attention.