7 Simple Leadership Tips

I have a heart for leaders. Especially church leaders. I’d love to help others learn from my mistakes. In fact, that’s a huge motivation for this blog.

With that in mind…

Here are 7 simple leadership tips:

Fight fewer battles where the win doesn’t matter as much – Okay, honestly, this is hard, because usually people are bringing the battle to you. The petty complaints. The constant grumbling. But it’s nothing new. Read the Old Testament. The key is to remember the over all vision. What’s the end goal. Go for that and don’t be distracted by the things that won’t matter in eternity.

Don’t try to duplicate as much as you emulate  – The connotation of duplicate is to be just like. With emulate, you’re trying to match the level of success, in your individual context, but not necessarily achieve it in the same way. You’ll stress less about your progress this way. Trust me.

Lead with leaders – The more you surround yourself with people capable of leading others, the greater the impact your leadership can have.

Your downtime is gold – Don’t neglect it. Discipline yourself to build sufficient rest into your schedule.

Think marathon not sprint – You will have bad days. There will be critics. You will send a dumb email. You will say the wrong thing. You will plan a project that bombs. On those days, remind yourself of the bigger vision. Regroup. Rest. Recharge. Go at it again tomorrow.

Stop trying to control – You’ll seldom be able to anyway. When you do, people will either rebel or never live up to their potential. Control the vision, but almost everything else you can release to the people around you.

Be authentic – Not partially authentic. Be totally authentic. People will trust you more if you are who you claim to be… always. Don’t try to make yourself bigger than you are. People can easily spot the margin between the portrayed you and the real you. And, the greater the margin the less you’ll build trust in those you hope will follow.

Any simple tips you would add?