Home Pastors Articles for Pastors 7 of My Most Repeated Pieces of Leadership Advice

7 of My Most Repeated Pieces of Leadership Advice

Limit your energy to a few key areas.

Delegate the rest. I’ve found I’m seldom effective past four or five major initiatives. Really three is a good number. There are some who think they are super-human. But, they are almost always wrong and it is proven over time.

Don’t be afraid to make people wait for excellence.

I see leaders burnout and be far less effective because they try to do everything at once. It’s OK to say no. In fact, it’s actually healthy. I love the phrase “Caged Momentum.” I’m not at all saying do nothing, but waiting until it’s the right time may bring more people on board and keep you from overextending yourself or the church/organization.

If you ever lack energy inside the building—get outside the building.

I see pastors get so frustrated at the lack of progress. They beat themselves up because things aren’t changing fast enough. They lose their energy dealing with the negativity of change. I say to those pastors, get back to the coffee shops. Talk to people outside the church. Fuel yourself among the darkness of a hurting world which is changing faster than we can capture on the nightly news.

It’s actually what most of us have been called to do. Make disciples. Spread light. And, when the disciples in the church start arguing over potlucks, get outside—into the community—and refuel your passion with people searching for hope. And, watch your energy rise.

Invest in a few key leaders.

You can’t invest effectively in everyone who’s trying to follow you. Jesus had lots of followers. He had 12 disciples.

All of these could be their own complete blog post. I’ve spent as much as an hour talking about each one to pastors.