Fuel for KidMin Leaders (cont.)
3. Self-Awareness
Good self-leadership is impossible without good self-awareness. Self-awareness is the emotional intelligence you need to understand how and why you react or respond the way you do in a situation, and then to understand how your behavior impacts those around you.
Self-aware leaders know their strengths and weaknesses. They don’t make excuses for them, and they don’t ignore them. They own them and seek to grow by finding good mentors and counselors.
Self-aware leaders also always evaluate what they need to “own” in every situation and what isn’t for them to internalize. Whether it’s a successful event or an unexpected problem, they’re seeking to first take ownership of how they contributed and then lead their team on to the next step.
Parker Palmer—writer, speaker, activist, and founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal in Seattle, Washington—reminds us that “Good leadership comes from people who have penetrated their own inner darkness and arrived at the place where we are at one with one another, people who can lead the rest of us to a place of ‘hidden wholeness’ because they have been there and know the way.”
Ask:
- What are areas I’m weak in? strong in?
- How do my strengths and weaknesses affect others on my team? What can I do to grow the positive impacts and correct the negative impacts?
The Self-Leadership Process
Self-leadership is the hard work that happens behind the scenes. It’s the effort that’ll sustain you as a leader. It’s an ongoing process that great leaders are committed to because they know and understand how their influence impacts the people they lead.
In ministry leadership, many of the people we lead are volunteers and therefore follow out of a passion for the vision. That passion will quickly wane under a poor leader—all the more reason why the commitment to being a leader people want to follow is essential.
This journey of self-leadership isn’t easy, but it’s part of what equips you to be the leader God is calling you to be. As you recruit, develop, and train others, resist becoming so busy doing ministry that you neglect the self-leadership you need to sustain you.
Your God-given leadership strengths are a gift to you and to others. The church needs you to thrive so you can help others thrive. Lead yourself well so you can lead others better.
Jenni Catron served as the executive director of Cross Point Church, a multisite church in Nashville, Tennessee, for nine years. She is an author, speaker, and leadership expert.
This article was originally published on ChildrensMinistry.com, © Group Publishing, Inc.
