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4 Words of Advice for a Brand New Leader

I consistently talk to new leaders about the beginning days of a leadership position. In my opinion, the opening days of any job are some of the most important. Apparently others think so also. Recently someone messaged me on Twitter to ask, “What words of advice do you have for a newbie leader? I’m beginning my first pastoring role after years in student ministry.”

It has just been a few years since I was a “newbie” myself. I speak with more passion, and perhaps even more authority on the subject, because I learned along the way. I tweeted him back and said, “Learn the people first—go slow to change—think intentional in all you do—pace yourself.”

And that was enough for Twitter. This is my blog, however, so I assume I should explain a little further.

Here are four pieces of advice for the new leader:

Learn the people first, before making major changes.

Relational leadership is always most effective, but especially for a new leader. The people need to learn to trust you. They need an opportunity to feel you are committed and connected to them. They want assurance you have the best interest at heart for them and the church or organization they’ve loved and served longer than you have. They need to experience you listening to them for their input. Value—and love—people first and foremost. It’s not only effective—it’s the right thing to do.

Go slow with change when it’s time.

The older the church or organization—or the longer they’ve needed change—the more important it will be you take time to implement change. Know the key players, communicate, communicate, communicate, and help people understand why the change is needed. All change is resisted. Let me say this again—ALL CHANGE IS RESISTED. At some level, someone will not like every change you propose, but fast change is most powerfully rejected. Understand every change comes with an emotion. People are resisting for a number of reasons—anger, fear, uneasiness, uncomfortableness. This doesn’t mean don’t change. Most likely they’ll expect and even want some change, and some of this change may need to come very fast, but listen and learn the things you can change immediately and things where you’ll need to move more slowly. Get lots of input from others. Collaborate. A healthy change process takes time to do well.