“70% of leadership is self leadership”
12:50 Friday 6 January 2012
I have heard it said, “70% of leadership is self leadership” which from one respect can look like a self-centered and selfish view of leadership, but I have found this principal to be continuingly more and more true in my leading of others.
I have been ineffective at leading in the past, when 1) What I am saying/doing is not from God. 2) My Life hasn’t backed up what I am saying.
When people see God at work in you, they want to be led by you, and so they should be! As it is God is God, and He is Amazing! When leading as soon as I have tried to fall back onto my own strength (which is most of the time) the things I do seem to have less of an impact. In the same way I hope some of this blog has something of God in it, but most of it is probably my worthless babel.
The authority of what you say comes from what you do. If you do not do the things you say or do not do them consistently, people are not going to respect your leadership or take what you say seriously
So I have seen leading myself as trying to become evermore led by the ultimate, supreme and mighty leader of the universe Jesus and striving to live with more integrity. (All pretty obvious so far, but true!)
Some of the things I try: making sure I am actually reading my bible and praying (having a set routine helps me do this) instead of just intending to makes a big difference to how close I feel to God. Spending time “studying” (learning more about God) there is great teaching available online and endless books. Living rightly and trying to break old patterns can be really difficult but vital if we want to be more in step with God. Asking God to change my heart and having someone to be accountable to, I have found greatly helpful in this. And having someone older and wiser to talk with is fun and really helpful.
These are just some of the things I have found useful, but it doesn’t mean you have to have it all sorted, or be anywhere near sorted, but if us as leaders try to make sure we are leading ourselves towards God I believe it makes us better at leading others in the same way.
So I would argue taking lots of time to invest in yourself as a human being as a leader is not selfish. 70% seems a large amount but I think the more time I have spent leading myself, the more space I have allowed for God to work in my life and my leadership.
(If you want to read more on self-leadership, Bill Hybels is a master http://www.buildingchurchleaders.com/articles/2001/le-2001-003-13.86.html?start=1)