Is Your Leadership Growing or Stagnating?

If you think back and capture a picture of yourself the first day you became a leader, and compare it to where you are today, would you be satisfied with the growth you’ve had? Regardless of how you answered that question, there are four practices you can develop to turn your leadership experiences into continual growth and developmental opportunities.

I must admit this idea was sparked by a sermon I heard in church about how believers should continually grow in grace throughout their lives. The pastor taught us how we are either growing or stagnating. The more I listened to the sermon, the more I realized his message applied directly to our leadership skills as well. Leaders can use the same four practices to continually grow and develop their skills throughout their lives.

Read

The first practice is to read. The pastor explained how reading the Bible daily can allow us to learn more about God. In the same way, leaders can read leadership articles or books daily to learn new things about leadership principles and theories. By reading, we continually keep up on latest developments and refresh all of our skills. We must constantly learn from others if we expect to be great leaders of the future.

Open Discussions with Other Leaders

After reading your daily leadership articles/books, discuss what you learn with other leaders. Make it a habit to share what you are discovering and get thoughts and opinions from other leaders. This allows you to get different leadership perspectives every day to develop the depth in your skills. An important aspect of leading a diverse group is understanding everybody’s points of view. Additionally, when people see their leaders openly discussing topics, they tend to follow suit and be open for discussions and learning as well.

In much the same way, you can grow your spiritual depth by openly discussing what you are reading with other believers. The amazing thing about scripture is it seems like everyone can get a different yet similar meaning from any given passage. Leadership principles are no different; discuss them and grow!

Join a Mastermind Group

My pastor discussed how important it is for us to join a small group; our church calls them “discipleship groups.” The purpose of these groups is to not only dive deep into various Biblical topics, but also to ‘do life’ with each other. People gather together weekly, have dinner with each other, and have an open discussions; they become like families. Leaders can do the same thing by joining a mastermind group.

A mastermind group is much more than a group of like-minded leaders who want to build a relationship and learn from each other. It’s also much deeper than the daily discussions you have with other leaders. A mastermind group is a tight group of leaders who share life with each other; who lean on each other; who hold each other accountable and get honest & open feedback from each other. This type of group is very common to the most successful leaders in the world, and something no leader should take lightly. A mastermind group, much like a ‘discipleship group’ is what permits you to take your leadership to the highest levels and keep it growing.

Share What You Know

All great leaders have this in common; they pour into others by sharing what they know. They are continuously telling others about their success stories so that other leaders can reap the benefits. In the same way, believers are commanded by Jesus to share the good news of the Gospel to others. Think about it this way; if you had something that could save somebody’s life, wouldn’t you tell them about it? Great leadership skills must be shared so that others can reach their full potential as leaders so they in turn help the people they lead.

The bottom line is that as leaders, we must continually strive to develop our leadership skills. What may have been a successful practice yesterday may not be effective tomorrow. Four practices that all leaders can do to help develop and grow their skills is to read about leadership; discuss what they are learning with other leaders; join a mastermind group with other leaders; and share their successful leadership experiences with others. If you are already doing these four practices, you are well on your way—congratulations; if you aren’t, it’s never too late to start.

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