Leadership Tensions: Who vs. What

Happy Thanksgiving week! Today’s post for our Leadership Tensions series is about the tensions of Who vs. What in hiring decisions.  This is actually a repost from awhile back but this is one of the most popular conversations I have with leaders in balancing how we handle the recruitment of staff. ————————————————————— There are two […]

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Leadership Jedi Mind Tricks

Defining reality is easy. Vision-casting possibility is hard. It’s kind of like a Jedi Mind Trick.  Great leaders use their influence and power to help calm nerves and change people’s perceptions.  They alleviate fears and provide hope.  They re-frame reality in a way that makes it palatable. Where do you need to put your Jedi […]

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Leadership Tensions: Ambition vs. Self-Control

Most leaders are driven and ambitious.  We see opportunities and we go after them.  We see farther than others can see and help lead people to those possibilities. At its best, our ambition is part of our gift of leadership and serves to propel the mission forward. At its worst, our ambition steamrolls those we […]

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An Open Letter to the Next President

Dear Mr. President, By the close of today you will know your responsibility for the next four years.  You will shoulder a burden of leadership that very few will ever bear.  You will be stretched, strengthened, broken and bruised more than you thought humanly possible.  I suspect there will be many days when you would […]

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Leadership Tensions: Ownership vs. Stewardship

Happy Monday everyone!  Today we’re continuing our leadership tensions series with Ownership vs. Stewardship. As I began writing this post I really felt like this equation had one more step: Renter vs. Owner vs. Steward Most leaders aspire to move their staff from renters to owners.  The theory being that we want full engagement rather […]

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How to Make the Most of Every Learning Opportunity

I’m in Dallas for a couple of days with our Cross Point Executive Team.  We’re hanging out at Leadership Network with about a dozen other churches talking about leadership development. I love these opportunities to get away with our team.  Here are a few things that I recommend to make the most of leadership development […]

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Trade In the Spotlight & the Superhero Cape

Our culture tends to equate leadership with power and the spotlight. The top of the ladder is the pinnacle. Center stage is a territory to siege. But let me tell you what you rarely hear about the truly great leaders. The great leaders are not the perceived heroes. They exchange their spotlight for the spotlight […]

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Trade In the Spotlight & the Superhero Cape

Our culture tends to equate leadership with power and the spotlight. The top of the ladder is the pinnacle. Center stage is a territory to siege. But let me tell you what you rarely hear about the truly great leaders. The great leaders are not the perceived heroes. They exchange their spotlight for the spotlight […]

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Leadership Tensions: Tender vs. Tenacious

“Be tender in approach but tenacious in intentionality”  Blake Bergstrom Blake Bergstrom, the campus pastor for our Nashville Campus, shared this quote in a message awhile back.  I love the quote in general but I particularly love it as it applies to leaders. It’s another leadership tension… managing the tension of being tender vs. tenacious.  […]

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Argue It Out

“Leadership, even at its best, is terribly demanding, and it is crucial that we argue out our ambivalence about our calling to leadership openly with God so that it doesn’t leak out and create uncertainty in those we are serving.”  Ruth Haley Barton from Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Do you ever wonder if […]

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