Follow The Leader

What am I doing?

Where am I headed?

What’s next for me?

What is my potential?

These are questions that often fill the minds of my generation. Most of us have reached a point where we know that we cannot do what we are doing forever, but understanding the next step can be difficult. Moving ahead from where we are now requires certain leadership traits. If those traits have not been developed well over the past decade, then there is a long road ahead before taking the next step. Those traits or skills have been described many different ways by many different people, so they might sound familiar to you. You have to be teachable, have perseverance, grow your team, earn trust and learn to trust, and replicate.

Be Teachable

I would say that the most important trait of any leader is their teachability. If you are not teachable, how can you expect those you lead to be teachable? There will always be new things to learn, whether they be better ways to lead or gaining a better understanding of the field you are leading in.

Remaining teachable allows for humility in leadership. No one likes a know-it-all, and following one without questioning them can be difficult. As a leader, it is ok to be wrong sometimes, as long as you are learning from those mistakes. Sharing what you’ve learned from your mistakes and the steps it takes to avoid those mistakes will help earn trust from those you lead and help them in their advancement as well.

Perseverance

No one goes through life without facing some kind of adversity at some point. Everyone fails sometimes. Being teachable helps you learn from those failures and mistakes, but perseverance gets you through them to the other side.

The world as we know it today is built on the foundation that was laid by leaders who persevered through adversity. Everything from automobiles and refrigerators to commercial airliners and state-of-the-art football stadiums had to start somewhere. Designs started out with what we might consider basic flaws and some of those flaws have even led to the loss of life, but those flaws were overcome through perseverance.

Perseverance does not mean doing the same thing over and over again, expecting better results. That’s the definition of insanity. Perseverance is learning from failure and adversity, making adjustments, and then trying again.

Grow Your Team

Team growth is a healthy metric for measuring the abilities of the leader. This might often times be seen as growth in numbers because a large team tends to point towards a strong leader, but I think it’s more than that. A team can grow in strength and ability as well.

Some leaders are placed in a team that has no direction and seems to be fighting against itself. A great leader can bring focus to that team and help them work together instead of against each other. Some teams are great at working together, but lack the skills to take their production to the next level. A great leader in that situation can help train them and teach them different ways of accomplishing their goals, making them more productive in the process. Some teams cannot grow in number, but the aspiration of others to be a part of that team points to the same strength in its leader.

Trust

Trust is a pivotal part of any team and it starts with the leader. Team members will struggle with trusting each other if they are not trusted by their leader. Learning to trust the people who you lead gives them the confidence to excel. There might be times when they fail, but that is a part of trusting. You can do a huge part in earning their trust by coming along side of them in their failures to help them through rather than just coming down on them. They still have to own up to any consequences, but knowing that you are there to help them gives them the confidence to persevere.

Replication

There should always be a desire to advance as a leader. That same drive should be instilled in your team. As you lead, train your team in the aspects of your job. This does not mean delegate all of your menial tasks to your team, but get them excited to help in the bigger parts of your job. Sometimes you can develop one person to be able to take your position as your move up the ladder or into a different position, but sometimes you have to train multiple people in the different aspects of your job.

Replication can be a scary process because bring feelings of insecurity to the surface. If you train your replacement, won’t your company be able to fill you position with a lesser paid individual? The answer is yes, but it also allows you to move forward. It’s hard for any organization to let an individual move up the corporate ladder when they fill their current role so well. If you want to be able to move ahead more easily, you need to train someone to take your place without missing a beat.

Where Am I Headed?

I can honestly say that I am still working on all of these leadership traits. I hope that I can always say that I am getting better at them. As I grow in leadership and under great leadership, I am unsure of where I am headed next. A few people have mentioned consulting work to me because of my wide range of knowledge and talents. I’ve started to do more web design on the side lately. I still have plenty of opportunities to lead worship. I am in that place where I don’t know what I am going o do next. I am comfortable where I am, but I know I have the potential to do so much more, earn so much more, and maybe even break new ground in my current field. I think for now I will continue to work on becoming a better leader and getting better at what I am doing. I want to vastly improve the areas that I work in.

Image via flickr.