Healthy Leaders | Issue 11
Ten traits of a humble leader, five reasons to read the Bible (again and again), two effective coaches, and one essential priority.
Welcome to Issue 11 of Healthy Leaders.
In this issue ‒ ten traits of a humble leader, five reasons to read the Bible (again and again), two effective coaches, and one essential priority. Let’s dive in.
Why We Reread the Bible
It might go without saying, but the Bible is the most re-readable book on the planet. Why? Well, I’m glad you asked. Ryan Higginbottom has a few very good reasons:
Reading (and rereading) the Bible is not an end in itself. There is no heavenly trophy for most times reading the Bible.
We are getting to know a person—God—not a textbook. And we must hold tight to the gospel truths that fuel our love of our neighbors.
We read because we are loved by God. And because God loves us, we read so that we might love him and love our neighbors.
And until we love perfectly, we reread.
The Pittman Effect
I have no idea who the Razorbacks are, but it looks like Coach Pittman is doing good work applying biblical leadership principles like accountability and encouragement, and creating a winning culture as a result. Vanderbloemen explains:
Arkansas’ success under Coach Pittman’s leadership makes it drastically clear: good culture is critical for any team, church, or organization to thrive. It can be hard to measure success within ministry the way you can measure it in football. There aren’t points, and there certainly aren’t – or at least there shouldn’t be – other teams we are beating. But we do have our own metrics that we get fixated on: number of filled seats on Sundays, amount of baptisms, donations compared to past years, and more. But there is no use obsessing over our metrics if we don’t have the right cultural bedrock for success.
Ten Traits of a Humble Leader
This one from Moses Y. Lee demonstrates why humility is a foundational indicator of a healthy leader; it really does impact so many other areas of your health as a leader, in fundamental ways. Here’s a taster:
Humble leaders tend to celebrate others’ accomplishments and not their own. Arrogant leaders tend to disregard other people’s accomplishments if it doesn’t serve their agenda.
Humble leaders tend to give the benefit of the doubt, knowing that nobody is always at their best. Arrogant leaders tend to assume the worst, unable to see the logs in their own eyes.
Humble leaders tend to appreciate nuance, since they know they’ve been wrong many times before. Arrogant leaders tend to be exceedingly black and white, unwilling to consider contrary views.
Humble leaders tend to be empathetic, often prioritizing people over ideas. Arrogant leaders tend to be rigid, unable to receive constructive criticism.
If you’re interested in growing in humility, we’ve got a design that can help.
When Leaders Reduce Their Status, People Tell Them the Truth
We’ve got two coaching examples for the price of one this time, friends. Here’s the folks at Admired Leadership offering a helpful reminder for leaders who are seeking to build trust: start some pickup basketball games with your followers:
Coaches who get to foul, complain, and rib Mazzulla during the pickup games are more likely to engage, debate, and share their honest views with him during the season. Mazzulla knows something critical to team leadership. Any time a leader reduces or casts aside their status, they encourage more openness and honest feedback from those they lead.
The status of position, authority, and title can get in the way of great leadership. Team members are less likely to challenge or question the views of leaders who have the status to reward and punish them. While leaders can never completely shed their status, making less of it or demonstrating to others that they will not impose it works like oil to lubricate the willingness of team members to express their candid views.
Notably, this level of trust — and the very opportunity to shed status in some capacity — is not built during meetings or conferences, but during play.
Building Leaders or Building Organizations
Church and ministry organization leaders are often faced with difficult choices regarding what they should prioritize. With shortages of time and resources, what should you invest in: building your organization, or building leaders?
Dr. Malcolm Webber maintains that the latter must precede the former.
Christian organizations often are birthed out of a genuine move of God. Moreover, they are birthed to serve that move. They are birthed to fulfill the divine vision. That is their only reason for existing – to support the specific vision. However, over time, the vision may be fulfilled; or it may even be lost in the busyness of activity. Either way, the organization loses its sense of purpose. One day it wakes up and realizes that it has no compelling vision anymore and that it needs one to survive. But a deadly shift has occurred: the organization that once existed to serve its vision, is now looking for a vision that will exist to serve the organization. The organization has displaced its vision with itself. It has become its own reason for existing.
Dr. Webber points out that at this point, the organization should not seek to justify itself by seeking some sort of “new vision.” Instead, the path forward must involve building leaders.
“We can avoid the problem of vision displacement by focusing on building leaders who carry within their hearts a passion for fulfilling God’s purpose, and not merely for maintaining self-serving organizations. Historically, this is the way the true Church has continued for the last two thousand years. It was not organizations that passed the banner of truth from one generation to the next; it was people – leaders.”
That’s all for this one, friends. If you found something encouraging in this letter, share it with a friend. If you’ve found something encouraging outside of this letter, send it our way. We love to share what our leaders love.
Until next time, we’re with you!
— Chris
(for all of us at LeaderSource)