Growing as a Leader

Even though I have graduate degrees in the field of leadership, I still love to learn about leadership. I'm committed to being a life long learner. Today I had the opportunity to learn and grow in my own leadership from some leaders who have a great deal of experience and expertise. I soaked in what they had to say, and I hope that tomorrow and in the days and months that follow I will be a better man and a better leader because of what I learned today. As a leader, I will never "arrive." I will always be involved in a process of personal transformation so that the people God calls me to lead will also experience transformation.

Here are some things I'm trying to commit to as a young leader:

• Listen well: Whenever I have the opportunity to spend time with other leaders, or with people that God has called me to lead, I think it is very important for me to engage and really hear the message that people are trying to communicate.
• Read: My goal is to read one book every day. I go through a lot of books on all kinds of different subjects and from all kinds of different perspectives. Sometimes I read very fast and even skim through books to catch the main points. If a book is interesting, I'll slow down and work my way through it over a period of weeks or months. Of course, I enjoy reading content that backs up what I believe, but I also like reading books that challenge what I think I may know about the world.
• Be real: There is nothing worse than a fake leader. That is a person who happens to have power, but they don't steward it well. Bad leaders accumulate power for themselves in order to advance their own personal interests. Authentic, or real, leaders accumulate influence and power in order to give it away. They spend themselves on behalf of others with little regard for their own advancement. My goal is to be the same in the streets of Homewood as I am on the executive team in Wexford.
• Take risks: I have litte interest in self preservation. I want to live my life radically sold out to anything that God might call me to do. I'm ready. Even if God asks me to do hard things, I'm ready to go. Leadership is not all about managing circumstances, and it certainly isn't about achieving some sort of balance. Leadership involves taking risks with my own life for the sake of advancing the kingdom of God.