Tag: Behavior

Self-Awareness

The ability to be self-aware and self-evaluate is easier said than done. The difficulty exists in recognizing the inward truths that often escape reality.

Marianne Williamson said, “Take stock of your thoughts and behavior. Each night ask yourself, when were you negative when you could have been positive? When did you withhold love when you might have given it? When did you play a neurotic game instead of behaving in a powerful way? Use this process to self-correct.”

When we ask the kind of questions that challenge painful answers, we find ways to improve the influence of our leadership and help others follow with confidence.

Changing Behavior

The challenge of changing one’s behavior involves areas that motivate each individual. As I learned in a conversation with a friend, “In order to change what people do, you have to change what people want.

Perhaps we need to consider what it is that people want: to feel loved, needed, wanted, and a sense of belong.

When leaders touch on these areas, people will follow with their actions.

If it looks like no one is motivated to follow your lead, then maybe you should evaluate what and how you appeal to their wants.

Sanity or Insanity

Perhaps you are familiar with the idea of insanity: “doing the same things in the same way and expecting different results.”

As amazing as it may sound, we often practice a level of insanity when approaching our leadership, we want to do the same things the way we have always done them, yet expect different results.

Our culture has changed. Demographics have changed. We have changed, whether we want to admit it or not.

What we need is a little sanity. By definition, the idea of sanity speaks of reasonable and rational behavior. Now there are two powerful words for leaders to learn.

Sanity or insanity: That is the question.

A Leader Worth Following

As leaders, several questions are important to consider regarding principles.

1) Why should we have principles to govern behavior?
2) What rule or belief governs our personal behavior?
3) Do we have a rule or belief in place for this purpose?
4) Are these rules or beliefs based on humanistic or biblical foundations?
5) Will others see consistency between our principles and behavior?

A life lived by biblical principles will always influence others. Consistently living by our principles directly connects to the integrity needed for powerful leadership.

When leaders answer these questions in relationship to principles and behavior, the steps to harmonize them develops a leader worth following.

Success

The bottom line does not always give an accurate assessment of success or failure.

When we gauge success strictly by the numbers we miss how God works to achieve His will. To God, success is found when husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church, when wives submit to their husbands as to the Lord, when children obey their parents, and when fathers train their children up in the Lord.

Success is found in the moral and ethical behavior of Christians in the world.

When Christians feed on the word of God, mature in their faith, and the pattern of leadership is followed, God sees success.

An Example To Follow

Always set an example others can emulate. How do we want others to behave at work, home, or in the church? We must model that behavior first.

The idea of expecting others to behave in ways we are unwilling to do ourselves is the greatest form of hypocrisy and a one-way ticket to losing credibility. Our conduct is all inclusive. We should never compartmentalize our lives into the way we behave on the job, at home, in the neighborhood, and around Christians. A disciple of Christ always lives a Christlike life 24-7-365.

Let us all resolve to provide an example worthy of others to follow.

Disciplined Leaders…Part 3

Discipline takes us into an area involving the direction of a leader’s personal conduct or behavior.

As challenging as self-discipline is for each of us, one of the most significant areas addresses developing new behaviors.

In order for an activity to become a habit, the general rule of thumb is that it takes 21 days.

When discipline is truly applied, the result becomes a lifestyle of new behaviors. This idea is more than a habit or second nature. It becomes “first-nature.”

The time needed to develop a lifestyle of discipline may vary from one person to another, but when it happens, leadership expands to a new level.

Influence…Part 1

Jesus described His disciples as salt and light. These terms identify influence in the realm to which they are applied. Thus, Christians are to be an influence in the world.

Our influence is determined by words, attitudes, conduct / behavior, and activities.

Christians have been known to get as close to the line of worldliness as possible in order to have this influence. Many have selected close relationships with non-Christians with this in mind. Sadly, the influence is often reversed and Christians can be drawn away from their convictions.

Let us be careful how we influence others.

Cultural Power…

Culture is a relative term. We do know that culture is a word connected to cultivating, gardening. Culture is defined as the beliefs, customs, arts, etc. of a particular society, group of people, time and place. Culture is also characterized by a way of thinking, belief, or behavior.

Our world is a multi-cultural place, and there are numerous cultures within cultures.

Leaders work to understand the culture, but changing the culture is far from easy, if not impossible.

Jesus seems to follow a good approach with the 1st century culture. How will we lead in the 21st century culture?

Principles for Leadership…

Principles indicate a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning. Think about it as a rule that governs our personal behavior.

As leaders, we need to ask the following.

1) Why have principles to govern behavior?

2) What governs our personal behavior?

3) Are they based on humanistic or biblical foundations?

4) Will others see consistency between our principles and behavior?

When leaders consider the answers to these questions regarding principles and behavior, the steps to harmonize them will develop leadership worth following.