Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Now is the acceptable time.
It is time…
It is time for leaders to stand up and lead.
It is time to be men and women of God.
It is time to fulfill your role and responsibility in the home.
It is time for Christians to speak up about their faith.
All you have is right now, and it is time. Do not waste what God has given you. Take advantage of the time you are given and begin now!
It is time to make a difference.
Leadership is often viewed as influencing and instilling greatness in others. However, true leadership brings out the greatness already inside of them?
John Buchan said, “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.”
Consider how we can achieve this:
Believe people have greatness within.
Arrange opportunities to be responsible and accountable.
Allow them to fail.
Provide support when they do.
Create a team atmosphere.
These are just five suggestions, but when applied, they highlight leadership greatness.
Integrity is more than honesty. It involves strong moral principles, a moral uprightness, wholeness.
There is an incorruptible nature to a spiritual leader who demonstrates integrity. They take responsibility for who they are and what they do.
Integrity displays an undivided and unshakeable character of Biblical soundness. This character exudes humility and follows a path of consistency.
Integrity is best taught to children at a young age. Leadership must exemplify integrity.
Integrity stands for, speaks, and lives truth. It will not change, even if one stands alone.
Christians are who we are “in the dark.” Think about it!
We all make them. We say and do things we wish we had not, and there are no “easy” or “do-over” buttons. The opportunity to receive another chance depends on how we handle the mistake.
Acknowledge it.
Take responsibility.
Evaluate every possible solution.
Take appropriate action.
Act quickly!
When we approach our mistakes with humility and a decisiveness toward appropriate actions, there is opportunity for one more chance.
Is this not what God has done for us?
Who or what determines failure? Why is failure seen as negative? How can leaders deal with failure in ways to improve and benefit their leadership?
Consider a couple of steps:
First, recognize failure is inevitable. No matter who you are or where you are, failure takes place.
Second, acknowledge it and take responsibility. Do not ignore, deny, or cast blame when failure occurs.
Third, failure is not fatal. Winston Churchill is credited with saying, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”
There is a powerful relationship between life and leadership.
The mindset of trying to do things on our own will ultimately fail. We need one another. There is a minimum of twenty-four “one another” passages throughout scripture. These passages teach us about the spiritual relationship and responsibility we have to each other.
When leadership engages these thoughts to strengthen relationships, the result brings a powerful boost to our leadership.
When we fulfill the responsibilities outlined by the New Testament writers, the church grows stronger.
Isn’t it time we built the kind of relationships to accomplish both?
Weeks clip by amazingly fast and before you know it we face a new year. But, before we get ahead of ourselves, lets consider the last three quarters.
Instead of adding another activity, responsibility, or assignment to our full-plate, what if we considered ways to eliminate something that helped simplify our lives?
The thought can be frightening, because it is challenging. However, if we prioritize life just a bit, we might find that removing areas on the fringe not only simplify life, we also de-stress it.
Imagine the benefit to our leadership.
What chance is there, out of all the people on the planet who have never even heard the name of Jesus, you and I heard it?
Why were we so blessed to hear the Gospel when many in the world hear an altered version if they hear it at all?
We need to recognize the responsibility that comes with this opportunity.
Should we keep it to ourselves? Can we really go through each day without considering those who walk through life unaware of what awaits in eternity?
We are blessed among all people. This blessing is one meant to be shared, leading others to a hope of something beyond.
A learner takes responsibility for the priorities, learning, and resources for achieving a capacity for self-direction. The idea expresses moving “from dependence to independence to interdependence” (Lois Zachary, The Mentor’s Guide, Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships, 3).
A number of elements are also essential for a learner-centered program: reciprocity, learning, relationship, partnership, collaboration, mutually defined goals, and development.
The design of each of these elements is to promote stronger relationships that motivate, inspire, and contribute to development and growth. This relationship is collaborative and channeled to achieve a support system of success.
Imagine what happens when people believe in themselves. Imagine what happens when leadership promotes this thought.
Sam Walton said, “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.”
Develop others in ways that creates this kind of environment.
Express confidence. A word of encouragement helps others accomplish great work.
Give responsibility. Give responsibility and allow them the opportunity to achieve the task.
Handle failure appropriately. Help people learn from it, evaluate, pick up, and move forward.
Express confidence. Begin and end with telling others how much you believe in them.