Ever notice that so many of the challenges you face as a leader happen in your mind?
Me too.
Why is that?
Well, so much of leadership is actually not a battle with others, it’s a battle with yourself.
And a good portion of that battle arises out of insecurity.
Barnabas Piper and Todd Adkins interviewed me this week for their 5 Leadership Questions podcast. You can listen here. This week’s release is Episode 113 (I was also a guest previously on Episode 80).
Barnabas and Todd asked me to comment on five lies leaders believe (especially church leaders).
The conversation was fascinating…as it mostly goes back to insecurity. And I thought it was worth a blog post.
Here are five lies leaders wrongly believe.
1. I must know everything about everything.
This trips up so many leaders, and it was a tough one for me when I was starting out.
Most leaders who think they need to know everything feel that way because they know they don’t.
That insecurity can be paralyzing.
The funny thing is…when you fake an answer, people can tell you don’t know. Rather than gaining confidence in your leadership, your guesses, fake answers and ‘covering’ actually causes people to lose confidence in you.
One of the most glorious answers a leader can give is “I don’t know.”
Period.
You don’t need to be defensive.
Just look them in the eye, securely, and admit you don’t know. You don’t even need to go the uber-achiever route and say, “But I’ll find out.”
You might say, “I don’t know, but what do you think?” Or “I don’t know, but I’m sure we have someone here who might. Let’s see.” Or you might just say, “I don’t know.”
When you do that, you elevate the team. You actually build up the ability of others to contribute.
Frankly, I trust people who tell me the truth far more than people who cover their insecurity with guesses and partial knowledge.
2. I must be prominent and lead from the front.
I think in the early days of leadership, most of us instinctively want to lead from the front.
Frankly, during the first decade of my leadership, I was too insecure not to.
But over the last decade, as I’ve become more comfortable with who I am and who I’m not, I’ve been able to do a better job leading more people than ever with less ‘up front’ time than ever.
In fact, in the last few years, I’ve been thinking constantly about what John the Baptist said: “He must become greater. I must become less.” Naturally, this applies to Christ, but I think it also applies to others.
That’s why I’m fixated on handing off our ministry at Connexus to the next generation…and that my role doesn’t always have to be front and center.
Every church planter needs to ask this question: “Is what started with me going to end with me?”
The more secure you are, the easier that becomes to answer that with a no. I’m working on it. Hard.
So…if you want to build a ministry that endures, don’t build it around someone who will die.
