Every competent leader knows the importance of a team for counsel and support. Read Proverbs 15:22.

Teams are comprised of positional specialists. Team members are recruited because of their specific ability and their expected contribution. With a properly assembled team, the individual strengths of the team members combine to produce an outcome which no individual team member could have produced.

A leader that has mastered the many forms of communication has the ability to effectively manage conflict. Read Proverbs 15:1-7.

Every leader will face relational conflicts. I know of no leadership model that will allow a leader to avoid them. The question isn’t how do I avoid conflict but how will I best manage it when it arises.

Effective leaders don’t confuse activity with accomplishment. Read Proverbs 14:23.

Even top flight, experienced leaders can find ways to wile away time. It happens in a different way than the first year apprentice but the lack of actual work and accomplishments are just as damaging and over time become just as obvious.

There seems to be two situations where even experienced leaders are more likely to become victim to poor time management and lack of productivity:

When a leader has been working at the same job for a long time, done the hard work of building an efficient team, put structure and organization in place, finely tuned plans and everything runs smoothly without constant attention – The lack of problems to solve and even the need for a leaders influence every moment can create a situation where the leader learns how to kill time. King David of Israel just prior to his affair with Bathsheba is an example of this situation. You can re-read that story in 2 Samuel 11-12.

Even for good leaders, change can be difficult and even disruptive. Read Proverbs 14:8.

In one way or another, every leader has an aversion to change especially if things appear to be going reasonably well and according to short-term and long-range plans. Yet we serve a God that is committed to nothing less than an entirely new order in His creation. Revelation 21:5 says, “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then He said, ‘write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” Living in a world directed by the hand of God the effective leader needs to anticipate change and even embrace it. The goal isn’t to stop change but to determine how to lead in an environment where change is a given.

Effective leaders lead with consistency even when their personal life or work environment lacks structure and organization. Read Proverbs 14:4.

King Solomon of Israel, who wrote most of the book of Proverbs, lived in an agrarian society. Several of his proverbs lose their profound meaning when read by leaders three or four generations away from the land. Proverbs 14:4 talks about an ox and an empty or clean manger, etc. and is not instantly viewed as a proverb that would shape a leader’s thinking or actions. When restated in today’s leadership language it has a profound point; “An empty barn or stable (or business) stays clean but there is no income from an empty stable so get used to working in less than ideal situations.”