Unfortunately, history is filled with accounts of leaders who disregarded God’s revealed will and chose to do what seemed right to them at the time. Read Proverbs 16:25.

A fundamental question all Christian leaders should have an answer to prior to the temptation to participate is, “When is the price of obedience to God too costly?” Or put another way, “When does my way benefit me so much that it seems more right to me than God’s way?” Every Christian leader should periodically ask, “Do I have a price that would tempt me to choose my desires over God’s standards?” A godly leader’s commitment to God should be such that they will obey Him no matter the perceived value of the compromise offered. Read more »

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. Read more »

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. Read more »

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. Read more »

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. Read more »