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 »

Proverbs is all about the mind of a leader – how leaders think, how they perceive the future and their attitude toward wisdom. Read Proverbs 1:20-23.

Leaders think differently than followers. Good leaders see things before their team and they see beyond what their team sees. Whereas the team can focus on action steps that need to happen next week, the leader must think, envision, and plan well into the future. Read more »

Wise leaders do not confuse activity with accomplishment. Read Psalm 49.

David knew ordinary circumstances growing up on a sheep farm as part of a middle class or lower class family, and he knew what it was like to have great wealth and power and live as the king of Israel. Leaders don’t have to have that wide a swing in life circumstances to know that setting life priorities can get confusing and conflicting. Leaders have to decide what matters most or they become victim to their selfish desires or the circumstance that makes the loudest demand. As significant as success, security, and significance are there is something more meaningful, and if a leader misses it they miss everything. Read more »

One of the basic things that separates a leader from those who desire to follow is their perspective and vision. Read Job 19:25-27.

Job had a profoundly different perspective and vision for life than did his friends and his wife. Job maintained an eternal perspective. He believed his redeemer lived and after his death he would still see his creator. (This may be one of the earliest Biblical references to the resurrection.) Job, after having lost everything from an earthly perspective and with a painful skin disease threatening to take his own life, cast a vision for a reality after the grave. Even after his friends told him if he had lived better he would not be in this condition and his wife told him to curse God and die, Job did not abandon his eternal perspective. Read more »

What a leader accomplishes is determined by their priorities. This is true of what you accomplish today because you will put your efforts to the items you determine are more important and it is true of life accomplishments because you will focus your energy on those life goals you determine are important. Read 2 Chronicles 1:1-12.

Solomon has become king of Israel, replacing his father David. The nation’s expectations were high. God’s blessings had been given to David. David had been a leader of the stature of Abraham and Moses, and the country and the people had benefited greatly from David’s leadership. Solomon’s life priorities would determine his first acts as king. Read more »