It’s a strange phenomenon…I’ve seen people serve in leadership roles who I didn’t think were the most qualified to lead, yet they are leading well and people are following. And, many times, they are achieving great results…

The reason is not their abilities as much as the way they have positioned or presented themselves to a group of followers.

The opposite is equally true. I have seen people who have positions where they are to be the leader but no one seems to be following.

That’s because of one principle of leadership:

Leaders posture themselves as leaders…

• They seem to be in control or they take control…
• They aren’t afraid to take a risk…
• They are willing to go first…
• They have battle-scarred hands from life experience…
• They are still dreaming, when everyone else is settling for mediocrity..
• They have the latest information…
• They appear to have a plan…
• They have impeccable character and integrity…
• They hold a big vision…

You may not have all the answers, you may even be fooling yourself at times, but if you are postured to lead…others will follow…

Consider your leadership posture…would you want to follow you?

What do you look for in a person you will consider following?

Every blogger has a reason for the time they spend blogging. It could be to express their personal thoughts and opinions, invest in others, or even to build an income. For me personally, it’s about building influence. I’m not bashful about saying that. I feel God has called me to invest in the next generation of church leaders and my blog is the front door to that opportunity. The more influence I build through my blog, the more people who read, the more I can fulfill one of God’s calls on my life.

Regardless of the motivation, the reaction every blogger appreciates from his or her reader is the same. All bloggers want to be appreciated for their work, whether an audience is 20 or 200,000 per month.

With that in mind, here are 7 ways you can appreciate your favorite bloggers:

Read – One reason bloggers keep track of analytic measures is to track the growth and consistency of readers. When you read a blog, you are paying a blogger the highest compliment. Even bloggers who blog for fun and say that the total number of readers doesn’t matter to them appreciate knowing someone has read what he or she wrote.

Promote – If you enjoy a blog post, you show appreciation by helping the blogger promote that post. Whether you re-tweet, Digg, Stumble or forward it in an email, when you pass on the post you are applauding the blogger.

Comment – Comments are one of the truest measures of a blog’s impact on readers. It amazes me how engaged some bloggers are with their audience by the number of comments the simplest posts receive. All bloggers who allow comments enjoy reading them. The comments don’t even have to be positive, but taking the initiative to leave one shows you read the post.

Link – The strongest investment you can make in a blogger you enjoy reading is to link to their post or blog on your blog, website or other social media outlet. When one links to a blog it helps build online strength and influence, and helps grow the audience of the blog. If you read the blog daily, linking to it shares that with the rest of the world, which is always appreciated by a blogger.

Implement – Most bloggers are purposeful in the writing of their posts. When he or she pushes the “publish” button they hope the post will impact someone in some way. Whether the post simply brings a smile to your face or makes you think; or if it inspires you to make changes in how you live your life, if a post or the blog affects you personally, share this with the blogger.

Correct (gently) – If you see bad links, poor grammar or spelling errors it’s okay to tell the blogger. In fact, it’s appreciated. The best bloggers are blogging frequently and are bound to make some mistakes. Just be gentle. Remember…you like this blogger!

Loyalty – Not every post will be a home run. If you like the author, keep reading on a consistent basis, thoroughly digesting the ones that you find the most interesting and skimming the ones that aren’t as appealing. If you enjoy a blog, you further the enjoyment and compliment the author by making sure you never miss a post. The easiest way do this is to add your favorite blogs to an automated reader or email feeder.

That’s how you applaud a blogger. These things keep most bloggers blogging. For those of you reading this blog on a regular basis, or even those who started with this post, thanks for reading. I really do appreciate each of you.

Are you a blogger? Why do you blog? What would you add to my list?

Ben Arment is a bright, energetic, do-something young leader I admire greatly! He’s a former church planter, so that got me interested in following him initially, but then I attended his Whiteboard and Story conferences and admired how he was encouraging the church to think more creatively.  Ben’s Dream Year project is perhaps my favorite of all that he does.

I’m a proponent of dreaming big…I’ve written frequently about it here and even did a series of dream posts once.  Dreaming keeps marriages healthier, it builds careers and dreaming gets us closer to realizing some of the glory of the great God that we serve. No dream could ever be too big for our God. Ben is empowering others to live out their God-given dreams!

What’s your dream?  Maybe Dream Year is for you:

Dream Year Trailer from Dream Year on Vimeo.

If you are reading this in a reader you may need to open the post to see the video here.

Encourage me…inspire me…What’s your dream? Share it here.

One of my best rules (suggestions) for church planting is don’t try to be a lone ranger. That may work in western movies, but not in church planting. (And even he had Tonto…which makes me question his name…but that’s another post…)

If God is birthing a vision in you, the chances are great that He is birthing the same or similar vision in the hearts of others.

Find those who share your passion for reaching the lost and as you share your vision with them….after you’ve prayed together tons…then, if God is in it…form a team…  To be successful you will need buy-in from other people.  You may even need to give your vision away to people you trust.  (Read a post about that thought process HERE.)

I hear from those claiming to be church planters with a vision who say they have no one to help them plant.  My best advice would be to wait until God reveals those people who are ready to share the burden with you.

There will be lonely nights out on the range of church planting…you’ll be glad you have others around to encourage you to stay the course….

Church planters….do you agree?  How did you find those who were willing to support your God-given vision?

I recently posted an important leadership and life principle I have learned the hard way. When you get a brilliant idea, before you quickly rush to complete it, sleep on it. You can read that post HERE. I want to continue that thought process with another principle that builds from that one. Let me illustrate it with a practical example:

Launching Grace Community Church was an 18-month process from the time I agreed to obey God’s encouragement to start a new church. (I had resisted His encouragement 10 years…but that’s another post.) After we recruited our core team, we asked them to wrestle in prayer months before we had our first meeting or they even officially committed to the vision; then we made them wait 9 months before we ever met as a church. Waiting to implement God’s vision for excited people inclined inclined towards progress was difficult, but the result proved an important principle about human dynamics and organizational development. (That’s a fancy way of saying…waiting sucked, but it worked…)

In a similar fashion, although we knew small groups would be a major part of our mission, we did “test” groups with a few people for months before we allowed the entire church to join a group. We used that time to train leaders, but it also served the purpose to generate enthusiasm among those that had to wait to get in a group.

The principle at work here is what I call The Power of Caged Momentum…

Telling a person or a group of people to wait for something they really want to do and are excited about builds positive momentum. Of course, there is always the balance between waiting too long that you lose opportunity and moving to fast that you don’t build enough momentum. I can’t solve that for you in a simple post. Your situation and experience will be unique to you, but the principle here is important.

Don’t be afraid to make your church, organization or team (or even your family) wait before they get to experience something great. The power of caged momentum may even make the experience and outcome better.

Have you seen this principle at work? I’d love to hear your story.

There’s a competitive spirit in most of the leaders I know…even church leaders. I saw mine kick in while running recently…

It was 6 AM and already 76 degrees with near 90% humidity. I was casually running, listening to our former worship pastor and my friend Daniel Doss’s song Masterpiece, when out of the corner of my eye I sensed someone trying to pass me. I looked around and it was a girl! She’s the wife and sister of two good friends from college, and a dedicated athlete, so I may have normally been okay with her passing me, but something snapped in me. I exchanged a few cordial remarks and then I gradually picked up speed. I killed myself…and I suffered for it the next day…but I won! YEA!!!Not that it was a race, and I’m sure she could have taken me had she wanted to, but there was the thrill of victory when I pulled ahead on the road.

I have written about this concept before (read a previous posts HERE and HERE) and I know it creates controversy to talk about, but what if we used that competitive spirit in a way that helped grow the Kingdom? Is there a way to satisfy a natural tendency of many leaders and still glorify God? (Seriously, I’d love your input!)

As I reflect on Scripture, Jesus picked disciples who seemed to have a competitive spirit about them. (Consider Matthew 18:1-3 and Mark 10:35-45) Jesus didn’t condemn the disciples for entering a competition. He even acknowledged, “Whoever wants to be great”. Then He simply pointed them back to the correct way for a disciple of Jesus to compete: in service to others. Consider also Paul’s encouragement in 1 Corinthians 9:24.

Personally, I think we should not be as afraid or freaked out when the natural competitive nature rises. Instead of asking people to check that competitive spirit at the door (along with enthusiasm and excitement), I think we should learn to channel it towards energy, which honors God, serves others, and advances the mission He has given the church. The strange thing to me is that many will leave our churches on Sunday and experience the “thrill of victory” by watching a competitive sport, yet we tell them this is a wrong attitude to have in the church.

What if, in our desire to win, we strived to be great in service to others, excellent in the way we love the unloveable, or awesome in how we forgive the people who hurt us most? What if we competed with our natural tendencies towards sin…with a competitive desire to win? I know some will suggest I’m advocating pride, or even false humility, but every good thing has the potential to be corrupted if misused. What I’m really suggesting is that maybe our goal is not to do away with a natural tendency towards competition, but to figure out how to balance that with a command to be holy as He is holy.

(Plus, sometimes I just like to stir discussion!)

What do you think?

One of the responsibilities of a leader is to be consistently looking forward for the organization.  A leader has to continually be asking the question: What’s next?  That’s a critical key to continued growth of the organization.

The problem for me in completing this task comes with the immediate demands on my time.  The now cliché statement goes “Sunday’s coming” is always true for a pastor.  There are always immediate needs of people in the church.  It seems there is something that continually occupies my immediate attention.   Still, if our church is to continue to grow and face the challenges of a changing community, I must discipline myself to pick my head up from the daily routines to think long-term for our church.

With that discipline in mind, here are 8 ways I keep myself looking forward:

Read – I try to read something everyday and I read an equal balance of leadership and Christian books.  In addition, I follow about 100 blogs with a variety of focuses, from technology, to culture and leadership.   I take notes of ideas sparked along the way.

Explore – I attend several conferences each year.  I go to discover new techniques, strategies and ideas, but also to network with people doing what I do.  The world of social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) has made it easier to connect with other leaders and I take advantage of the opportunities and ideas presented.

Hang out with a younger crowd – I love the idealism of youth. The newest ideas always seem to come from the younger generation at the time.  One reason I like to be around college students is that they keep me fresh in my thought process.

Hang out with risk takers – I often need to be where creative energy isn’t limited by practical reasoning.  There’s a place for that too, and I’m a realist by nature, but I don’t want to quit dreaming the impossible either.  I certainly don’t want to be around those who have “It will never happen” as their first response.

Invest in others – As I invest in others I am personally energized.  I feel I have even more to offer and have a stronger desire to keep a fresh approach when I think others value what I have to add to the discussion.

Let others invest in me – Sometimes I have to release power to others on my team and allow them to lead me.  I’m stretched to dream bigger by the people on my team.  I also have several men I often recruit to speak into my life.  When I stop dreaming, I find it necessary to allow others to push me.

Rest - When I’m tired or stretched personally I’m less likely to dream.  I have to discipline myself to stop sometimes, but it’s always productive when I do.  (Seems like there is a Biblical command relative to this….)

Exercise –This may seem to be a contradiction to the last, but it is not.  The best mind-stretching time for me is when I am running. The key for me is to break the monotony of busyness and allow my mind room to think.   Something about exercising gets the blood flowing through my body to my brain.

How do you keep focused on the forward picture, without being bogged down in daily routines?

Which of these do you most need to implement in your leadership today?

Recently, actually in the same week, I had a statement made to me and a question asked of me that made me stop and reflect.   Does that ever happen to you?  Can one word or phrase someone says jump out at you and challenge you to think about your life for a moment?

Either way, here’s what happened to me and I thought it was important enough to share.

One Statement:

I have become friends with our local university president. Recently while we were having lunch, I talked to him about the possibility of getting my doctorate.  I just completed my second masters degree this past month.  He was encouraging, but questioned how I would do that and continue to pursue the big dreams God has me in the middle of right now.  His statement was:

Ron, at our age, we can’t afford to waste a moment of our time.

Wow!  Do you see the urgency in that statement?  He’s right.  What he didn’t know at the time is that I didn’t plan to quit everything else to pursue a doctorate, but the point is well taken.  I need to be more purposeful in my life these days than ever before.   I’m thinking…perhaps…that you do also!

One Question:

My son Nate has always been part of my personal accountability, whether I asked for it or not.  He’s home for the summer and recently while throwing a baseball he asked me this question:  Dad, are you going through a mid-life crisis?

He was referring to my increased passion lately for writing, networking, and connecting online.  He specifically wanted to know if I was building my platform for my own sense of accomplishment.  He wanted to make sure I wasn’t getting a big head.

I answered him by saying something such as, “Well, if it’s the kind that you’ve heard about, where a man grows his hair long again, gets a new moustache, a girlfriend or a motorcycle, then the answer is ‘No!’.”  The truth is, however, and what I went on to explain to him, is that I am more purposeful than I’ve ever been in my life.  For the same reasons my university president’s statement resonated with me so loudly, I want to be even more purposeful these days than ever before in my life.  If that’s a mid-life crisis…so be it!

What about you? Why are you doing what you are doing?

There is a sobering story in Numbers 32:1-5…

The tribe of Reuben wanted to bail on the rest of the Israelites.  Read the story for yourself.

• They wanted to take the easy way out…
• They wanted to rest on their current success…
• The journey ahead seemed too much for them…

Perhaps that’s your story today.  The journey has gotten much harder than you expected and the days ahead seem unbearable.  Some days you would just rather quit trying.

• Are you tired of pushing forward?
• Are you burned out…satisfied…comfortable…afraid…confused?
• Are you ready to quit?

If you know the job you’ve been called to do isn’t finished yet…

Don’t quit…

Find the courage, recharge your batteries, raise up some other leaders…

…But whatever it takes…move forward…

Is that your story?  Are you tempted to give up? Leave a comment and others and I will pray for you…

Sorry if the title is crude, but leadership development may not be as difficult as we often make it out to be. One of the number one questions get about leadership is how to develop new leaders within an organization. The task seems overwhelming. Maybe it doesn’t have to be.

Leadership development begins with an understanding that the success of any organization depends greatly on the leader’s willingness to delegate responsibility to others in the organization. The attitude of top leadership is vitally important to developing new leaders.  The more a leader tries to control, the less likely others will be to help him or her accomplish the vision. Without people willing to follow a leader, there is no leadership development. (For you pastors who reject this idea, please read Exodus 18 or Acts 6…or just follow Jesus through the Gospels.)

I believe the best leadership development is accomplished by allowing others to gain experience by doing, therefore we must find ways to allow others to lead. The good news is that delegation can be simplified into two words.

INVEST and RELEASE

Invest in others so they understand the vision of the organization and have the resources, skills and authority to accomplish their assignment.

Release them to add their strengths, creativity and energy to accomplishing the vision.

I realize this is a very simplified answer to a very complicated process, but perhaps simplifying leadership development is needed to ensure we tackle this necessary part of growing a healthy organization.

Have you made leadership development a more complicated process than it needs to be?

Are you holding other potential leaders back because you will not release them to lead?