Earlier in the week I started writing about some learnings I have been reflecting on a first real season of leading in a position in which I was leading others in a significant way (You can read it HERE). I have been trying to look back on the season and reflect on some things that have stood out to me so I can be a better leader overall. There were too many for one post so I wanted to continue it on this one.

Here are some more things I have learned being a new leader of a new ministry:

There are tough conversations in leadership.

  • I couldn’t believe it. Not everyone liked or approved the decisions I made (joking). There were times in which I made a decision in which I thought was the correct way to go, still do, but others where not so convinced. I have had some of the most difficult conversations I have ever had in the last few weeks. I know for what I was doing these were the correct decisions but being willing to defend those decisions to staff or parents was part of the decision. Overall, things ended up great but leadership comes with tough conversations that as a leader we need to be willing to have.

You need to be the first to leap.

  • I like collaboration. that is how I work best. Let’s throw everything up on the white board, the best ideas up there and let’s go from there. But I learned deciding on which direction to go is all on you, otherwise it’s like asking that friend who doesn’t know how to make a decision on where to eat. Once all the ideas were up, I needed to be the one to say, “Okay, this one, this one, and this one let’s go.” I tend to think bigger than what we actually can do. I like WOW. I like to think of it as that if God doesn’t show up in this then I’m going to look like a complete idiot. We need to lead the way in leaping. Leaders are leapers.

You need to be more hopeful than everyone else.

  • Sort of tying in to the last point, we need to be the most hopeful out of everyone. Yes, whatever God has laid on your heart with the direction to go, we need to go that way. Is there a sense of doubt sometimes? Absolutely. But I think there is some sort of health to that. If I feel God has led to this point, I am going to be the most hopeful person in Him coming through and working through it and it will blow my mind. As a leader, I need to do a better job as conveying that to the team I am leading. This year we launched a new curriculum for our high school that we wrote in-house. I truly believe it has the potential for life change as leaders go through it. I have tremendous hope for it and I hope when talking to our leaders about it they do too.

Plans change, so roll with it.

  • I tend to be the person who gets down when things don’t work out exactly like the way I saw it in my head. What I had to learn in this last season is that things change and a good leader adjusts accordingly. Want something to be run into the ground? Hold on to it tightly. I learned that some things can’t/won’t happen a certain way so how you respond to the switch will make it better or make it worse.