God is teaching me so much about leadership right now. I need to express them in some way so that I will can solidify them in my own heart and be reminded of them often. These are in no particular order.

Get comfortable with confrontation!

As a leader it’s your job to pull the potential out of everyone you lead. You have to take ownership for making whatever it is you lead better. If you don’t, no one will. To make things better means you have to address the things that aren’t being done well or well enough. To do that you have to have hard conversations with those overseeing the areas that need to be improved. This can be difficult. It can get emotional. It can get personal. It is confrontational!

The alternative is complacency and eventually stagnation. As an organization there is constantly things that will need to be tweaked in order to be more effective. As a leader you will notice these things. You must then take the necessary measures to induce the needed change. You are doing those you lead a disservice if you aren’t willing to sit down and push for improvement. If you love those you lead you will do all you can to make them more effective in what they do. To do that you have to have intense conversations that force everyone to examine the weak points in their areas of responsibility.

We must be careful to confront and not just complain. There’s noting more frustrating than a person who points to problems but offers no solutions. When we confront with the purpose of making improvements we have to be willing to offer some constructive ideas to enable the change we wish to see.

A willingness to have confrontations is essential to being a good leader. Learning how to say what must be said is an effective and loving way is a must. To achieve your goals you will not be able to avoid conversations that will make you uncomfortable.