There are churches and organizations that are in trouble, or heading for trouble, but don’t realize it.
Here are some signs you may be approaching turbulent rapids or a big waterfall that can wreck havoc with your leadership boat!
1. The Senior Leader Is Often Caught Off Guard And Surprised By Team Members And Circumstances:
This is often due to lack of preparation as well as taking time to think, pray and plan. The person responsible has become more of a manager than a real leader. Are you blindsided by what people are saying and what circumstances are coming up? Do people on your team see things before you do? Do you often have no sense of what’s really going on?
2. Followers Are Looking Elsewhere For Leadership Rather Than To The Leader And His Executive Team:
Some are even looking outside the organization or church. Have you lost credibility and people’s confidence in your leadership?
3. The Senior Leader Does Not Look Forward To Meeting With His Own Team:
He/she doesn’t appreciate and affirm them and doesn’t celebrate wins with them (small and large). Meetings with the leadership team is the low point, not the high point, of the week.
4. The Trust Level In The Leadership Team Is Sinking Fast And Is At An All-Time Low:
It’s the elephant in the room which nobody has the courage to talk about. Fear rules the culture.
5. Key Leaders Are Leaving The Organization But Not Saying Why, Nor Being Asked Why:
When there is more than the normal turnover at the top levels of leadership, it is often a sign that the organization is in trouble.
6. The Senior Leader Is No Longer Learning And Growing:
He thinks he knows it all and rarely asks for input and ideas from others in the organization. He can even get angry when an idea of his is challenged or a better idea is presented.
7. New And Younger Leaders Are Nowhere To Be Found:
Most of the key leadership is 55 and older, possessive of authority and reluctant to develop capable, godly younger leaders. Much of what these older leaders are doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
8. The Senior Leader Is Increasingly Operating From Fear And Insecurity Rather Than Faith And Confidence:
If you are leading, ask yourself if you are secure enough in your identity with Jesus and who you are to allow those around you to succeed without feeling jealous. Do you easily rejoice when others on your team are successful without much help from you, or do you resent it?
9. The Senior Leader Has No Idea What Team Members Are Thinking And Feeling:
The leader almost never asks questions as to what is going on in the lives of those he leads and is not sincerely interested in their well-being.
10. There Is More Talk About Yesterday Than Tomorrow:
More time is spent looking in the rear view mirror than through the windshield. The “good old days” are looking better than the future days. Do you honestly feel that your best days are in front of you or behind you.
“Leaders are pioneers. They are people who venture into unexplored territory. They guide us to new and often unfamiliar destinations. People who take the lead are the foot soldiers in the campaigns for change…the unique reason for having leaders—their differentiating function—is to move us forward. Leaders get us going someplace.”
-Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge
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