Developing Kingdom Leaders – Tom Yeakley

What a Leader Does – DO

We continue to reflect upon a good way to organize our understanding of the complex subject of leadership.  Using the simple outline of Know – Be- Do – Reproduce we can categorize the important functions of this vast subject called leadership.  Today we will address the category of “Do – What a Leader Does.”

1. Leading and your family

Offices in the home can create unusual stresses

• Regarding your spouse when your both are at home – respect each others ‘turf’ when working at home
• Put in a good day’s work; discipline yourself to focus and stay on task
• Set ‘office hours’ when working at home and actually do your work during these times as planned

Love your kids and help them love God and God’s work

• Involve your children in prayer for people in the ministry
• Have people in your home as guests and ask your guests to tell stories to your kids about their walk and experiences with God
• Give your kids responsibilities at ministry activities, when appropriate – it can be as simple as greeting people at the door or serving refreshments
• Build a positive identity and a sense of ‘being special’ because they are children of a staff who is serving in this ministry
• Avoid building a child-centered home – see Mark 10:29-30; Luke 18:29-30

2. Leading meetings

Learn to lead a better meeting!

• Meetings are a part of organizational leadership, so learn to lead good ones!
• A nice outline for setting meeting agendas is to remember that good meetings have 3 parts – ‘business,’ development, relationships
• Leading your team in development does not mean you have to be the development expert – just bring some intentionality to this function and lead your team in seeing that all are being developed

Have fun together with your team!

• Don’t be so serious all the time!
• If you are not creative at having fun, ask as team member to lead the team in this area with your oversight

Set realistic agendas and schedule with a margin when you lay out the meeting plans

Help others accomplish their work by including them in your meeting plans, but remember that it is your meeting, not their meeting

Be sensitive to time zone changes for those who travel, need for  regular breaks, free time, recreation needs, individual sleep patterns (individual rooms for those who snore?), and personal dietary needs

3. Increase your leadership capacity

Work with an administrative assistant

• A good assistant will greatly increase you capacity to lead
• Personal chemistry is very important in your ability to work together with your admin assistant
• Know what you need and want in an assistant before selecting the person
• Do you want someone to keep you organized, or are you by design well-organized and you want someone to implement your ideas and plans?
• Be sure your assistant knows your calendar and schedule so that they can assist others who may need to contact you
• Keep an on-going Action List with both short-term and long-term action items to be focused on and scheduled when appropriate
• Review your calendar and Action List weekly with your assistant and update it as needed

4. Additional ‘How To’ Leadership Ideas

• Seek to “ruthlessly eliminate hurry” from your daily life and schedule
• Prepare to transition your leadership well – be intentional in the transition and plan ahead; don’t wait to be forced to transition your leadership in a crisis
• Operate with “Planned Neglect” – you can’t do it all now; so decide what will have to wait in order for you to give your attention and effort the most important things now