Week 2 :-: Stoppers

Our first lesson focused on defining and understanding what servant leadership is. Personally, I was reminded that everyone is a leader since we were all created by the same God and in His image. It follows naturally from this conclusion that everyone therefore has both the capacity and responsibility of working to become a better leader! Potential is great but it is better and more useful when converted to action. Having leadership potential is awesome but useless if not developed and put into use. God created you to meet a need and for that purpose you have to collaborate with Him to develop and exercise your leadership in your calling.

This is a proactive choice that can only be sustained by intrinsic motivation. Are you motivated to become better at leading both yourself and others?

Per John C. Maxwell, "Leadership Ability Determines a Person’s Level of Effectiveness".  In Team21 we understand this implies that you can only take yourself, family, organization and the people that you lead, as far as your intentional commitment to elevating the level of your current leadership. Drawing from this, we also conclude that no matter how hard you either desire or try hard to get more done, this will fail if you do not first intentionally address the limitations on your ability to lead yourself first, then others. If you do not address this issue, you will be living in a dream world full of a lot of talk but no palpable results. In other words, your effectiveness as a servant leader, is directly linked to the intentional steps you take daily to deal with the limitations on your ability to lead.

The more limitations you have, the less effective you are and vice versa. 

The bottles in the image below are of different sizes but are useless if the lids stay on. Even though the one that is circled is the smallest of all seven bottles, at this point, it  is more useful as it is open and therefore has the capacity to receive. It has both capacity (potential) and availability. The other six have potential but unfortunately they're unavailable. Even though they have potential they are useless if their lids, stay on! If lids are limitations, what are some of the lids you can identify in your life which are limiting your effectiveness as a leader? Pause, carryout a self examination and make some notes.

Examples of limitations: procrastination, poor/no planning, low/poor self image, lack of self (intrinsic) motivation, distractions from different sources (social media, trchnology etc.), lack of focus, poor habits, lack of trustworthiness, fear to take risks, wrong beliefs, lack of integrity, no passion, laziness,  lack of vision/goals, bad friends, pride, fear, etc. 

Lids make you ineffective and will cheat you out of reaching your goals. 

In 2009, Bernard Madoff and his associates were convicted of pulling a fast one on investors both in the US and across the globe with their Ponzi scheme. Through his evil leadership, many bought into his “house of cards” which came crumbling down when he was exposed as a fraud. His lack of integrity was a major flaw in his leadership which had real consequences on the people he led. Later on, his son committed suicide and many investors lost their life savings.

A lid or stopper, is anything that serves as a limitation, hindering the leader from being effective. The biblical character and first king of Israel, Saul, started off great. He however became jealous of David, lacked courage and disobeyed God multiple times. As a result of his lids, God stripped off the leadership of Israel from his lineage. What are some of the lids you can identify in his life?
Your effectiveness is dependent on how effectively you deal with your limitations. 

Let's do something about them!

So how can you overcome your personal lids?

Team21 proposes the 3 Ps:

Pray, Plan & People - that's  your secret weapon.

1. Pray. Talk to God about it/them. Ultimately depend on God for deliverance/victory. There is nothing He cannot deliver you from. Be sincere in your prayers and trust God to help you overcome them.

2. Plan. Have a plan for dealing with your limitations. If it is sin, confess it and set boundaries so you do not fall in the same situation. If it is procrastination, have a to do list to help you prioritize your time and work on it. Include a time for evaluation and reflection. Delegate tasks where and whenever possible. Work on your self image. What God thinks about you is more important than what people think about you. Do something rather than nothing.

3. People. Be accountable to someone. Share your struggles with someone close and trustworthy (an accountability partner). Request that they hold you up in prayers as well as keep you accountable. The other side of this is that you need to determine who your friends are. Are they helping you overcome your lids or leading you in the wrong direction. Some "friends" need to be shown the back door. 

Iron sharpens iron.

Week 2 Assignment

1. Identify and write down a list of limitations which are negatively impacting your leadership effectiveness.
2. Find a close family member (adult child/spouse, if you are married) and:

a. Discuss lids with them. 

b. Ask your family member to point out some lids he/she can discern in your leadership. Do not be defensive. 

Compare their list with yours. What did you learn about yourself? What are you going to do about it/them? Spend sometime in self-reflection and prayer. 

3. Repeat the process above with 3 colleagues or school mates. One should be a peer, the second someone you lead and third your supervisor (anyone who supervises your work).

 

4. Using the 3 Ps, draw up a plan to intentionally deal with all the limitations identified during this exercise by yourself as well as the others.

5. Write a brief summary of what you learned this week. Post on your blog and share the link in your group.

6. Write a short leadership thought based on what you learned this week and share with your mentor. Once they validate, post on your LinkedIn and #Team21, #ServantLeadership #NotSoWithYou

Please e-mail your answers for this week and all other weeks to team21online@gmail.com and your mentor at the latest on Saturday. Also post a summary of what you have learned on your newly created blog. Ask your mentor for her/his email address.