Yesterday I talked about John Mott’s list of eight traits that he felt should be found in great leaders. Today I’m going to share the other half of his list as well as some of my own reactions and thoughts.
5. Know how to exploit momentum. Author and leadership expert Jim Collins calls this the Big Mo, momentum, the concrete flywheel that is difficult to get going, almost as if you have to push it uphill. When you encounter a momentum-creating opportunity in leadership, get as much mileage out of it as you can.
6. Be growing. The day we stop learning is the day that we die. Be continually sharpening yourself in areas of interest and relevant to the area God’s called you.
7. Be able to overcome discouragement and “impossible situations”. I heard a leader once say that they love seeing young leaders in impossible situations. It’s an arena where tough decisions and lots of failure are the breeding ground for great decisions and seasoned leadership in the future. I know for a fact that teams feel an overall reassurance if their leader can communicate that they have been there before and know what needs to be done.
8. Understand his or her weaknesses. Probably the biggest leadership myth that I’ve had to overcome in my life this year has been that you should focus on strengthening your weaknesses. That myth can be destructive to your leadership for three reasons: a) You will wear yourself out, b) your efforts will be drawn away from refining your strengths, and c) it will keep others from filling those areas of your weaknesses where those might be their strengths. Build a team around your weaknesses and focus on your strengths.
I like that last one. It’s not only a necessary leadership trait, it’s also the key in all of us becoming who we were created to be! Let the body of Christ grow into its fullness by everyone being who God made them to be instead of every arm trying to be a kidney and every eye trying to be a foot. Glad my body doesn’t work that way…I think I’d die. 😉
Another thought I just had on that…
It’s easy enough to see our weaknesses that we don’t need other people to point them out. This means that we can then strive on our own to improve ourselves in our areas of weakness instead of having to rely on others to strengthen us in those areas.
However, focusing on and learning our strengths requires us to actually figure out our God-given identity, and then build real, committed relationships with people who will love and help us despite our being weak where they are strong and us being strong where they are weak. It leaves no room for insecurity or selfishness. Amazing how God made things to work together like that. 🙂
Great Post! John Mott has assembled one of the finer evaluation tools for young leaders. Perhaps the most difficult to apply is to learn to exploit momentum for two reasons: 1) many times leaders don’t even realize it when it’s happening, they’re just excited someone’s catching the vision, and 2) the human attention span is short.
Great insights John. Keep them coming 🙂
Thanks guys. I think Mott did a great job with putting together his list and I think young leaders in ministry (or anywhere else for that matter) can learn a lot from this list.
Thanks for the encouragement. Both of you are doing great things for Christ, keep up the good work!