I just came across this post from George Barna about leadership. Here are some excerpts:
Spending time with Matthew and his team, both at and away from the Dream Center, brought several things about leadership into focus. Among the things I learned by observing and studying his efforts were the following:
1. Cast the vision, model the behavior, and give people complete permission to follow that lead. Like every Directing leader, Matthew generally doesn’t get bogged down in details. He strives to motivate people to grasp the heart of the ministry (i.e., the central vision), the challenges facing the church, and to encourage people to do whatever God has placed within them to build value into that vision and activity.
2. Planning can take you only so far; great leaders must be willing to flex. Church leaders typically say that God is in charge, but when God intervenes in unforeseen ways through people or circumstances, a common tendency is to resist alterations in favor of the plans we had created and prayed about.
3. The most important tool of a great leader is his/her ears. After watching what happens at DC-LA, and recalling something that various leaders revealed when I was writing Master Leaders, it has become obvious than an irreplaceable key to leadership success is the ability to listen. As a leader, your ears must be fine-tuned to God’s voice as well as that of the people you serve with, the people you serve, and the culture in which you serve. Listening is a developed skill. Having the heart to then apply what you’ve heard takes discernment, courage and wisdom.
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