Leaders who stop growing lose their edge as a leader. They become stale, even if others may not readily recognize it. See if your life reflects any of these indications that you’ve possibly stopped growing as a leader:
- You can talk about nothing new about God and His grace. It’s not that God is changing, but that you’re stuck in your growth. Everything seems just like it was this time last year.
- You’ve read no new books in the last six months. It might be because you’re busy, but it may also be because you aren’t pushing yourself to learn through the discipline of reading.
- You haven’t had anyone evaluate your teaching or preaching since seminary days. Even then, you did it only because you had to for a class–so why should you put yourself in that uncomfortable position today?
- You haven’t recently tackled any “God-sized” challenges. Nothing you’re doing is forcing you to your knees because only God can get it done. Stale leaders tackle nothing this large.
- You haven’t shared the gospel with anyone in months. Typically, this omission (and ultimately, disobedience) happens when we’ve lost our passion—when the mundane has become the routine.
- All of your stories of God’s work in your life are past tense stories. You can talk about God’s goodness, but your testimony focuses more on yesterday than on today.
- You tend to avoid people who differ from you. When you spend all your time with people who agree with you about most stuff, you’re not likely to be pushed much.
- You’ve lost your energy and passion for the work. You go to work, but only because somebody expects you to show up. It’s not because love of your work wakes you up in the morning.
- The church you lead is not growing. I realize many factors affect the growth of a church, but a non-growing leader seldom sees growth in the congregation he leads. It’s at least a hint to check your own life.
- You no longer seek mentors. Mentors challenge us, stretch us, push us, mold us. Leaders who don’t have mentors often have no role models of ongoing growth—and thus less reason to grow themselves.
- It’s been a long time since you’ve asked your team how you’re doing as a leader. Accountability goes both ways for growing leaders: they push their team to grow, and they invite feedback (sometimes painful feedback) to help them grow.
- You just know you’re not growing as a leader. You don’t need any of these other indicators; your own honest evaluation makes it clear.
What other indicators come to mind for you? If you’d like for me and my team to pray for you as a leader, contact me through this site.
