{"id":2996,"date":"2013-05-09T19:07:38","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T02:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=2996"},"modified":"2013-05-09T19:09:27","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T02:09:27","slug":"10-things-i-would-do-differently-if-i-could-lead-all-over-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/09\/10-things-i-would-do-differently-if-i-could-lead-all-over-again\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Things I Would Do Differently If I Could Lead All Over Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”<\/p>\n

For leaders, those famous words by George Santayana provide a powerful call to learn from the past in order to lead better in the future.<\/p>\n

I recently sat down and thought back on the fantastic years I had serving as executive pastor of a large church in Canada. And as I did so I went through the exercise (which I\u2019d highly recommend) of listing some of the most important lessons I learned along the way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As I looked at my list I\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0help but think of how much more effective I could have been if I walked into that role armed with all that I now know.<\/p>\n

But since that is obviously not possible, the next best thing is to help someone else learn \u201con my nickel\u201d.<\/p>\n

So, if you\u2019re in leadership of a local church, perhaps you can benefit from the 10 things I would do differently, if I could do it all over again\u2026<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I would spend a lot more time with those in the church who get and support the vision<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I would spend a lot less time with those in the church who\u00a0didn’t\u00a0get and support the vision<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>3.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I would do a better job honoring our founders and long-time stakeholders<\/strong><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I would draw cleaner boundaries between work time and personal time<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>5.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I would pour disproportionate time and energy into the staff who were delivering the greatest results<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>6.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I would take greater responsibility for the development of administrative staff, not just pastoral staff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>7.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I would be more diligent in looking for signs of ministry burn out among staff. And I\u2019d respond accordingly<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>8.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I would pour more of myself into the young, rising leaders in our church<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>9.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I would hire more slowly<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>10.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I would move more quickly when it came to dealing with staff members with bad attitudes<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best thing about a list like this is that it keeps leadership learnings fresh and alive. I plan to practice this discipline more often.<\/p>\n

Because as Santayana reminds us, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.<\/p>\n

What are the biggest leadership lessons you\u2019ve learned from your own experiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” For leaders, those famous words by George Santayana provide a powerful call to learn from the past in order to lead better in the future. I recently sat down and thought back on the fantastic years I had serving as executive pastor of a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,478,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-featured","category-leadership","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2996"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3002,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2996\/revisions\/3002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}