{"id":4082,"date":"2014-09-01T19:40:51","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T00:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=4082"},"modified":"2014-09-01T19:43:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T00:43:09","slug":"3-surprising-truths-about-leading-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/01\/3-surprising-truths-about-leading-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Surprising Truths about Leading Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated from September 30, 2013 post<\/em><\/p>\n

One of my most embarrassing moments as a leader has turned out to be one of my most important leadership lessons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It taught me that, if you’re going to be a leader of leaders, there are three vital principles that must be embraced.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

I had been assigned with a relatively simple task during my first week as executive pastor of a large church in Canada.<\/p>\n

My assignment? Lead an off-site retreat of our senior pastoral team.<\/p>\n

This team of highly seasoned leaders were gathered around me, waiting for my opening words. I knew we should open in prayer, so I shrugged at this group of 20 or so leaders and said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you break into groups and spend time in prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

My reasoning was sound, or so it seemed to me. \u201cThese are leaders; they don\u2019t need me to tell them how to organize a time of prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several awkward moments of shuffling about ensued, and eventually a few muffled words of half-hearted prayer could be heard being whispered about the room.<\/p>\n

There was no energy. There was no unity. There was no momentum.<\/p>\n

It was, to put it mildly, a less than auspicious debut of my season as a leader of leaders.<\/p>\n

But as with any setback, there were leadership learnings to be gleaned. And in this case I came away with three vital principles that must be embraced in order to become a leader of leaders:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 <\/strong>Leaders want, and expect, to be led.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leaders more than anyone understand the value of good leadership. And they look for it in those who step forward to lead them.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 <\/strong>Leaders respond to leadership language.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of such a vague, meandering opening, I should have addressed them with leadership language like this: \u201cTeam, there are opportunities before us that will only be realized by the mighty hand of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 <\/strong>Leaders demand clarity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of \u201cbreak into groups and spend time in prayer\u201d I should have said, \u201cBreak into groups of 3 and spend 10 minutes praying for these 4 items\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been given the opportunity and responsibility to lead a group of leaders, don\u2019t shrink back. Lift your leadership to the next level and lead them well.<\/p>\n

You could be amazed at the passion of their response.<\/p>\n

What have you learned about leading leaders?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Updated from September 30, 2013 post One of my most embarrassing moments as a leader has turned out to be one of my most important leadership lessons. It taught me that, if you’re going to be a leader of leaders, there are three vital principles that must be embraced. I had been assigned with 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":[3,22,738,478,7,583],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-church","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","category-staffing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4082","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=4082"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4086,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4082\/revisions\/4086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}