Lessons on Leadership from My Parents

          As I reflect upon my childhood I recall my parents trying to instill several values, ideas, and principles into my life.  While they were determined to instill these items into my life I’m sure that many times they left feeling frustrated because it didn’t seem like the lessons were sinking in or sticking.  However, due to their best efforts and despite my own desire to run in the opposite direction, some of their principles stuck.   The main principle that has stuck with me through the years was the desire to be a hard worker with everything that I did.    This work ethic is something that was passed on from my father who got it passed on from his father and so on.

            As my dad grew up on a farm, he learned the need for hard work at an early age and continued to pursue this type of dedication to everything that he tried.  He pushed himself, many times past the brink of exhaustion to make sure that the job was complete and done right.  I would like to think that this strong work ethic has been passed onto me and that I am continuing to live into this principle daily.  The strong work ethic is one piece of my character that my parents sought to instill into me but their words, actions, and lifestyle also helped to begin to shape my convictions at an early age.  As you think about your own convictions or beliefs what truths did your parents seek to instill in your life?  What convictions or beliefs are you seeking to instill in the lives of your children?

            Our principles are something that impact not only the way we live our lives but also how we lead others.  In his book The Catalyst Leader author Brad Lomenick lists “principled” as one of the eight essentials for being a good leader.  Over the past few weeks I have journeyed through this book writing my thoughts about the themes that he presents in this work.  He outlines the need for leaders to know their calling, practice authenticity, live with passion towards God, strive to be capable, and the need to be courageous.

            Based on the ideas that Brad outlines in this chapter of the book there are three elements to help someone stay anchored in their convictions or be a principled leader.  The first is the need to embrace humility.  Humble leaders don’t need the spotlight or the credit and are quick to divert praise back to their team and/or God’s grace.  They are honest about their fears and failures and seek to instill the following phrases into their daily speech:

-I’m sorry                                                  -That was my fault

-Thank you                                                -I’m listening

-I trust you                                                 -Great job

If you are wondering if you are embracing humility in your leadership think about the last time you utilized some of these phrases and strive to implement them more frequently into your daily conversations so you don’t get “too big for your britches.”

Secondly, Brad discusses the need for discipline in order to be a principled leader.  I always think of the dedication and hard work of professional athletes who desire to achieve excellence at the highest level of their respective sports when I think about discipline.  Many of them push their bodies to the farthest point in order to achieve success at this level.  In other words they are striving to embrace the words of former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell who said, “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”  In the same way leaders don’t live into their dreams by coincidence but by investing a great deal of discipline and hard work towards achieving the desired outcome.

In order to be a principled leader, one not only has to strive for humility and seek to be disciplined but they also have to have a great deal of integrity.  Leaders who have integrity are honest, respect others, practice loyalty, enjoy accountability, and trust others.  Author Bob Goff says “We plant sod where God wants to plant seed.  He’s more interested in growing our character than having us look finished.”  Just as God desires for us to grow in our character we should be willing to strive to have more integrity, rather than seeking to be a finished product. 

Ultimately we must remember that the depth of our character determines the reach of our influence.  We must be willing to strive to be humble, disciplined, and have a great deal of integrity which will allow us to be better leaders to those that God has entrusted to us.