Creating a Culture of Excellence, Pt.3

3. LEADERS LISTEN TO CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM

If we are going to grow as leaders for Jesus then we must be willing to listen to formative feedback, or constructive criticism.

Many times the thing that keeps us from growing as leaders is PRIDE. We think we already KNOW IT, or we think we SHOULD ALREADY KNOW IT and so we don’t ASK QUESTIONS. Pride keeps us from learning from those further along.

Lots of people can provide constructive criticism, but listening to everybody will lead to insanity. Someone once said, there are two keys to insanity: trying to please everyone and trying to be understood by everyone. Bill Cosby once said, “I don’t know the secret to success, but I can tell you the secret to failure, TRY TO PLEASE EVERYONE.

Although, we can’t please everyone we must find a few trusted mentors and peer leaders that we can lean on, listen to, and be led by during times of pressure, growth, and conflict. Ed Young Jr says, “Conflict + Change = Growth”.

IF WE WANT TO GO TO THE NEXT LEVEL, THEN WE MUST PUT OURSELVES AT THE FEET OF THOSE ALREADY AT THE NEXT LEVEL.

SWALLOW YOUR PRIDE AND LEARN FROM THOSE FURTHER AHEAD OF YOU. As church leaders we REALLY ARE ON THE SAME TEAM. It is time for churches to stop competing and start completing one another!

Seriously, if you don’t know any pastors or church leaders who model this Christ-like attitude here are a few: AnthonyMilas.net, BuddyCremeans.com, JoshuaGagnon.com, PerryNoble.com, MacRichard.com, and Rob Willis. Now, as a young church planter and pastor, this should be easy for me to do, but it still isn’t. But I am a HUGE IDIOT if I don’t submit myself to other great men of God such as these.

For those who have been in ministry longer than me (I have been pastoring for over a decade now) it only gets harder to learn from others because you think you know everything, and the truth is, YOU DO KNOW A LOT; BUT LEADERSHIP ISN’T JUST KNOWING; IT IS BEING. AND YOU CAN ONLY PICK THAT UP THROUGH CONVERSATIONS, NOT CONFERENCES.

IF WE ARE GOING TO GROW AS A FAITH COMMUNITY & LEADERSHIP TEAM THEN WE MUST FIND CONSTRUCTIVE WAYS TO SPEAK TRUTH INTO EACH OTHER’S LIVES. Teams that grow faster and go further are teams that have committed to “speaking truth in love into each other’s lives” (even when it hurts).

THE AREAS WE NEED TO HEAR TRUTH ARE THE AREAS WE USUALLY PUSH BACK ON TRUTH.