I get a lot of questions about being successful in leadership, whether that’s in a big or small capacity. Today I’d love to share nine things that I tell the leaders who sit down with me in my office and ask me about leading well. Here are nine keys for being a successful leader:
1) The depth of your success is determined by the quality of the people with you. Success is a team sport; no one ever succeeds alone, therefore the impact of your leadership ability is measured by the caliber of people you attract to lead alongside of you.
2) Your capacity for success is determined by your courage to take great risks, and the wisdom to know when not to.
3) The sustainability of your success lies in how you remember your mistakes. You must keep the tension of a short-term memory in the courage department of your mind when you fail, and a long-term memory in the wisdom department of your mind so you don’t repeat the same mistakes again.
4) The power of your success is determined by the level of confidence you have in your own ability to complete the mission, and the amount of faith you have in God’s ability to cover your weaknesses, as well as fix your failures.
5) The longevity of your success is determined by your ability to reproduce world changers and history makers; people who can carry greatness into the generations you will never see.
6) The definition of your success is in your faithfulness to your divine call, not in the outcome of your mission. In other words, faithfulness is success because the Lord ultimately determines outcomes.
7) The beauty of your success lies in the grace you display in tough seasons, and the level of kindness you give to those who fall short of your standard or fail your mission.
8) The memory of your success is determined by how you made people feel on the pathway to the pursuit of your purpose.
9) The culture of your success is in the level of ability your people have to either empower true greatness or shrink people’s confidence.
After reading over these I want to challenge you to think through how you’ve defined and measured success in the past, and how you’ll start to define it today. I pray that God will highlight the ways He wants to refine some of your thinking so that you can be successful in the things He’s called you to!