If a leadership team is not healthy—if there are unhealthy relationships, grudges, or animosity between it’s members—then they will fail to be successful. You will see the team begin to crumble under the weight of these unhealthy behaviors and practices, and the people you lead will either follow you to failure or reject your leadership completely.
How My Priorities Effect My Health as a Leader
The past few weeks have proven this to me personally. My kids have been acting out. My wife has been unhappy. I have felt stressed and frustrated. And until last night, in a moment of clarity, I didn’t know why. Nor didn’t I even think about it. I conformed to it and accepted that it was just the way life is. Thank God my wife intervened. She helped me to realize that as a husband I am a leader to her. As a father I am a leader to my children. And together my wife and I are leaders of our family. However, when there are problems in the leadership team, the whole organization suffers.
I have been pretty busy these last few months, trying to stay afloat at work, giving myself whole-heartedly in ministry, and I have failed to notice that I was neglecting my family, principally my marriage. And when there’s friction between parents, that rubs off on the kids. All in all, our household was in chaos.
It’s that trickle-down effect we hear so much about. I acknowledged my errors, my disordered priorities, and took action to change. After one night I already see results. Peace has been restored, along with her best friends love and joy. To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, here is what my priorities looked like before, and here they are now.
My Old, Unhealthy Priorities
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My New, Healthy Priorities
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I share this so that you can benefit from it, but also so that you can hold me accountable. Publishing this to the world helps to keep me honest. And I need all the help I can get.
Quality > Quantity
Now this is just an overview. Don’t take this to mean that ministry is no longer important to me. I probably spend almost as much time working that I do in ministry. It’s not a quantitatively ordered list, rather the focus is quality. For example, God must come first. Not only because He said so, but because when He is anywhere other than #1 on my list, the rest of my life suffers. I come next, because if I’m unhealthy, physically, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, then the rest of my list suffers. The same goes for each item and those that follow it. Again, it’s that trickle down effect.
Because God is first on my list doesn’t mean that I must spend more time in prayer than I do with my family. It just means that I need good, quality time with God. If I can get 30 minutes with God to start off my day, I’m ready for the rest of my list. If I put in the work to make sure my relationship with my wife is where it needs to be, that is reflected in our kids.
It all trickles down. So your challenge this week is to take stock of your life, get your priorities straight, and become a healthy leader so that you can allow your healthy leadership to trickle down into your circle of influence.
What changes do you need to make in the way you prioritize your life in order to be a healthier leader? How can your leadership team make changes to help create a healthier organization?