The 10 Most Important Leadership Lessons I Learned In Q3 Of 2019

If you are like me, you are very passionate about personal growth.  You love learning and getting better.  I understand.  With this post, I am beginning a new writing system.  At the end of each quarter, I just want to share some of the most important things I learned previous 90 days.

I hope you also share with your learnings on my Twitter account.  I’d love to hear what is happening in your life.  FYI, one of the things happening in my life is watching my daughter Anna become an incredible worship leader.  I can’t talk about the last 90 days without mentioning this.  Check out the video of her leading last month at a First Baptist Church Woodstock Wednesday night youth service.

So let’s do some reflection, the following are just 10 Leadership Lessons I Learned In Q3 Of 2019.  Each one of these may get a blog post to flesh out the idea more.

1. I Have A New Favorite Servant Leadership Post Scripture – Philippians 2:3-11 speaks for itself when it says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
2. My Dinner With Steve Robinson, Former Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Board Member of Chick-fil-A – This was my favorite moment from the last 90 days.  My wife Sonya and I joined Steve and his wife Diane for dinner.  They have been friends for over 20 years.  We spent the evening discussing countless topics including growing in Christ, church leadership, business careers, his new book Covert Cows and Chick-fil-A: How Faith, Cows, and Chicken Built an Iconic Brand, healthy cultures, marriage, raising children, and Auburn football just to name a few.  My favorite quote from Steve was, “All you need for a miracle is a few steps of faith at the right time.”  He would know.
3. Everyone Gets Better With A Coach – No one is perfect, especially me.  During August, I realized I needed to improve my personal verbal communication skills.  Therefore, I hired an executive coach to help me.  It is an expensive investment but has proven to be worth it.  Because I displayed at least some level of humility and self-awareness and was willing to make a personal financial investment in my leadership, I have begun making (hopefully significant) improvements in this area.
4. The One Thing You Must Have To Be An Effective Coach – Whether you are an athletic, life, ministry, or business coach, there is one skill you must have to be successful.  Not having this ability disqualifies you from coaching opportunities.  Mike Lombardi, author of the incredible book Gridiron Genius: A Master Class In Winning Championships And Building Dynasties In The NFL, said, “Players only respect knowledge.  If you can make me better, I’ll listen to you.”
5. The Stunning Retirement Of Andrew Luck – If you do not surround your most talented individuals with all the resources they need to be successful, they will lose passion and prematurely leave your organization.  I wrote extensively about the mistakes former general manager Ryan Grigson did HERE.
6. Be A Curious And  Unconventional Leader – My favorite speaker from the 2019 Global Leadership Summit was Ben Sherwood,  Co-Chairman of Disney Media Networks and President of Disney/ABC Television Group.  He said, “You need to be a farmer with a pitchfork.  The greatest swordsman is not afraid of the second greatest swordsman.  The greatest swordsman is afraid of a famer with a pitchfork.  They have nothing to lose and fight any way they want.”  He added, “In conventional conflict, the stronger power wins 71% of the time.  In unconventional conflict, the weaker side wins 63.6% of the time.  For the unconventional leader, the best ideas win… It’s the quality of the idea and the quantity of ideas… Quantity counts… Ideas come from curiosity, an idea about what comes next.”
7. A Plan To Deal With Fear – John Maxwell teaches in his September 27th podcast the lessons he learned on dealing with fear from his conversation with Nick Wallenda, the famous tightrope wire walker.  Wallenda deals with fear with tremendous preparation.  Your preparation will cause an increase in anticipation and confidence while simultaneously decreasing fear.  While you can never truly remove all fear, it can be eclipsed by the confidence of knowing you have done something thousands of times.
8. 3-Step Plan For Having Better Meetings – I learned this principle from Gwinnett Church’s senior pastor Jeff Henderson and his new book Know What You’re FOR: A Growth Strategy For Work, An Even Better Strategy For Life.  The 3-Steps are Thought Leadership, People Leadership, and Project Leadership.  Jeff says, “Under Thought Leadership, I usually bring an insight from the current book I’m reading.  Under People Leadership, we can talk about our culture, what is feels like to work around here, and other issues related to staffing.  And then we save Project Leadership, which usually a list of items we need to make decisions on and become aware of as a leadership team.”
9. Leading Generational Talent – As a leader of someone with generational talent, you must have humility and perspective.  Someone said, “When you lead a generational talent, you are a caretaker of their legacy.  No one remember’s Babe Ruth’s GM.”
10. The Greatest Felt Need Of People In Your Church Is… – My friend and brilliant church systems coach Nelson Searcy said at his Pastors Bootcamp, “The greatest felt need in people’s lives is money.”  He went on to add that the churches he is working with see their largest attendance during money-message series.

Please go to my Twitter account and tell me your leadership learnings from Q3.

My book Timeless: 10 Enduring Practices Of Apex Leaders is available for purchase.  If you have ever wanted to become the leader God created you to be, this book is for you!  By combining leadership lessons from biblical heroes like Jesus, Daniel and Joseph, along with modern day leaders like Bill Gates, Nick Saban, Kobe Bryant and multiple pastors, Timeless will equip and inspire you.  This book is not to be read alone.  Discussion questions are included in each chapter allowing you to develop those in your circle of influence.  Click HERE or on the image provided and order your copies TODAY.