Leadership is a Balancing Act...

Have you ever handled a situation differently than you anticipated? Were you more relaxed than expected? More rigid?

In the past year, I have been placed in several leadership roles that have challenged me. They grew me. They made me a stronger leader and a better communicator. Ok, I may have shed a few tears at times, but I grew :) I feel like I talk a lot about CentriKid, but that's where I am in my life. Right now, most of my life experiences focus around camp/LifeWay/directing, etc. This summer at camp I thought I knew the type if leader I would be. If you know me very well, you know that I pay attention to details, follow the rules, over analyze on occasion. Sprinkle in a few other Type-A personality characteristics and you have something similar to me. Fun? Not always. Effective? Mostly. But I'm not here to tell you about my personality; I'm here to tell you about how I didn't lead the way I had anticipated.

I was surprisingly more relaxed and relational than I thought I'd be. Sure, I still had high expectations for camp, CK1, and myself, but I realized that just because something worked the way I did it didn't mean it was the only way. And just because something was important to me, didn't mean it was important to 32 other people. I learned to pick my battles and to be a stickler for the "essential/big" things, but to stay flexible on the small stuff. I don't want you to think that I've got this all figured out. Trust me, I was NOT (and still am not) a balanced leader when I first met my CentriKid team. I was like a teacher (guess my degree stuck with me). I was horrible! After a few cycles of camp, I began to loosen up a bit, and really invest in those around me. Thinking about it, this is still hard for me. I have to make a conscious effort to not be so task-oriented and to just love people and love getting to know them and encourage them.

Long story short, I quickly figured out that a leader gets farther from getting to know people, not just getting things done. If people know your heart and the intentions behind your actions and requests, they are going to be more likely to follow you, trustingly. This is one thing if many that I'm still learning about leadership, but it's one thing that I love putting into practice.

What is your leadership style? Does it match your personality?