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The Best Gift You Can Give Your Team

*culture *team video Sep 01, 2022

What’s the best gift your team could give you?

We think about that— a lot. And, most leaders agree: 

“Follow through. I want them to do what they’re supposed to do— with a positive attitude.”

Let’s flip it, though, and consider the BEST thing we can give them.

 

The most valuable gift you can give your team is a healthy you— in each area. 

Here’s why: 

  • You practically “live out,” lead, and manage processes as an overflow of who you are and what’s happening with you. 
  • When you’re physically healthy, emotionally whole, mentally sharp, and spiritually vibrant you lead— and love— your team better.
  • They sense it; you do, as well.

How do you do this, then? 

How do you “manage” your health? 

Here are three ways…

 

#1 = Be unavailable 

Leaders cannot always maintain an open door policy. If your life is one big interruption, you can’t work on yourself NOR can you focus on the biggest projects on your table. 

The best gift you can give your team is NOT unfettered access. The best gift you can give is a fully alive, optimally healthy you.

Calendar time to read, grow, learn, and work on the organization…

… and be fully present to those things when you do them,  so that you can be fully available for your team in the times you’ve chosen to be with them.

(This is an important step towards living in rhythm as we discussed in the previous module.)

 

#2 = Work ON it, not just IN it

Define the strategic issues coming up, look at the hurdles you can foresee, and plot your course forward. 

Don’t wait for the future to happen; look ahead and start planning. 

This requires intentional time and focus. And, it’s a consistent behavior. The best ideas mature over time as we continue thinking and re-thinking about them.

Schedule time to do this.

 

#3 = Maintain “upstream” relationships 

There are three kinds of relationships in our lives: =

  • downstream = people under our authority 
  • midstream = peers at our level
  • upstream = people ahead of us in the same industry and in life 

Proverbs tells us, “He who walks with the wise will be wise” (Proverbs 13:20).

Don’t be the smartest, sharpest, most creative person you know. Choose several from whom you can be challenged. 

Learn from people have built it bigger, done it faster, and are older and wiser.

Experience is a great teacher. That includes our own, but it also includes the experience of others— who have learned lessons from successes and failures AND can speak to us from the authority of that experience. 

(For a visual on this, consider the murky wonder of a pond. It gets that way because there’s nothing flowing through it— nothing going in, nothing going out. We become stagnant and stale in that same way when we have not “flow.”)

 

Again…

You practically “live out,” lead, and manage processes as an overflow of who you are and what’s happening with you. When you’re physically healthy, emotionally whole, mentally sharp, and spiritually vibrant you lead— and love— your team better. 

 


This video comes from the full Killer Team video course-- available at www.CourageousPastors.com/teams

Claim your free book at www.KillerTeamBook.org 

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