Thursday, November 19, 2009

Being an Influencer = Being a Leader

Are you a leader?

@ your workplace?

@ your home?

- in your neighborhood?

- in your school?

- on your team?

- on a ministry team?



It's been said over and over again that Leadership can be boiled down to one word...INFLUENCE - nothing more , nothing less.



As a learning leader I still have not figured out everything I need to know about being an influencer in my family, my ministry, my sphere of influence, but I'm moving forward....and so is our Student Ministry Team here on the North Campus @ Second.



As a Team we are taking a regular look at John Maxwell's "21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership." This past week we look at the "Law of Influence." Jonathan Gray, our HS Pastor, led our team in a discussion on what it means to lead via influence and here is what we fleshed out in terms of what factors come in to play: (adapted from Maxwell's "21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership")



Character - who you are: as some one who strives to live for Christ who I am inside is vastly more important the who I am outside. The question: is God's Word 1st influencing me before I can begin to influence others?



Relationships - who you know: influence happens through relationships; not in a vacuum. This week I identified those key influencers around me and asked if I have a solid relationship with them.



Knowledge - what you know: timing, vision, the direction of things...I found I need to think, "have I done my homework?" more often.



Intuition - What you feel: how is the morale, energy, and momentum in the group you want to lead; grasp that and you can influence effectively. For me - how is the energy, momentum, and morale on my team, in my ministry, in my home where I strive to lead?



Experience - where you've been: basically what have you proved you can influence previously...people will give you a chance if you give them a reason to do so.



Past Success - what you've done: a track record that says you can be trusted helps make your influence stick. Even small victories can be leveraged to build influence and credibility. My thought is - am I "sharing our story" enough so that others see the small & large victories?



Ability - what you can do: lastly, people want to be able to believe in you, in your cause, in your mission. Maxwell says, "they want to know whether that person can lead the team to victory"...huh, have we defined the win so others can get excited about following the casue?



Are these a part of who you as a Leader, opps I mean Influencer?


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