Serving Bread

Dr. Bobby Clinton, professor at Fuller Seminar and a teacher on leadership, is quoted as saying, “Good leaders have good perspective; better leaders have better perspective.” That phrase has stuck with me for years and I have found that I’m most confident in my leadership and the direction of my work when I have better perspective.

Developing perspective is not an easy thing. When my life is full, the first thing that goes is perspective and the second thing that goes is space to reflect and develop perspective. And when that’s gone, I find myself reacting to everything, and being only about the details of the ministry or the work. In other words, I do the things that I have to do and forget the bigger picture of why these things matter.

The lack of perspective harms me in several other ways:

1. I lose passion and vision for the work. Regardless of what God is doing in my life, I lose the desires to be of the things of God. I have little or no energy to lead people toward the glory of God.
2. I feel abandoned by God. Even if I am having regular times with Jesus in devotion, the lack of perspective can quickly divorce my personal time with Jesus from my leadership. My vision will become redefined to a lower standard, where I may still think I’m being faithful and believing in faith, but my standard has been lowered.
3. I don’t have vision for people. Rather than have vision for how people can grow, I think of people as pawns in the ministry and hope that somehow they would do their thing with God. I will lose hope that people can actually grow (through my leadership), and I get frustrated that people are not growing.

Having said that, better perspective has helped me lead with greater confidence. Perspective allows me to see what God has done, what he is doing, and what he can do. By creating space for perspective, I can pause to thank God for the victories, and lament in the defeats. It allows me to spend my time on the important things rather than react to crises.

One of the disciplines I introduced into my life last year that was a weekly time where I can reflect on leadership, and to read through a book on leadership. Last year, I read Go, Put Your Strengths to Work and over the summer, I read Transforming Leadership. I am currently reading The Fifth Discipline. These literary mentors not only shape my ministry but give me a framework and perspective on growing as a leader.

Second, my weekly (usually on Tuesdays if you haven’t noticed) reflections on leadership insights, are a way for me to develop a space to learn (with you as a reader). It allows me to receive feedback on what I’m learning and to be able to articulate (I’m an extrovert) my lessons.

And third, for the past five years, I have been drafting monthly “Leadership Lessons.” A former supervisor had asked me to draft these lessons as a way for me to grow in learning and perspective. I have been doing this for nearly five years now, and it is great to see all the ways that God is growing me as a leader, and giving me the space to learn and gain perspective on my leadership.