Some of the greatest opportunities for your leadership and organization are not found in the wisdom of age but hidden in the passion of youth. Senior leaders are encouraged to identify young emerging leaders, invite them onto the team, and let them fly. Here are three points, followed by critical questions, all exposing a reason why young leaders often don't stick around on teams for the long-haul.

Growth changes everything.  It can be weird, painful, awkward, not always fun.  Growth does not ensure success, health or maturity.   These occur when we shift mentally, organizationally and behaviorally to embrace our next level.  Recently I read a book providing the framework on how teams should adjust as growth occurs.  I want to share the styles of teams required to lead various sizes of organizations as defined in this book.

Leaders are good with people.  Leaders take extra steps to do so.  Leaders do not lash out in impatience.  Leaders do not passively aggressively get even.  

Pastors never feel like we have enough volunteers, we do not have time to train them and simply wish they would show up on time.  If they would just read our weekly emails to them we would feel like a success!  I want to share with you some principles we employ when it comes to leading volunteers.  These have enabled us to connect over 100 new volunteers in just a few months.

Planning is necessary, but we can plan too much.  Leadership in our generation is less about preparing for the perfect scenario and more about being prepared when an opportunity arises.  Stop stressing over the future and invest your time developing invaluable traits. 

Truth is, God wired all of us with a measure of innovation.  My challenge to you today is to unleash it.  Creativity and innovation emerges in leadership in various ways.  Sadly, for most, we grow up and at some point we lose that thing in us that dreams larger dreams and allows creativity to soar.  There are certain "creativity killers" that I want to expose today.  Here are 9 things I want you to be aware of; 9 mindsets that destroy creativity and innovation.

Recently I attended a roundtable event with a group of 20 other pastors who share my responsibilities of leading from the second chair.  I want to talk to you about the 6 most impactful lessons I gleaned from this group on leadership.  These emerge from a church setting but apply to leadership on a broader level as well.  Hopefully you are as challenged as I was.

Difficulties, obstacles, rough terrain and complexities can overwhelm us.  Perhaps you have faced one.  Perhaps you are facing one right now.  In these moments we have a few options:  We can quit, we can stay stuck where we are, or we can keep going in the face of adversity.  No matter what you are facing, personal or professional, I believe you should keep going.  Here are 4 practices to help you press on in the face of adversity.

In an effort to identify my blind spots, I had to muster up some courage and ask for help.  The nerve-wracking part is that I decided to ask those who feel my deficiencies the most:  My team.  So far the results have been incredible!  This post includes my personal strategy, action points for you and more free content to help you shore up the weaknesses you may not even see!

Recently we realized that we fall short in leading our teams to create great experiences.  While we preach things like excellence, creativity or kindness; we do not give people specific ways to behave that ensure they are creating that ideal moment.  Touchy-feely statements are cool, but measurable behaviors ensure things get done and helps people know they are winning.  

Here are the 3 behaviors we ask our leaders to embrace on the weekends to create experiences people will talk about.