Below is an interview I did over at Leadership501

What do you feel is the biggest mistake new leaders make?

The biggest mistake new leaders make is viewing leadership as positional.  New leaders must develop credibility across the many layers of the organization. Leadership rises on falls on credibility and trust, these are both earned over time.

What is the most important skill for a new leader to acquire?

This is a tough question.  There are so many important skills to be developed simultaneously and that development is continual.  If I have to choose one I would say communication.  If a leader is a poor communicator, he will never be able to create the cultural climate necessary to bring about positive change.  Leadership is about taking people from point A to point B and this rarely happens in a straight line.  It’s more like leading people through an obstacle course while blindfolded.  The leader has to stay ahead of the team, pointing out the obstacles and communicating where to go next.

In the ancient middle east, shepherds would share large, walled, areas for their sheep to sleep in at night.  These areas were meant for the protection of the sheep from predators such as wolves.  The sheep would intermingle in the fold and there was no way to distinguish on shepherds sheep from the other by looking at them.  Interestingly, when a particular shepherd was ready to take their sheep to pasture, he would simply walk into the fold and make a unique sound with his voice.  His sheep knew his voice and his special command.  They would get up and follow him out of the fold. 

Leaders must develop their unique voice.

What is the best way for someone to develop their leadership potential early in their career?

1)      Build credibility by always doing what you say you will do.  Never ask someone to do something that you are not willing to do yourself.

2)      Learn the Art of Listening.  People want to be heard and many people have great ideas and solutions.  Always take the time to listen and look for opportunities to get feedback from others. 

3)      Learn How to Conduct Meetings!  Effective meetings are crucial to effective leadership. 

If you were hiring someone you hoped to groom for a leadership position, what key things would you look for?

1)      Passion – Good leaders are in it for more than a paycheck.

2)      Humility – Good leaders treat the janitor the same as the CEO

3)      Emotional Intelligence – This relatively new field of study provides a wealth of insight into how leadership works.  A great starting point is the book Primal Leadership by Goleman and Boyatzis.

If you could point a new leader to read one thing you’ve written, what would it be and why is it important?

Read my series of articles on my three dimensional leadership model at www.totalleader.wordpress.com

Part 1:  http://totalleader.wordpress.com/2006/07/05/three-dimensional-leadership-part-1-the-design-phase-of-leadership/

Part 2:  http://totalleader.wordpress.com/2006/07/06/three-dimensional-leadership-part-two-the-development-phase-of-leadership/

Part 3:  http://totalleader.wordpress.com/2006/07/13/three-dimensional-leadership-the-discipline-phase/

Blogging is a unique and powerful way to multiply influence.  Now, how does this coincide with a proper theology of leadership?  If one is following the core convictions of a leader that we have discussed, then one can say as Paul did, “follow my example.”  Now, I am not suggesting that all of us bloggers are great leaders, I am simply suggesting that if God has given us something to say, we should say it.  Not only should we say it, we should try to say it to as many people as possible. 

 One mistake people make is to measure sucess on a blog numerically.  But here is the catch, if I did not write any of my leadership research on this blog, ZERO, people would read the research.  I don’t have 100’s of hits a day on this blog, but over time hundreds of people of read some of the things I have to say.  There is a big difference between ZERO and a THOUSAND.  The point is this, if you have something that you think is worthwhile to say than blog it.  You may be an encouragement to someone across the nation or across the globe.

I recently began a sermon series called the The Core.  This series covers 15 essential doctrines of the faith.  I decided to create a blog that goes along with the series.  You can read it at www.thecoreconvictions.wordpress.com .  Now people can interact with the material all week and discuss the topic.  Do I have most people discussing, no, but they are reading.  Another plus is that people can stumble across the page and read the material and the blog points them to the sermons online.  The key is multiplication.  Multiply your ministry and you will multiply influence for the glory of God.

A new year is a great time to renew old commitments and begin new journeys.  I am not much for resolutions…they always fail.  But I am for new challenges.  When a one fails in a challenge there is much to learn and the option to go for it another time.  Blogging is a challenge for me, to find the time and consistency, but I feel it is something I need to do and want to continue doing. 

 To meet this new challenge I have shut down my Total Truth blog and will focus on Total Leadership and a new group blog at www.nwagospeloutpost.wordpress.com  Total Leader will continue to focus on issues and I will tackle my SBC Leadership Issues here as well.  The Gospel Outpost is a strictly a blog designed to apply theology to life.  I guess this is my new life slogan….applying all of theology to all of life. 

There are two inherent dangers addressed in this slogan.  First…to have any theology that is not applied to life is too have a dead theology.  Second….to live life without theology is to drift in the waves of nihilism.  So there it is.  To be a solid leader one must apply all of theology to all of life.  To do this, one must know theology.  You cannot apply what you don’t have.  Second, one must be willing to face the truth and allow the truth to change them.  Isn’t this the hardest thing to do…to change?  As leaders we want everyone else to change…but am I willing to change, are you willing to change?

Where am I going with this?  Well, my goal in 2007 on this blog is to present a theology of leadership.  I pray that many of you will go on this journey with me. 

This was an amazing book, I read it in about three sessions. The topic is meetings and the author brilliantly crafts his thoughts into a fictional account of a corporation's struggle to have effective meetings. The material gives a complete framework for keeping meetings meaningful, passionate and effective. Anyway – I wanted to highlight this book as an awesome read. I will be posting some thoughts on leading effective meetings in the near future and hopefully we can have some good discussion on meeting ideas.

If a term such as leadership is not well defined, it really has no meaning at all.  Did you realize that word leadership did not appear in any dictionaries until the early 1900's?  When the word appeared, it was defined as the office and prestige of a leader.  The definition only had positional connotations.  Over 60% of authors who have written about leadership since 1910 did not define the term in their works.  Leadership is a word that has not been clearly defined. 

Maxwell says that, "Leadership is influence."  Well, this is true, but this simplistic definition surely falls short to some extent.   

Leadership scholar Joseph Rost defines leadership as, "Leadership is a influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes." 

Kenneth O. Gangel defines Christian Leadership distinctly as, "The exercise of one's spiritual gifts under the call of God to serve a certain group of people in achieving the goals God has given them toward the end of glorifying Christ."

Even in our day of linguistic decontruction and post-modern thought, definitions mean something.  When I order and X-large pepperoni pizza with x-tra cheese, I don't want them to bring me a small supreme.  Are any of these definitions sufficient?  Do you have a definition that you like?  Maybe we can craft a great definition together?