fear

Uncommon Leadership: From Fear and Pride to Effectiveness

I was tired but energized by the response of the audience. I had completed my ninth day of teaching business and leadership skills in several remote villages on a mission trip to Kenya. And now, we weren't quite sure how many would attend our business women's conference at this location. We knew God would honor our efforts, even if only 20 people showed up.

We were overjoyed when on day one, the rural church sanctuary was overstuffed with women, many seated on the dirt floor. Countless others piled into flimsy plastic lawn chairs, spilling out every opening of the cracked block walls under the shelter of the sweltering corrugated tin roof. Scores more strained to lean in through pane-less window shaped holes to glean wisdom, and even more lined up on curbs outside. We were impressed with their desire to learn – no matter what obstacles they faced to get there or the discomfort they experienced to listen in.

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Failing Forward

It’s time to settle an important life question. As a leader, how do you deal with failure?

Failure is the inability to complete a task. Instead of feeling incompetent or giving into failure and giving up, leaders must learn to reset our expectations. We might even need to alter our schedule and regroup our team.

We all fail. But it’s how we handle failure that will set us apart from other leaders. We must learn to deal with failure. Do you give into self-pity? Do you blame other people? Leaders must learn how to productively fail and lean into it with a forward motion. As we learn from our failures, the momentum can actually work as a catalyst to move us into the next season of growth and productivity with a committed and thriving team.

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