Just Lead!: A No Whining, No Complaining, No Nonsense Practical Guide for Women Leaders in the Church

From the Author: Quick Tricks for the Leader Who Wants to Grow

1. Get off the Leadership Island. If you find yourself leading alone, someone is setting you up and it's not your boss or your employees. It's Satan. He wants you to be alone in your leadership, so when things frustrate or overwhelm you, you don't have anyone to turn to. There are two kinds of support every leader needs: Cheerleaders and Challengers. The cheerleaders are on your side even when you haven't done your best. They always believe in you and speak it into your spirit. They speak words of encouragement that help us survive the inevitable bumps of leadership. The Challengers are people who push us to get better, to go even farther. They call you out when you are not doing your best and they don't let you settle into average. We need a balance of both in our lives. As a leader if you only have cheerleaders, you'll be happy and comfortable, but you'll never grow. If you only have challengers, you'll get easily discouraged and you might feel like giving up.
2. Develop your leader finesse. Focus on these 3 areas for quick but solid growth:
   1. Find a mentor that possesses skills you admire. Watch them and take notes. Apply what you see and hear in your own leadership life.
   2. Brush up on your reading. I go back often to tried and true leadership guru's like John Maxwell and Patrick Lencioni, but I also check out current leadership titles, i.e. Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath.
   3. Pick a leadership skill to work on this week. Write down how you want to improve and set short, but easy goals that you can accomplish in a short time.
3. Give permission for a fellow leader to speak into you. Embrace the fact that a blind leader is a weak leader and be willing to look honestly at what you are not good at. Invite another leader who knows y
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