Missio Dei Church | Elements of Effective Leadership

I?ve read numerous books and blogs and have been to countless conferences that discuss the topic of effective leadership. Much of it is helpful but not memorable. This post is my effort to compile something that is both helpful and memorable and it comes from years of serving in a leadership capacity of some form. I have discovered three elements of effective leadership. There are certainly more, but I?m convinced that there aren?t less.?What are they?

The Elements Explained:

The first element of effective leadership is?execution, the ability to produce what you are in place to produce. Some might term this the ?competency? element. One cannot lead in an arena in which he is incompetent. If your arena is sales, you must be able to sell, if your arena is construction, you must be able to build, if your arena is education, you must be able to teach.?It isn?t required among leaders to outperform all others in order to be effective, however, an inability to execute will be detrimental to leadership.

The second element of effective leadership is?communication. Communication is a two-way street. The message must be sent and received in order for communication to have been accomplished. Just because a leader sends out a message doesn?t guarantee that the message will be received, so an effective leader must think through a communication plan. Be specific about the when, the what and the method of the message and elicit feedback to ensure that the correct message was received.

The third element of effective leadership is?relationship. One cannot lead if there are none to follow. Establishing and nurturing trusting relationships is essential to effective leadership. While virtually no relationships remain static, all relationships generally fall into the category of superior, peer or subordinate and defining clearly the nature of the relationship and honoring it as such will travel many leadership miles. Relating to a superior as if he were a peer will quickly make a relationship awkward and will impede effective leadership.

The Elements Explored:

One cannot lead effectively without a combination of all three of these elements. One can limp along in leadership if he pays attention to at least two of the three, but will certainly struggle if he is known for being bad at two of the elements.

For example,?A coach who has great rapport with his players, communicates the schedule through printouts, email, text message reminders and loses every game by a large margin will not last long since his goal is to produce a winning team (or at least a competitive team).?Struggling with one element is acceptable for a time, but if it is not addressed, the wheels will eventually come loose.

Some leaders are only proficient in one of the areas and they are known as weak leaders. To be sure, you will be lead by men who have good relational connections, but fail to communicate or produce. Likely, they are only in place because of their relationships and they are terribly difficult to follow. Their leadership is unsustainable. Likewise with one who solely executes at the exclusion of communication and relationships or who communicates without producing and with terrible relationships.

Conclusion:

Effective leaders pay close attention to execution, communication and relationships. While these elements play a role in leadership, it is still far more of an art than a science and these are by no means guarantees to effective leadership, but lacking them will guarantee poor leadership. Which of these elements requires attention on your part? What needs attention in your execution, communication or relationships?

Source: http://mdcincy.org/blog/pastor/elements-of-effective-leadership

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