Category Archives: The EH Leader

Part 2: The Top 10 Challenges to be an Emotionally Healthy Leader

Last week, I explored the 5 top challenges for being an emotionally healthy leader: remaining in deep loving union with Jesus, taking time to grow in high self-awareness, embracing limits, choosing brokenness and vulnerability, and remaining a lifelong learner. This week, I want to you to consider the 5 remaining top challenges we consistently face as leaders: 6. Organizational Integrity. Exercising power and setting wise boundaries in leadership is complex, especially when we add in the “God factor.” Dual relationships, clear expectations and job descriptions, hiring and firing (even of volunteers) all require skill and high differentiation. Antidote: Include a wise, outside consultant into your process. Seek counsel from mentors who have led healthy ministries. Master the 8 skills from The Emotionally Healthy Relationship Course in your own life so you can apply them in your ministry. And carefully study chapter 8, “Power and Wise Boundaries,” from The Emotionally Healthy Leader. 7. Truth. Spirituality is not an. Read more.

Part 1: The Top 10 Challenges to be an Emotionally Healthy Leader

I have been thinking and writing about the qualities of emotionally healthy leadership since 1996. Each book (e.g. The Emotionally Healthy Leader) and theme in The EH Discipleship Courses touches a different facet of emotionally healthy leadership. Yet, as I continue on my own growth journey and interact with leaders, my nuancing of these challenges continues to sharpen. The following are the first 5 of my 10 challenges to being an emotionally healthy leader: Deep Loving Union and Surrender. Behind the pressure and demands that seek to cut us off from abiding in Jesus are powers and principalities of evil. To follow Jesus’ voice and will, regardless of where He leads, requires a deep trust developed through a long, slow history of being with Him in secret. This kind of depth cannot be learned in a class or book. Antidote: Faithfulness to spiritual practices. Obedience in the small things. Initiative to position yourself in. Read more.

5 Core Issues for Leading Millennials

According to a Pew Research study, Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation. Millennials, whom we now define as those ages 20-36, number over 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million Baby Boomers (ages 53-71). Businesses such as Goldman Sachs are studying this trend, recognizing they will “change the ways we buy and sell, forcing companies to examine how they do business for decades to come.” I too have been thinking about this new culture of Millennials as they increasingly become the dominant culture in many of our churches. What are the critical issues we must address to make mature disciples, build sustainable communities, and reach the world effectively? The following are my top 5: Practice Presence in a Digitally Connected World. Millennials are the first generation where social media and smart phones are the air they breathe. But screens can’t teach empathy or face-to-face conversation. We have an amazing opportunity. Read more.

Part 3: Dealing with Elephants in the Room- An EH Leader Podcast

Few things highlight our unresolved immaturities than the size and number of elephants in the room among those we lead (i.e. those inappropriate behaviors that remain unacknowledged). For this reason, God so often uses them as gifts to grow us out of our childishness into becoming godly, adult (telios) leaders. That is why we must become experts at dealing with elephants in the room. In Part 1, I explored the roots of why this is so pervasive in our lives. In Part 2, I explored five elements on how to deal with elephants. And now, in this podcast, I summarize and expand on this multilayered reality that each of us faces as we lead for Christ. Enjoy! LISTEN HERE Once again, let me invite you to our Emotionally Healthy Leadership Conference on May 3-4. This unique equipping experience will equip you with the essential inner and outer life skills needed to create a truly. Read more.

Part 2: Dealing with Elephants in the Room

We often see elephants in the room as interruptions when, in reality, they are gifts and opportunities. Elephants, as I explained in last week’s blog, are those inappropriate or immature behaviors that remain unacknowledged and unaddressed on our teams. Dealing with elephants is a central part of what it means to be a leader. Of course, elephants show up on our teams. The higher up, or deeper in, people progress as leaders, the more their immaturities and gaps reveal themselves. Simply think of Jesus and his team of disciples. These are God’s gifts for us to invest in our team members and shape the culture of the ministry or organization we lead. I have 30 years of wrestling with elephants and have made innumerable mistakes, many of which are recounted in The Emotionally Healthy Leader. Nonetheless, out of these failures, and some successes, 5 elements on how to deal with elephants have emerged for. Read more.

Part 1: Dealing with Elephants in the Room

My life passion is the glory of Jesus and that the world might know Him. A high quality, loving, vibrant church is His primary means for that to happen (cf. Eph.4:11-16; John 13:34-35). So, like many of you, my life work is to offer leadership to the church for this to become a reality. That is why we must become experts at dealing with elephants in the room. Elephants in the room refer to obviously inappropriate or immature behaviors that remain unacknowledged and unaddressed. Such elephants commonly roam wild and free among our teams, limiting our witness for Christ. Why is this so pervasive? The influence of our family of origin. Many of us grew up in families where multiple elephants lived. We are accustomed to elephants, large and small, freely roaming among us. We hate mess. We fear that if we address the elephants on our teams, things may actually worsen. They will. Read more.

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