By Carey Nieuwhof: Chances are a big chunk of what you’re going to do today in leadership is think.

Really, thinking is a big slice of what any leader is paid to do.

You try to solve problems, analyze opportunities, listen, facilitate and chart paths.

And this last year has likely required more thinking from you as a leader than the entire decade before it.

As a result, you’ve probably noticed that how you think will determine how well you lead.

Not surprisingly, there are four kinds of ways leaders commonly think that can actually damage your leadership.

You See It All The Time

Sometimes all we need to do is put language to things we see.

I’ve just been keeping notes on the kinds of thinking to which various leaders default. So this post isn’t scientifically about anyone, but if you’re like me, as you read through this list, specific people will come to mind.

I’d encourage you to focus on your own thinking, rather than theirs.

Nobody Intends to Sabotage Themselves

Few people intend to sabotage their leadership. They don’t plant landmines throughout their day and wait for them to go off. But let’s be honest. Many leaders end up sabotaging themselves every day despite their best intentions.

Intent has little to do with effectiveness.

When you and I can see how certain patterns of thinking trip us (and others) up, progress becomes easier.

Here are 4 kinds of thinking that can sabotage your leadership and have often tripped up mine:

Intent has little to do with effectiveness.Click To Tweet

1. Undigested Thinking

As a leader, I hate to admit I see this all the time in the church. You’ve seen it too.

Someone goes to a conference and comes away with two good ideas. Then they go to another conference and come away with three more. Add a dozen podcasts, blog posts, webinars and books into the mix, and they end up with a 9 raw ideas they’re intrigued with.

And then they make their critical mistake.

They implement the ideas without thinking much further about it.

And here’s the problem.

None of the ideas are compatible with each other.

Some of them directly compete with each other.

No idea is fully integrated into their existing model of ministry (which might actually be scrambled eggs to start with).

They didn’t digest any of it, synthesize any of it or even critically process it.

They leave their followers confused. And their systems dis-integrated (literally).

2. Overthinking

This is a leadership epidemic, especially in the church. I’m guilty of this sometimes.

Leaders often overthink issues.

They think about:

Everything that could go wrong

Who might feel left out

Why it might not work

How much it could cost

And they often wrongly believe they:

Need a bullet-proof plan before they start

Have to have every potential problem worked through before they begin

Should plan for every contingency ‘just in case’

Hey, in a perfect world that would be awesome. But last time I checked, this wasn’t much of a perfect world.

Great leaders often have a bias for action (I wrote about that here). Overthinking kills action.

If you want to be challenged to stop overthinking issues, read this account of how Sir Richard Branson started Virgin Airlines. It might freak you out, but it will show you why he has been so successful.

When it comes to church leadership, I believe we overthink. The pendulum has swung too far. It’s time to start acting.

Great leaders often have a bias for action. Overthinking kills action.Click To Tweet

3. Indecisive Thinking

The indecisive thinker may have some well-digested thoughts, and might even be ready to act.

But they come to a fatal point in the road.

They have usually narrowed the options to two, but they just can’t pull the trigger. And they really have no idea why.

I’ll tell you why I think leaders end up being indecisive.

One word: FEAR.

If you’re an indecisive thinker, drill down on your fear and you’ll find your future.

Don’t rest until you ask yourself “What am I afraid of?” Seriously, answer that. If you can’t, ask others. Go sit with a counsellor. Pray. Fast. Do what you need to do.

Keep asking. Don’t stop until you get a real, honest answer.

Then when you get an answer, take your fear to God in prayer until it no longer owns you.

Great leadership isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the courage to push through it.

Figuring out your fear and pushing through it will kill your indecision for good.

Great leadership isn’t the absence of fear, it’s the courage to push through it.Click To Tweet

4. Underthinking

I put this last because I think it’s a problem in the church, but because the church is dominated by overthinkers, most would criticize anyone who underthinks.

Sure, sometimes leadership is poor because leaders have underthought an issue – or underprayed it.  But like I said, that doesn’t often happen.

Do you think Paul pre-thought the explosion of the early church through to its conclusion before he started out on his first mission trip? Nope. He just went, and was blown away by what God did.

If you really sit down and talk to successful (and faithful) leaders, they will tell you they are the most surprised at what happened. All they did was start. They knew they didn’t quite know what they were doing, but they acted while everyone else sat in a boat and watched someone else walk on water.

Entrepreneurial business leaders are often more likely to underthink things, but I still applaud their efforts. And a surprising number of times, they go on to succeed anyway.

In the church world, few have underthought their future. Far too many have underacted on it.

If you really sit down and talk to successful (and faithful) leaders, they will tell you they are the most surprised at what happened. All they did was start.Click To Tweet

What’s Your Next Step?

Normally this is where the blogger-type-person says “what about you, what do you think?” and “leave a comment” (which you can certainly do).

But today I want to challenge you to work through this.

Seriously. Which kind of thinker are you?

And then consider taking this to your team or board. Because the truth is as much as you have a bias toward kind of thinking that sabotage your leadership, so does your organization.

There is a ‘group think’ that has developed among your organization that shapes your culture.

Do you generally overthink or underthink?

Are you indecisive?

Does fear rule you?

Are you trigger happy with undigested thoughts?

Work this through, and we’ll all be better off. So will our organization and the people we lead.

That’s what I’m going to do.

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Source: 4 Types Of Thinking That Will Sabatage Your Leadership

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by Carey Nieuwhof: So what’s the difference between churches that grow and churches that decline?

Well, there are many, but—crisis or no crisis—one of the biggest differences I see is in the attitude of the leaders.

The leaders of growing churches almost always share a common attitude. So do the leaders of declining churches.

And the attitude has a huge influence over the results each church sees.

Attitude may or may not be everything, but it’s close.

Here are 5 attitude differences I see again and again in growing churches and declining churches.

Attitude may or may not be everything, but it’s close.Click To Tweet

1. We Can v. We Can’t

Perhaps the biggest difference I see between growing churches and declining churches is the attitude around what’s possible.

Growing churches believe they can.

Declining churches believe they can’t.

They’re both right.

One of my all-time favorite quotes is Henry Ford’s “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re right.”  He’s correct.

Growing churches make a way when there’s no way, which seems to be what God specializes in if you read the Bible.

Growing churches make a way when there’s no way, which is something God specializes in.Click To Tweet

When you sit around your leadership table, do you come up with 20 ways to make it happen, or 20 reasons why it won’t work? That tells you far more about your church than you probably want it to.

Growing churches believe they can. It’s that simple. And even if they’re wrong, at least they tried.

The mission is important enough to take significant risk.

Growing churches believe they can. Declining churches believe they can’t. They’re both right.Click To Tweet

2. Them v. Us

Declining churches focus on themselves.

Growing churches focus on the people they’re trying to reach.

If your leadership table conversations are all about the needs and wants of your members, it’s a sign that your church is insider focused.

The mission of the church is to reach the world. Growing churches not only know that; they live it.

The instability we’re living and leading through makes that difference even more pronounced.

Some churches moved immediately into preservation mode. Others moved into mission.

The future in all likelihood belongs to those who moved into mission.

When the crisis hit, some churches moved immediately into preservation mode. Others moved into mission. The future in all likelihood belongs to those who moved into mission.Click To Tweet

Besides, who likes to hang out with selfish people?

And ironically, selfish people almost always end up in a very surprising place: alone. Because a life devoted to self ultimately leaves you alone. That’s also true for selfish churches.

If you’re becoming smaller and smaller, is it because you’re selfish?

Selfish people ultimately end up alone. The same is true for selfish churches.Click To Tweet

3. Principles v. Preferences

Declining churches focus on their member’s preferences.

Todd didn’t like the music. 

Allison thinks we’re not deep enough. 

Jon thinks our services are too short. 

Bill says he’ll never watch online. 

And so the leaders respond, trying to please everybody.

Declining churches bend to the preferences of their members.

Growing churches don’t.

Instead, they focus on the principles (even strategies) that will help them reach new people.

It’s not that growing churches ignore the needs of their members, it’s that they realize the needs of their members are best fufilled by making their lives about something bigger than their preferences (i.e. the mission).

Is your leadership team principle-driven or preference driven? There’s a world of difference between the two.

Declining churches bend to the preferences of their members. Growing churches don’t.Click To Tweet

4. Proactive v. Reactive

This is a close cousin of points 2 and 3 above, but the difference is deadly or life-giving depending on where you land.

Growing churches are proactive. They choose their agenda and immediately take action on issues that can impact their future.

Declining churches are reactive, letting members determine the agenda and reacting to problems as they arise.

In fact, most declining churches are so busy reacting to problems other people raise that they never get around to charting a course for the future.

If you never get around to charting a course for the future, you will have no future.

Growing churches have a strong bias for setting their own agendas, not in the selfish sense, but in a way that determined leaders see what the mission requires and decide to deal with it.

The leaders in a growing church simply refuse to yield to the agenda of others that would take them off mission.

And as a result, they are far more effective.

If you never get around to charting a course for the future, you will have no future.Click To Tweet

5. Today v. Someday

Growing churches act. And they act now.

Declining churches don’t.

Declining churches don’t actually say they won’t act, they’ll just say they’ll get to it ‘eventually’, or someday, or ‘when the time is right’—which means never.

By contrast, great leaders and great teams banish the word ‘someday’ from their vocabulary, because they realize that someday usuallyequals never.

If you want to be effective, you act.

If you want to be ineffective, you don’t.

Talk without action has little value. And too many church leaders specialize in talk.

Talk without action has little value. And too many church leaders specialize in talk.Click To Tweet

In addition, too many church teams meet for the sake of meeting.

If you can’t remember the last time you made a major decision that changed the course of your church, your leaders are wasting their time.

If you talk about the same issues meeting after meeting with no resolution, you’re spinning your wheels.

Does that mean you have to act on everything? Well, yes and no.

If you’re not going to act, strike the item off the agenda and move on.

If you are going to act, act. Now.

Don’t get stuck in the no man’s land of believing the lie that talking about things solves things.

Action produces traction. So act.

By the way, this simple framework will help you break the habit of talking with no action for good.

Action produces traction. So act.Click To Tweet

How Agile Are You? Take The New Agility Quiz.

Some organizations and churches are thriving and will thrive in the new normal.

Others won’t.

Over 70% of the 700+ leaders who took a recent survey predict that the future for their organization is going to look very different than before the global crisis.

While the future is uncertain, there are clear indicators and characteristics of which organizations will fail which ones will thrive in the new normal.

Not sure whether you and your team have the attitude that will move you strongly into the future?

I created a free, 14 question Agility Quiz that takes almost no time to complete. You’ll get the results immediately.

You can take The Agility here.

How’s your team?

What attitudes do you see in you and around you?

Leave a comment below!

The post 5 Big Attitude Differences That Separate Growing Churches From Declining Churches appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Big Attitude Differences That Separate Growing Churches From Declining Churches

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