Top Ten Leadership Mistakes by Tony Morgan
Tony delivered a content-rich talk to open the Church Solutions Conference. Here are my notes from his talk about the top ten leadership mistakes he has made:
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Hiring Too Fast. Firing Too Slow. Every minute I delay in firing, I take away opportunity for God to work in that person's life.
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Putting Projects before the People. Embrace the tension and find the balance between leadership and shepherding.
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Trying to Fix the Problem Rather than the Process. Ninety percent of the time it isn't a people-problem. It is a process-problem.
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Delegating Tasks Instead of Responsibility. It is hard to delegate, because many times I (wrongly) think I'm the only one who can do it right.
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Assuming it is Always Black and White. Following rules is a lot easier than trying to deal with relationships.
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Not Following my Gut. When we stop listening to God, he stops talking to us (consider the 13-year gap when God stopped talking to Abraham).
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Dwelling on the Worst-Case Scenario. Worry might not be your issue, but everyone has an issue that can derail them.
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Waiting Until There's a Problem to Provide Feedback. I have to discipline myself to encourage my team.
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Staying Busy. It is a lie, but I tend to think if I'm staying busy, I'm adding value to my organization. (Fire ? At this point in Tony's speech, the emergency alarms sounded and the Phoenix Convention Center was evacuated for 20 minutes. Yes, I'm serious.)
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Spending Too Much Time on the Details Rather than the Dreams.
Other notable quotes from Tony…
- "Are you going to focus on changing diapers or potty-training?"
- "I love executing the policy."
- "My dream for years was, 'I want to be a City Manager.'."
- "This is a church crowd, I probably should use a few spiritual terms."
- "The sin I struggle with most in my life is worry."
- "I am encouragement-challenged."
- "My title is meaningless, no one knows what it means, which lets me do whatever I want."
Great job Tony!