Leadership causes insecurities to rise to the surface. And if we’re not careful we’ll make decisions based on what’s best for our ego vs what’s best for the glory of God and the good of His kingdom. Here’s the second way we can overcome insecurity…
ASK YOUR TEAM FOR HELP
Insecure leaders don’t like asking for help because insecure leaders would prefer receiving all the credit themselves vs sharing it with others. Insecure leaders don’t like to get input from their team because they want to be the hero – they want to get the credit – they want to get the glory – because that feeds their ego. They like saying “Look what I came up” more than “Look what we came up with.” But secure leaders welcome the input of others recognizing that the input of others helps them make better decisions. Secure leaders recognize that the input of others helps the end product to be better than it would be without their input. Secure leaders aren’t afraid to ask their team for help.
When we look at the life of Jesus we see that even he, at times, asked his team for help. When Jesus multiplied the fish and the loaves he asked his team for help with distributing the food. Jesus asked Peter for help in paying his taxes. And when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly before his crucifixion he asked his disciples for help by asking them to pray. In essence he was saying: This is a really difficult time I’m going through and I need your help. I need your prayer support. Now if the Son of God wasn’t above asking his team for help from time to time, who are we NOT to?
I ask my team each and every week for help with my sermon. At New Day we do something each Thursday called the sermon run through. In the sermon run through I preach my sermon to my staff and then ask for their help in making it better. This is the most painful hour of my week! My team is so bright and so capable they immediately can come up with 80 different ways to improve my sermon. And that makes me feel insecure. After all, shouldn’t I have been able to think of that awesome introduction on my own? Shouldn’t I have thought to say it that way? Shouldn’t I have known that point 4 shouldn’t have made the cut? I mean – I’m the primary communicator at our church! I hate this process (that I instituted) so much that I’ve literally created a word doc in Google Drive that lists all the benefits of doing a sermon run through because I’m tempted just about every week to cancel it and never do it again because of how insecure it makes me feel. But to get a better end product, I have my team help me with the sermon each week.
They also help me to make important decisions. I almost never make a decision without asking for my team’s input first. For example, we’re in the process of making our next round of hires at New Day and you better believe I’m talking to my team about who to bring on and what areas we need to hire in and even about how much we should pay for these part time positions. I tap into my team and ask them for help with just about everything. Why? Because I make better decisions after having got their input. Does it cause my insecurity to rise to surface? Absolutely! I mean – if I’m the leader should’t I know where we need to hire next? If I’m the leader shouldn’t I just know what the part time pay should be? If I’m the leader shouldn’t I just know these things without having to ask for help? I feel insecure when I ask for their help BUT getting their good input is definitely what’s best for the kingdom.
What’s best for the glory of God and the good of His Kingdom is for me to get the input of my team. What’s best for the kingdom is for me to ask for my team’s help when I need it. What’s best for my ego is to make decisions independently SO THAT I can get all the credit. But again – that’s not what’s best for the kingdom, so I will often ask for my teams input and ask for my team’s help.
For your church to reach maturity you must overcome insecurity by asking for the help and input of your team.