The Keys to Effective Leadership
I am the son and grandson of coaches. My mom brings people together as well as anyone I know. I started reading biographies of leaders when I was in 2nd grade. I married the best leader I have ever seen in action. My life has been an embarrassment of riches of wise leaders sharing their lives with me. For years I have been collecting leadership thoughts and developing my own. Then one fateful afternoon, while leading a training for teammates, the stars aligned and what had been seemingly disparate leadership thoughts turned into one coherent philosophy that nearly all of my thoughts fall neatly into. My remaining thoughts that don’t fall neatly into that framework can be found by clicking on the leadership blog link on the main page.
Healthy Leadership Framework
If we attempt to manufacture results from others we get neither results nor a healthier person. If we help people become who they are capable of becoming we likely get both. The most effective work is getting to the core of what can help people live into all of who God is calling them to be- not just how they get better at the roles they are playing (i.e. Dad, Son, professional role, etc). When these things get unlocked it then flows out into every role they play.
Healthy, growing, dynamic people investing their energy in the right things always leads to healthy, growing, dynamic organizations.
When a leader is healthy they have the margin to think beyond themselves rather than simply attempting to use people to manufacture results.
Healthy leaders then use this margin to diagnose “What gets in the way of _______ becoming who they are capable of becoming? What is ____ uniquely gifted at and how do we get them to do more of that?” This is the real work of leadership and the step most often overlooked in favor of universalized remedies to customized problems.
When leaders are able to properly diagnose they can now ensure that the remedy matches the diagnosis and can effectively coach the people entrusted to their care.
Click below on Health, Diagnosis, Coaching to find more tools on how to do each step.
Health.
A leader must steward their emotional energy in a way that allows them to think beyond themselves allowing them to serve and develop those entrusted to their care.
Diagnosis.
The real work of a leader is diagnosis. It is lazy leadership to prescribe universal remedies to unique diagnoses.
Coaching.
A leader must be able to effectively prescribe and communicate the appropriate remedy based on the diagnosis in order to help people become who they are capable of becoming.
“To navigate between generational, regional, socio-political, and racial divisions requires leaders with gravity of soul and uncommon wisdom. Jon Houghton possess both.”
— Skye Jethani Author of WITH and host of The Holy Post Podcast