Five temptations leaders face

Leadership positions are a mixed blessing. For those wired to lead it is a joy to be in one's sweet spot. However, leadership brings with it a set of very real temptations that trip up CEO's, pastors, presidents and ministry leaders. Given these temptations, the first priority of every leader ought to be health: emotional, relational, spiritual, leadership and skill health. In the absence of that kind of care, there is a high likelihood that a leader will suffer one or more of the following temptations.

Isolation
Leaders find themselves in a difficult place. They higher one rises in leadership responsibility the more isolated it feels. Good leaders, while collegial and approachable are not "one of the boys," or "one of the girls." They must push the missional agenda with those they lead and while the culture may well be collegial, they are still the leader and their focus on the missional along with decisions they must make will not always leave them popular.

Leaders who are promoted from within their organization quickly realize that the relationships they had with their peers have changed. It must if one is going to lead well.

Isolation, however, is a trap because we were not made to live in isolation. Isolation breeds loneliness and loneliness breeds unhealthy habits and addictions in a desire to fill that hole of loneliness. Leaders must face that temptation squarely and intentionally foster deep, meaningful relationships with peers at their level and friendships outside their organization. Isolation is dangerous so there needs to be a strategy to counter it.

Feeding a dark side
As noted above, feeding a dark side is often the result of isolation. Long hours, loneliness, constant travel, lack of genuine friendships all leave one vulnerable to unhealthy addictions: pornography, affairs, gambling, drugs, alcohol or other risky behaviors. The unconscious justification is "I need an outlet to my hectic leadership responsibilities."

Isolation and dark sides go together. Wise leaders have a deliberate strategy for avoiding isolation and the development of healthy habits that minimize the need to feed the dark side - which is simply a way to fill some emotional, spiritual or relational hole.

Running on empty
Many leaders have bought the lie that in order for them to lead well they need to be constantly on the move, running from one important meeting to another, one city or country to another. One cannot run a sprint twenty hours a day, day after day, and not pay the price.

God did not design us to run on empty. It can feel good - after all I am so important that I have this incredibly busy schedule - my input is needed all over the place: balderdash! Busyness may feed our self importance but it is not a necessity of leadership. Wise leaders set a livable pace, building in relational time, think time, rest time, and they say no to tons of good things in order to say yes to the most important things. Run on empty long enough and your leadership will be compromised

Taking short cuts
It is amazing how many leaders run aground on the shoals of ethical issues. After all, I work so hard, I give so much of myself to the organization, I am owed something too! Above all, leaders must model the highest ethical behavior and go the extra mile to avoid any appearance of ethical short cuts.

Arrogance
Arrogance is both the end result of the first four temptations and feeds them further. Arrogance is an attitude that the rules don't belong to me, I am the one with the needed wisdom, as the leader, I am different, and this ministry or company revolves around me.

Many leaders fall to this temptation. In the end it severely compromises their ability to lead because those around them will not give themselves to an arrogant leader - if they have other options.

Leadership is a high calling and for those who lead well a most satisfying job. But we will only be good leaders to the extent that we are healthy leaders. Healthy leaders live lives of significant discipline with a great deal of self knowledge because leadership 101 is avoiding the five temptations that will unravel my leadership!

Issues that put a leaders job at high risk

Leaders live with a higher level of job risk than many others. Ironically, once they achieve a leadership role they often relax rather than pay the close attention they need to critical issues that contribute to the kind of healthy leadership that leads to longevity. I have watched leaders ignore these issues and be surprised when they lost their leadership role often in less than pleasant circumstances.

The risk increases with one's leadership tenure because the demands of a growing ministry become higher and the tendency to relax and lose focus also increase. If you lead, whether a team or division or organization, think about how you are doing in the following areas which are critical to leadership longevity.

Defining clarity. The first job of a leader is to provide maximum clarity to the organization or part of the organization they lead as to what they are about. The second job is to ensure that there is full alignment around that clarity and the third job is to ensure that there are results based on that clarity. When a leader fails to continue to provide significant clarity the organization or team starts to wander and staff become restless - a dangerous symptom for a leader.

Focusing on the missional agenda of the organization. While this may seem obvious it is easy over time to slip from leading to managing the status quo. Once we stop leading toward greater effectiveness we essentially plateau the organization or part of the organization we lead. The lack of forward progress and pro-active leadership becomes an irritant to other good staff who look to their leader to provide direction and lead boldly.

Leading a healthy team. Again, this may seem obvious but all too often, leaders start to neglect the health, unity and strength of their team. This may be because they are not working with their team to drive the missional agenda forward and the team starts to wonder what their real agenda is. It is also possible that leaders start to focus on their agenda rather than the team's agenda and the team starts to feel that they are not a priority to their leader anymore. When leaders start to lose the confidence of their team they are in a dangerous place.

Dealing with critical organizational issues. There are always issues that if ignored will hurt the organization or if pursued will help the organization. Many of them can be difficult: staff who don't belong anymore; structures that don't work well; paradigms that our outdated and need to change and other threats or opportunities. 

Often, leaders tackle such issues early in their tenure but tend to move toward comfort later in their tenure - leaving critical issues untended to. This is why new leaders often need to clean up messes or issues ignored by their predecessor. When we stop being aggressive about critical organizational issues we have moved from leadership to management of the status quo.  Good staff notice and become discouraged because they want to give their time and energy to something of significance.

Ensuring that the organization delivers on its mission. I am frankly amazed at how many leaders (and their boards) do not look realistically at what they are accomplishing relative to their stated mission. Because our bottom line is not financial like the business world it is easy to gloss over substandard results. Poor results are frankly the outcome of the previous issues not being properly addressed. Eventually this catches up to a leader as boards and/or staff start to ask hard questions.

Focus and vigilance are hallmarks of good leaders. Once we lose our edge it is hard to get it back. If we lose the confidence of our core team we can no longer lead well and we are in a risky place. Leaders can relax in who they are but they cannot relax in leading well and staying energized in that role. Like the proverbial frog in the kettle, it is easy to lose our edge and not even know it until we lose key staff, the confidence of our team or of our board and we find ourselves sidelined.