Welcome to the Lessons in Leadership Series!

We touched last week on the top 5 enemies of excellence.

• Pride
• Perfectionism
• Complacency
• Working outside our giftedness
• Lack of boundaries

Your challenge last week was to identify the enemy of excellence you most struggle with. Some of you did a shout out in the comment section on your biggest struggle. I loved getting to hear the whys and hows behind your own leadership.

I’ve talked publicly before about the biggest enemy of excellence for me: perfectionism. For those of us who err on the side of workaholic, I think this particular enemy is the worst. Thankfully, once we’ve identified which enemy we tend to gravitate toward, it is easy to begin the steps to combat it! Not to mention we have a God who forgives! Isn’t grace awesome?

Today I want to look at a few things concerning the first three enemies we identified.

• Pride - Many of us serve in online ministry whether through our blogs, websites, various social outlets, etc.  Online ministry does present us with a unique challenge when it comes to pride. Stats, hits, site numbers and followers really do have a place. Attention has to be given to these things (in moderation!!) to build an effective ministry. It is is when we give these things the first place in ministry that excellence quickly begins to diminish. Many of us may also serve in churches or in an extracurricular setting. The challenge here (as well as online ministry) is that those in leadership will often be “elevated” in the eyes of those they lead.

How can we serve humbly; serve God fully without serving our egos?

James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

This verse is telling us that if we submit voluntarily to our God, allowing ourselves to be corrected, allowing ourselves to be humbled, He will lift us up.

I wonder today how often we are in a posture of true, honest humility before the Lord.

Do we submit our wills to His voluntarily?

This is the mark of an excellent leader.

• Perfectionism – Pride and perfectionism tend to go hand in hand. The dangerous thing about perfectionism is that is causes use to serve through falsehood. No one is perfect!

I’ve found a surefire way to burn out fast in ministry is to pursue perfectionism as opposed to excellence.

Psalm 119:96 says it best, “To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands Lord are boundless.”

We do the kingdom the most powerful work when we recognize the limits of perfection and the boundless freedom of God.

• Complacency – This would be self satisfaction with an existing situation. For sure, a child of pride. However, complacency often masks itself. It has a tendency to quietly blow out the fire we once had for whatever it is we are doing in ministry. Often times, complacency will swoop in after a ministry begins to run effectively. We find that our hard work is finally reaping results, we have a system set up that is working well for us and suddenly…we stop progressing forward and start coasting at this new found comfort zone.

Complacency is dangerous for this very reason!

We begin to feel the “quiet pleasure or security” in our current state without looking forward.

I want to point out we are wise to not confuse being complacent as being patient! We may find ourselves in a season of ministry where the Lord really does ask us to stay put. There is nothing wrong with that! It is obedience to follow the Lord’s lead and do as He says.

However, patience is an active waiting. Complacency is not.

Complacency says, “I will stop right here because I am satisfied with myself.”

Patience always says ,”I will wait on the Lord because in Him I find satisfaction.”

We will find ourselves in seasons of waiting. Ministry ebs and flows. Some months we may find our stats or feedback is down and other months we may find them way up. When they are up and things are going well, we should never take that as our cue to get complacent.

Christ Jesus is about activity. His Spirit is continually on the move.

And if we want to be women who embed excellence into our ministries, our homes, our workplace, we need to make it our prayer that we come before Him with patience not complacence.

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Each of the 3 enemies we discussed today are associated with pride. Let’s get proactive and tackle these enemies head on.

Ask the Lord to give you a humble spirit. We want to be women who humble ourselves before Him. Let us be women who readily submit our will to His own and accept His correction.

This next week as you lead, be on the lookout for opportunities to not only humble yourself before the Lord, but to surrender any areas of perfectionism or complacency.

Look for patterns that may present themselves. Do you notice you tend to get caught up in pride in a specific area of your leadership? Is there a friend or mentor you can turn to for accountability in how you handle this situation? Someone you can openly share your struggle with and pray with about it?

Leaders need to be able to confide in someone. Leadership is so often a lonely road. Everyone wants a piece of you and yet often no one takes the time to encourage you or befriend you on a more personal level.

If you do have a confidant you can confide openly in, do it! Share your heart, your leadership struggle and how you are going to turn this thing around with the power of the Lord on your side. If you don’t have someone right now you can easily share with, bring that need before the Lord. He knows how hard this job is!

Confide in the Lord your struggles and be encouraged by His grace and love.
Next week we are going to tackle working outside our giftedness and lack of boundaries: two very ugly enemies of excellence!

Until next time!

*I apologize for getting this up so late in the week! I injured myself earlier this week and it threw me off a bit! Next week, I’ll be right on time. Bright and early even.

For more in this series:

• Lessons in Leadership 1 – The Incredible Word
• Lessons in Leadership 2 – 5 Enemies of Excellence