Leadership and Communciation, Part 1

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I’d like to think I have my life together, that I’m flawed, but not fatally, and that I do pretty good with things like communication. Though I’m not a professional speaker or pastor, I have spoken multiple times throughout my ministry career, often with compliments and encouragement because I can communicate well. Then I started studying leadership and communication. Man, oh man has this been a steep learning curve! 

The first big lesson I’ve learned is how important communication is to effective leadership. It’s not just whether I understand the parts of speech and can string together a comprehendible sentence. It is being aware of how others may (or may not) understand what is being said. It is recognizing when to speak on a particular topic, when to stay silent, and why. It is understanding how integral communication is to effective leadership.

The second big lesson is how complex effective communication is. In a sense (at least right now) it feels like communication is a field of landmines. As with any element of effective leadership, learning to communicate well means stepping on a few figurative landmines, getting blown away by the unintended and unanticipated consequences of poor communication, then getting back up to try again. Some of the time, you don’t know you’ve stepped on a landmine until much later. Some of the time, it blows up in your face. Whatever the experience, the process of learning from mistakes and trying again is scary! While courage is supposedly experiencing fear without being controlled by it (attributed to Nelson Mandela, Mark Twain, Franklin Roosevelt, and even Plato), and Matt Chandler claims you can’t have courage without fear (Take Heart, p. 40), figuring out how to move forward courageously is hard. It can be especially difficult when you don’t recognize the platform you have or the responsibility you have for stewarding that platform carefully. 

The final big lesson is the weight of responsibility for good communication that comes with leadership. Again, this is more difficult when you don’t recognize you carry responsibility for stewarding a communication platform, whatever the context may be. In reflecting on my journey, I have neither recognized nor carefully stewarded the responsibility I carry in my different roles or areas of leadership. Some of that has been due to fear of stepping on those proverbial landmines, either within my family, with friends, or in a more “professional” sense. Some of it has been a lack of quality leadership development for whatever reason. In the end, though, the reason is less significant than what I choose to do now. Recognizing the options is a huge step towards embracing growth. 

The reality, though, is that it feels overwhelming to consider embracing yet another area of growth. It feels like it is too late, I’ve already failed so much that I can’t recover, and the effort isn’t worth it anyway.  But if I’ve learned anything about leadership, it is how integral failure is to success. Based on that reality, regardless of how I feel, I am in a great place. The opportunities for growth abound!! The best part about discovering the opportunities for growth at this stage of my leadership journey is what God has taught me already about growth and development. 

First, God has called me to lead, so I am a leader! It doesn’t take anyone else’s approval or permission. Second, my value is not determined by whether I make mistakes. My value is determined by my identity as God’s image bearer, which gives me freedom to learn and grow regardless of the circumstances. Admittedly, some growth experiences are more pleasant, and some are less so (depending on the community) but knowing where my value comes from gives me the confidence to embrace learning regardless of whether people around me are cheering or jeering. Third, God is keeping His promise in Romans 8:28 and 29 to use everything in my life to help me be more like Jesus, and that feels good!