Leadership Line Drive #3 - Cynicism

At first glance this doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but I think that cynicism has the potential to destroy a great leader. I am a pretty optimistic leader, but cynicism tends to creep up on me in two areas:

• With the people I lead - I have the greatest privilege in the world. I get to see life-change happen on a daily basis. Seacoast is an awesome church where God is constantly changing people's hearts. But there are also many times when you invest so much time and energy in people, and they still screw up their lives. I often find myself tempted to become cynical when dealing with people who are messing up their lives. The problem with that is that God has placed us hear to give people hope. Hope that there is a future that is better than the present. If I don't actually believe that than I am going to have a hard time communicating that.
• With the staff- I'm not talking about the people as much as the day to day organizational structure of the church. Sometimes the drive to do better can cause me to focus too much on the negative aspects about our church. This crept up on me this summer when I had a chance to get away for a week with my dad (our senior pastor) and my brother (director of campus development). We spent the first couple of days in evaluation mode - what's working, what needs to change, how can we do things better. After a while I found myself getting depressed about a few minor glitches in the organization. While the over-riding motive is to be more effective in reaching people for Christ, it is very easy for me to become so focused on the negative things that it drags me down.

I don't know many cynics who are innovative, fun leaders who are making a significant impact on the Kingdom of Heaven.

Here are a few simple things I try to do daily to avoid cynicism:

• Start every day\meeting with some good news
• Spend time every day praising God for the great things in your life
• Speak positive words into your co-workers, friends and family