Keep Your Eyes Moving
No matter where you live or where you are going, when you are driving a car you are going to encounter traffic, usually a lot of it. It would truly be a rare occasion to find yourself the only one on the road. This is why a good driver has to keep his or her eyes moving.
As we saw in Rule #1 it is crucial that we keep our car in our lane as we go down the road because this greatly reduces the chance of an accident. If we only had to worry about our car leaving our lane then this one rule would be enough. The problem is that with all the other cars on the road and very few of them being driven by people who actually know how to drive well (you know this is true) then we better have our eyes looking out for what is going on around us.
In a leadership role it is crucial that we pay attention to what is going on around us. We must always be taking in information and processing it. We need to always be evaluating (ABE) so that we can make quick decisions that line those around us up with our vision keep us moving forward.
Whatever our role, no matter how great our team and how skilled the parts, people will tend to go their own way. This does not have to be intentional (though I know that can happen at times) it is just how all of us are wired up. We drift to what we know and what we like and at times we will swerve a little and need to be reminded of where we’re going. That’s where leadership is crucial.
Whether it is a process, program or a person, we need to ABE and considering how that process, program or person is pushing our organization toward its vision of success. The leader is responsible to make sure all the parts of the team are working together… heading the same direction… in the same lane… so that the destination is reached.
In ministry and especially in worship service production, I have found that a slight shift in the vision for a particular service can be distracting to those attending the service. To that end, our team agrees that nothing is sacred in our service except God’s word, so we are not married to any element that we’ve planned for except the preaching of the word.
That’s where Rule #3 comes into play… I’ll hit that in the next post.
Shane, just wanted to say I like your posts. After working in arts for some years I find I can still apply these same “Rules” to the business/ministry I’m leading today. Thanks!