"Many leaders are on a junk food diet for their minds and souls. The majority of what we watch, read, scroll through, and look at doesn't help us grow in our leadership".
Craig Groeschel
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2025!!
Here is another opportunity to witness a new year and a new season to live on purpose and become people who impact lives and transform communities around us.
Before the end of last year, I read an article from one of my leadership mentors - Craig Groeschel, about how to grow as a leader. The ideas and thoughts he shared in the article have stuck with me into the new year. I found it to be so helpful that I decided to make it my first blog post for this year. I am sure you'll benefit from it too. Now, let's dive into some of the things he shared!
What do you CONSUME?
As a leader, what kind of information do you consume? In the article, Craig compared some of the poor content leaders sometimes consume to junk food. As you know, junk food provides instant gratification, but does little or no good job to your health. In a world of abundant information - on our finger tips, how can leaders be intentional about what we feed our minds with? One way to do this is by first thinking of the output our information input provides.
Before you feed on any information, pause and ask yourself - "what will this information offer me in the long term as a leader?". Being intentional about consuming good leadership content is a required condition to you leading yourself and others well.
What do you ATTEMPT?
Albert Einstein is often accredited with the saying that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results''. Leadership calls for the willingness to try new things, especially the things you are often afraid to tackle. Attempting something new, for instance, could mean you are willing to start confronting conflict in a better way, learn a new skill, or be committed to reading more. Craig explains that attempting new things makes you humbled and builds your confidence. It also helps you to believe that you can always grow, which is a good mindset for every leader.
Who do you HANG OUT with?
The saying that you are the average of the five closet friends you have is a common one. As a leader, it is important to surround yourself with people who are growth-minded, smart, wise, and experienced. These must be people who can both encourage you in your down moments, but also challenge you when needed. Let your relationships be the type that can support your growth and not the ones that derail you. You must find ways to invest in developing and maintaining quality relationships. Attend conferences, listen to podcast, find mentors and learn from them.
Craig advises that when you are around great leaders, don't just study what they do, but more importantly, study how they think. I suggest you also ask them good questions, and not just take selfies for your social media pages.
It is a new year, a new season, and a time where you can begin to make things well. Investing in your leadership growth is investing in your ability to a better person for yourself and others. I hope these three points will guide you as you make decisions on how to grow in your leadership. Let's go for it in 2025.
Happy New Year!!
Credit: Craig Groeschel Leadership
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