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Lesson OneCharacter and Leadership4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson TwoKnowing God's Will4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson ThreeHow To Build Trust as a Leader4 Activities1 Assessment
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Lesson FourDefining Yourself as a Leader4 Activities1 Assessment
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Course Wrap-UpCourse Completion1 Activity1 Assessment
Participants 143
Discussion Questions
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The lecture discusses evaluating your leadership in terms of five capacities: the “gap,” the “fit,” feedback from others, parallel context, and your “gut.” Write a brief evaluation of your leadership in terms of these five capacities.
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Based on my personal experiences as a leader, I can provide a general evaluation framework based on the mentioned factors.
1. The Gap: I always feel there is a gap between my current leadership abilities and the ideal leadership qualities I aspire to possess. I can close this gap gradually by identifying areas for improvement, such as communication, delegation, decision-making, and emotional intelligence. Doing so will make me a better leader.
2. The Fit: I feel that my leadership style aligns with my team or organization’s needs, goals, and values so far. However, to ensure that my leadership approach is effective, I have to adapt to the changing environment and positively impact the team’s performance and satisfaction.
3. Feedback from Others: I always Solicit and utilize feedback from team members, peers, superiors, and stakeholders to gain perspective on my strengths and areas for improvement. This feedback is crucial to enhance my leadership effectiveness.
4. Parallel Context: Assessing my leadership in parallel contexts involves comparing my leadership performance with other organizations at the same position level. This comparison helps evaluate whether my performance is at par, above, or below average.
5. Gut Feeling: trusting your gut feeling can help evaluate and improve your leadership. However, it must be balanced with objective analysis and feedback.
Leadership is an ongoing journey that requires continuous learning and self-improvement. Regularly revisiting these evaluation criteria will ensure we adapt and grow as leaders.
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My leadership was developed by being a part of a leadership cohort at St. Louis University. Within this group we were coached by professional leaders in their fields. Also, my school district placed me in the Missouri Leadership Academy to gain further training to help lead a school staff. I gained continued support by my fellow school groups to adjust and strengthen my ability to lead.
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The Gap – I currently serve in the position of Assistant Pastor in the church I attend. I have served in this role for several years and have the liberty of ministering as God leads. There is a gap between where I am in this position and where the Holy Spirit is leading me. There is also a gap between where I am in ministry and where God is calling me to go. Knowing this compels me and motivates to do all that is within my power in pursuit of fulfilling my calling and destiny.
The Fit – For now, being Assistant Pastor is a good fit. God is calling me in this season to be a support for the aging Senior Pastor of the congregation. Again, I am allowed the freedom to minister as the Holy Spirit lead. My style of preaching differs some from the Senior Pastor. But he taught me to be who God made me to be, not a copycat of others. I feel embraced by the staff and the congregation for the person called me to be My style of ministry
The Feedback Loop – I have several minister friends I’ve bonded with over the years. We have love and respect for each other. These anointed ministers of the gospel and the Senior Pastor of the church have been a great source of feedback (positive and negative) pertaining to the issues and concerns associated with my ministry. I value their input and the love in which their feedback is given.
The Parallel Context – This is an area of opportunity. The covid pandemic halted fellowship between church in our areas for over two years. Secondly, there are not a lot of churches that our church fellowship with that have Assistant Pastors.
The Gut – I believe in follow your gut, the inner leading of the voice of the Holy Spirit. I have questioned my gut feeling from time to time, especially when it leads me to say no or go a different way that others think I should. But I follow my gut anyway and God gives me His peace that I am doing the right thing.
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I am two years into the leadership position at the church. While I feel called to that position, I struggle because I tend to receive all of the positive feedback from the board and am not sure where I truly need to focus for growth. I know there is a long way for me to go and grow professionally. I see a good fit with the congregation and community but am not seeing the results I would like, and believe we should be experiencing. Perhaps it’s time to look at other, similar size churches, and look at what they are experiencing.
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I believe my Gap is in a healthy place. I have ambition for my role and want to see it grow and develop. I know God put me in the current role that I am in and I have the internal confirmation of that fit. I get good feedback from all levels of my coworkers, including student feedback. As far as my parallel context, i need to reach out more to my peers and see/listen to how they are processing their role. Even though they are in completely different departments, I can still use that info to reflect on my process. For me my Gut is the Holy Spirit. I can’t lean on my own understanding or my own gut. But I know the HS gives me nudges or points me down a particular path. I can’t go wrong listening to the HS, but it is not always easy either.
