It’s one thing to be a great worship leader.
But your influence behind the scenes is more important than how you perform on stage.
There is so much more to leadership than crowds, compliments, and big moments.
When I was in college, I remember a certain leader who made a massive impact on me. He wasn’t the most talented. He didn’t possess a charismatic personality that captured a room. But he was a leader that every student loved to follow.
He was an influencer of influencers.
That’s what I’m after in my leadership: to be the kind of person who brings others higher. I want to see people develop and reach their potential.
There’s a difference between a leader who commands and a leader who influences.
6 Tips for Becoming an Influential Leader
I can think of at least 6 characteristics of this type of next-level leadership. In the comments, I’d love your help in continuing the list:
#1: Compelling Vision – A leader worth following is a leader whose vision captures attention. It’s not self-serving. It’s a vision that involves massive impact in the world. Influential leaders see the impossible and say, “With God, all things are possible.”
#2: Commitment to Excellence – The people you lead will only rise to the standard you model. Are you excellent in the details of what you do? Do you care deeply about the end result? Set a standard of excellence not just by what you say, but by what you live.
#3: A Like-able Personality – This is more important than you may realize. Nobody wants to follow a complainer. Nobody wants to follow someone who is full of themselves. The essence of a like-able personality is having a good sense of humor and making others feel like a million bucks. Struggling in your leadership? Stop worrying about yourself and go make someone feel awesome. Oh, and relax! There’s tremendous leadership value in understanding the art of the “chill.”
#4: Consistent Confrontation – This is perhaps the most difficult aspect of next-level leadership. But if you want to bring others higher, you must befriend consistent confrontation. I’m not talking about confronting for confrontation’s sake. I’m talking about being involved in your team member’s lives and caring enough about their development to give them direct feedback. Sure, you need to confront and deal with bad attitudes or poor performance. But you also need to help people see what their next steps are.
#5: Constant Communication – We talk about this a lot here at davidsantistevan.com, so I won’t belabor the point. But great leaders communicate often. Don’t disappear and leave your people wondering what’s next. Prepare them. Encourage them. Cast vision to them.
#6: Presence – Great leaders don’t just live to “make it” someday. They don’t just trample on today’s path to get somewhere else. My friend Ryan Williams said it well on Twitter:
For worship leaders, there are no “stepping stones” to “something else”. those who you lead now…they should be the “dream.”
— Ryan Williams (@RYAN_WLLMS) July 17, 2013
Live in the now. Be present. See your people as “the dream”. Give your all to the team you lead. That’s what influence is all about.
If you continued the list, what would you add?
Think about influential leaders in your life. Why were they influential?
Would love to hear from you. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
One thing that i would add would be just genuine love and care for the rest of team. at times we get so puffed up that we don’t invest into knowing and caring for people, sound guys, multimedia and even the set up guys, i know at time caring for people will look like you loose that respect that you once had as a worship leader.
People only want to be commended and loved and at times because we are in ministry we think that’s okay, just taking time to care for family will go a long way in being a worship leader….
Kelvin, that is so good. Showing appreciation can often be on our back burners but it’s too important to neglect!