Within every great leader are leadership blindspots – weaknesses that can cause major damage to the organization. I love the close of a year and all the best/worst list…so here are my blindspots God has revealed to me from 2010:
#1 Vision Casting
I thought the church heard clearly when I shared our vision the first Sunday of the year and still loved it in July. I began this September sharing, living, blogging, emailing our vision in and on everything. For the first time in 7 years we are beginning to see the BLESSING of a carried vision, not just a communicated vision.
#2 Idea Thief
A team member would share an idea, then I would “tweak” it. What I was really doing, was stealing it. Nothing wrong with expanding an idea, but I was extracting the heart and passion from my team members.
#3 Celebrating Big Wins
Our church would sacrifice, give, serve and invest for a cause…we would meet or exceed the goal and I would say nothing else about it. We are now celebrating every win. Even our finance office is contacting faithful givers and large donations to say thank you.
#4 Big on Sin, Small on Grace
Forgiveness, grace, acceptance and love is the heart of God. I am growing in grace and how to communicate this from the stage.
#5 The Needy
For twenty years of ministry and seven as pastor I have not preached the national anthem of God…take care of the poor, orphan, widow and needy. This blindspot has officially been removed thanks to obedient church members and a vision adequately cast.
I am certain there are more, but I am can only stomach typing five today!
Angel Menchaca says,
Thanks for sharing! I’m a lead pastor & have missed it royally! Encouraged by your honesty & transparency!
on 14 December 2010 / 3:12 PM
Doug Hutchcraft says,
I could not be more pumped you’re rocking on #5! Thank you for your leadership in this area – you’re helping people (including me) think eternity vs. now, awesome eternal rewards vs. a bigger screen TV.
on 14 December 2010 / 3:51 PM
heath says,
I’m so guilty of being the idea thief too. Thanks for sharing!!
on 14 December 2010 / 5:24 PM
My Blindspots | Blane Young says,
[...] was inspired to write this blog post after I read a post by Shannon O’Dell this morning about his leadership blindspots of [...]
on 14 December 2010 / 9:30 PM
Carrie Stone says,
Your honesty and transparency are going to influence the Kingdom of God more than anything else you could say or do. Keep up the great work!
on 15 December 2010 / 11:22 AM
Shannon O'Dell says,
Thank you Carrie!
on 15 December 2010 / 11:31 AM
Kevin Martineau says,
I am definitely guilty of some of these too. My biggest one being: celebrating big wins. This is something that I am working very hard on right now.
on 15 December 2010 / 12:02 PM