Kingfisher leadership news April 2017

Kingfisher Leadership

1st April 2017

Kingfisher Leadership news Released this month:

Leadership lessons I have learned- part three

Kingfisher’s latest worship album: BEGIN AGAIN. Twelve worship songs recorded live at Kingfisher When we allow conflict to become personal. church in the UK, that lead us into His As someone called Eric Geiger pointed out, ‘If you presence and enable us to experience a want to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader. Sell new start and new hope in ice cream’. The fact is, to be a Him. Released on Easter Day, leader will bring you into Sunday April 16th, this will be conflict with many, principally available for purchase via the ‘The desire for because leadership involves resources website change, and change is safety stands (www.Kingfisher.org.uk something that many people and click on ‘resources’) against every

resist, as they prefer the Still available: My great and noble known, the seemingly safe.

Confession.

Conflict is something that enterprise’ cannot be avoided if you are What we fix our thoughts on, Tacitus (Roman to lead effectively and with what we think about, has a integrity. Indeed, if everyone historian) profound impact on what we is happy with your leadership hold to be true. But more than and you are experiencing no that, our lives are impacted by conflict at all, it might be wise what we speak out - what we to ask yourself whether you are actually leading in make our confession. Speaking out the the way that you should be, or are you stopping short truth of who we are. how God sees us of making the hard decisions in favour of ‘keeping and what God promises us, releases us the peace’? Whilst conflict is inevitable, the effect it from defeated, destructive lives and has on us will vary according to how we understand leads unto life in all its fulness as we and handle that conflict. We have a tendency to embrace the truth of who we are and make conflict personal - to receive it as personal what God has promised us as we are attack, personal rejection. This is a lesson I have ‘In Christ’. My Confession focusses on struggled to learn over the past three decades of 30 truths from the pages of the Bible, leadership - Conflict and opposition can often be leading us to make 30 powerful presented as personal (and sometimes it is!), but confessions that radically impact our more often than not it is all part of the processing of thoughts, our circumstances - our very the changes that you represent and are seeking to lives. This book is available for introduce. How do we handle this in such a way that purchase via the resources website it doesn’t undermine us and cause us to lose (www.kingfisher.org.uk and click 1 confidence? on ‘resources’).

Kingfisher Leadership

1st April 2017

How should we respond to criticism and conflict? Here are three steps that help to stop us taking it personally and allowing the criticism and conflict to undermine and unsettle us: REVIEW. In the face of conflict and criticism, there are two principal areas to review: • Self: Start where King David started. “David was now in serious trouble because his men were very bitter about losing their wives and children, and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the Lord his God”. (1 Samuel 31:6). Don’t approach conflict by leaping to angry, defensive mode; start from the place of strengthening yourself in the Lord. Remind yourself (review) of how He sees you, how He loves you, has called you and promised to be with you. In the light of that ask Him to set your heart right in this: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (Psalm 139:23-24) • The criticism: having strengthened yourself in the Lord, you are now more able to ask the question: is there any validity in the criticism? Review the criticism honestly to determine whether any of it needs to be taken on board. We need to do this through the lenses of: • • • •

God loves me God called me God believes in me I am not perfect and that is OK.

REFINE and (if necessary) REVISE. There is an important distinction between a vision and a plan.

• A vision is what could and should be • A plan is a guess as to the best way to accomplish the vision Visions are refined - they don’t change. Plans are revised - they rarely stay the same. It is a great mistake to give up on the vision because the plan has either failed or stalled because of opposition. We need to respond to criticism and conflict by having the God-given confidence to differentiate between the two. Be stubborn about the vision and be flexible with the plan.

RELEASE FORGIVENESS. When we take criticism personally and allow it to undermine our self worth and our standing in Christ, we tend to swallow and internalise that criticism and allow it to form resentment and bitterness within us. This leads either to a loss of confidence for future leadership decisions, or a growing hardening of the heart towards those we are called to lead. To preserve genuine, fearless, compassionate leadership in the face of hurtful criticism and undermining opposition we must release - and go on releasing - forgiveness. I have learned, sometimes to my cost, that unforgiveness, holding onto the hurt and indulging in creative retribution, even if it is just in the mind, is a dangerous luxury a leader cannot afford!

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