For our Resolution retreat held last week, I prepared what started out as an ABC of growing as a healthy leader. However, I got carried away with preparing it and ended up with an A-Z! Healthy leadership requires regular self examination. This ensures that we are aware of our weaknesses, give time to developing ourselves and giving God room to work in us.
Here are the 26 areas of self-examination which I used. You might like to take some time to reflect on these as well. There are a number of ways to do this. You could use it as part of a retreat day and spend a couple of hours working down the complete list. Or you can do what I recommended to those who attended Resolution this year. We only had an hour so I suggested that they went down the list quickly giving a score out of 5 for each letter (5 being ‘I’m doing well in this area’, and 0 being ‘I couldn’t be any worse’). Having scored each area, spend time reflecting on the ones which either have the lowest score or the 3 or 4 which you feel you would really like to invest in right now. It doesn’t really matter which ones we focus on, we just need to invest in ourselves somewhere.
I hope these will be of use to you.
A – Attitude
How are you choosing to display right attitudes daily?
B – Belief
How are you growing in your faith? How is this revealed in your life?
C – Challenges
What are the 3 biggest challenges at the moment? How are you dealing with them?
D – Decisions
How is your decision making? Are you confident or do you put off making them? Why?
E – Ego
What are you most proud of from the last twelve months? Where is there any resentment?
F – Family
How are you demonstrating your family is a top priority for you?
G – Growth
What areas would you love to grow in this coming year? e.g. a new skill, read more, deeper understanding.
H – Health
How is your body? How are you looking after it? Do you get enough exercise? Are you content with your appearance?
I – Investment
Who are you investing in? Who are you preparing for leadership? Who are you discipling? How could you invest more in others?
J – Joy
What is your level of joy and contentment at the moment? What is holding you back? What do you need to trust God with more?
K – King of kings
Is Jesus at the centre of your life? Are you walking with him daily? How are you growing in understanding of the Scriptures?
L – Learning
What are you doing to keep learning and develop your thinking? What leadership book are you reading? What conferences and training are you attending this year?
M – Money
How do you spend your money? Are you giving generously? Are you spending wisely?
N – Neighbours
How are you showing God’s love to those around you? How are you playing an active role in your community? What could you do differently?
O – Opportunities
How do you make the most of new opportunities? What do you do to be creative? What opportunities do you currently face?
P – Priorities
How are you seeking to set priorities in your life? How well are you doing?
Q – Quality
Are you giving your best in all you do? In which areas do you feel you would like to improve?
R – Relationships
How are your friendships? Are they healthy and close? Which friends do you long to see come to faith?
S – Spare time
What are your hobbies? How are you enjoying God’s creation? Do you use time well or does it drift past quickly?
T – Thankfulness
How are you living with gratitude? What are the things you are most grateful for right now? Who do you need to thank? Write down as many things to thank God for. See how long a list you can write!
U – Understanding others
How are you supporting and pastoring others? Are you quick to advise or are you good at listening and understanding? Are you properly present with others? How could you grow in your empathy of others?
V – Values
What are your personal core values? What are the standards you live by? How are you growing in Christ-like character?
W – Worship
How are you worshipping God in all you do? How are your taking time to focus solely on God? What are ways you worship Him best? Are there new ways you would like to try?
X – X-Ray
X-rays show up what’s going on inside. How is your inner life? Do you have any sin which needs repenting of? Who are you when no one’s watching?
Y – Yourself
How do you feel about yourself? is it good being you? Do you live life in all its fulness? What would make life even better and more fulfilled?
Z – Zenith
What is the highest point you are aiming for? What has been your greatest achievement so far? What will make the next year your best year yet?
What do you plan to do as a result of this exercise? Which is the biggest challenge? Please leave a comment below.