Leadership and Organization

I read a lot of blog and one I really enjoy is Nick Blevins who is the Children's Minister of a church in Baltimore. He recently wrote about the practical aspect of organization in leadership in a post called Practical Leadership: Part 1 - Organization.

I recently went through some personal organizational "updates" and thought I would join Nick on this topic.

I am not a very organized person. The words "To Do List" make me sick to my stomach and I don't keep a very good calendar. Nick makes a great point that as leaders we must find a way to be organized (even if it is not your thing) so we can go further and faster as leaders. So if you are organizationally challenged, here are some things that have worked for me and might work for you.

1. If you are leading a team, confess your lack of organization skills and ask for ways they can help.  The team I lead understands my limitations and does a great job of stepping in where I am weak. It helps them have the right expectations and limits their frustrations.
2. If possible delegate what you are not good at.  I am lucky to have a ministry assistant who helps me keep my calendar and keep things from falling through the admin cracks.
3. Get someone who is organized to help set up a system that works for you. Recently another staff member sat down and listened to me talk about our plans for the future and from that created a customized notebook to help me be better organized. It helps me organize my thoughts more than my task lists or calendar but so far it has helped me think better.

 

Comments

[Nick Blevins]

Hey Rob,

Thanks for the shout out. After I read your comment on my post I was glad that you talked about this as well. There are so many different methods to the practical side of leadership and it's good to hear everybody's unique methods.

Thanks for sharing, with humility, how you've tackled the organizational beast. I think a lot of leaders who struggle in this area fail to delegate the administration to someone who is gifted in that area.

That may be because a volunteer can't easily put in the time to really assist a leader that way, but there are some missed opportunities by not delegating anything, or by not learning from others.