If you’re a leader, you feel tension.

Part of the tension you feel is your dissatisfaction with the status quo; you’re not fully satisfied with the way things are. After reading a book, coming back from a conference, meeting with other leaders or simply landing on a new idea, you want to change things.

I’ve been there many times as a leader. In fact, sometimes I think I live there. That tension fuels the drive to create, the drive to dream, and the drive to change. I am relentlessly dissatisfied with the status quo. I want to trade in what is for what could be pretty much every day.

I realize some of that may be unhealthy, but ultimately that tension is what actually drives all change.

The problem is, most people don’t feel your tension. They are mostly satisfied with the way things are. Part of what attracted them to whatever you are leading are the changes you made yesterday, not the changes you want to make today. They cannot see what you see until you make them discontent enough to see it.

If you work at it, they can start to feel the tension you feel. In fact, if you are ever going to be successful at driving effective change, you need to become successful at transfering tension.

If you can solve that, you can solve so much more.

What if you made it this week to transfer some tension?

What if this week you shared your vision of what could be with someone who can help you change your world?

If that tension ultimately gets shared by dozens, hundreds, or thousands or people, you might have a revolution on your hands.

And that may be exactly what everyone needs.

Now that you’re home and back into settling back into a routine after the Orange Conference, it’s tempting to rush into implementing the ideas you garnered.  We’ll have more on engineering the change you want to see next week. But before we get to that, a question.

What did God do in you at Orange (or Exponential…or any other conference you recently attended) that you haven’t felt in a long time?

Usually at a conference God does something in you.  Maybe:

You worshipped like you haven’t worshipped in a long time.

You dreamed again.

Scripture seemed alive.

You felt God’s presence.

You realized you were more tired than you thought you were and sensed God telling you to rest.

You felt things you haven’t felt in a long time.

A simple piece of advice:  pursue that.

Spend some time over the next seven days talking to God about what He did in you or what you felt that you’d missed for a long time.

If you can somehow make that part of your every day reality, you will have recaptured something that is so easily lost in ministry.

If you felt your heart beat again, get all over that.  If you can make moments like that part of your rhythm, it will once again be part of your reality.

So you’re almost ready to head home from three days of high octane inspiration and information at Orange Conference. You have ideas and dreams that have you incredibly motivated and excited. There are only two problems:

1. You aren’t the senior leader in your church.
2. The senior leader isn’t here (or is but doesn’t buy in).

What do you do? Here are five strategies on how to lead up when you get home:

1. Slow down. You will be tempted to go home and burst onto the scene with unbridled enthusiasm, casting vision for sweeping change. That might be a mistake. Don’t overestimate what you can accomplish in a month. But don’t underestimate what you can accomplish in a year if you have a well-thought through strategy and approach.

2. Think comprehensively. Orange is a strategy. It’s designed to work throughout the church. Make sure you take some time to process what you’ve learned to see how it impacts the entire organization. Understand that your senior pastor may have budget restraints and many other interests to balance. Show him or her that your proposal understands that and you’re willing to be flexible on some points. Showing your senior leader you understand the bigger picture is huge.

3. Express desires, not demands. No one likes a demanding person. In fact, when someone demands something there’s something inside me that wants to not give them what they asked for. I don’t always follow that impulse, but expressing demands damages relationships. Instead, talk about what you desire. Show respect and tell him how you feel – don’t tell him how you think he should feel. And above all, don’t be demanding.

4. Explain the why behind the what. Your best argument is not the what (we need to completely transform our church and here’s how to do it). It’s the why (I think I’ve discovered a more effective way to reach families in our community and help parents win at home…can I talk to you about that?) The more you explain the why, the more people will be open to the what and the how. Lead with why. Season your conversation with why. And close with why.

5. Stay publicly loyal. Andy Stanley has said it this way: public loyalty buys you private leverage. It’s so true. If you start complaining about how resistant your senior leader is, not only does that compromise your personal integrity, he’s not dumb. He’ll probably hear about it and he will lose respect for you. In my mind as a senior leader, the team members who conduct themselves like a cohesive team always have the greatest private influence. Your public loyalty will buy you private leverage.

Well, those are a few thoughts from a guy who is a senior leader. What are you learning in this area? What’s worked for your team as you’ve engineered change?