So how relevant are you as a leader?
Any idea how you’d answer that accurately?
You can debate how important relevance is all day long (and many do), but the truth is irrelevant leaders make almost no impact on the people or causes around them.
Why is that?
Well, it’s not about being current or cool. Relevance matters for one reason: it’s permission to speak into the culture. Our culture has a habit of not listening to people it deems irrelevant.
Relevance simply gains you a hearing. It determines whether or not people pay attention to you or whether they ignore you.
Relevance matters for one reason: it's permission to speak into the culture. Our culture has a habit of not listening to people it deems irrelevant. Click To TweetRelevance isn’t necessarily an age thing. You can be relevant at 65 and irrelevant at 25. It’s more a mindset than it is anything else.
One often ignored factor that can push you toward irrelevance is, paradoxically, success.
Leaders who are part of growing or large organizations are especially prone to irrelevance unless they guard against it.
In fact, as we’ve discussed here more than a few times, the great enemy of your future success is your current success because your success makes you conservative.
When you had nothing to lose, change was easy. Now that you have something to lose, change is that much harder.
Your past success doesn’t guarantee your future success.
So whether your organization has momentum or whether it’s losing steam, here are 5 signs you’re becoming an irrelevant leader.
Your past success doesn't guarantee your future success. The greatest enemy of your future success is your current success because success makes you conservative. Click To Tweet1. You increasingly think most new ideas are bad ideas
Hey, it’s easy to resist new ideas. But if you think back, there was a time when you were likely really open to new ideas.
But as you get older and wiser, and you’ve got a way of doing things.
The human mind is great at preserving the status quo. You can think of 10 reasons why a new idea won’t work, and you and your team never hesitate to list them.
The leadership graveyard is filled with the bodies of leaders who say “We haven’t done it that way before.”
Not every new idea is a great idea, but embracing no new ideas is a terrible idea.
When was the last time you embraced a radical new idea? If you can’t answer that question, you’re already in trouble.
Not every new idea is a great idea, but embracing no new ideas is a terrible idea. Click To Tweet2. The copyright dates on your resources are from another era
Have you checked the copyright date on what you’re currently reading/watching/listening to lately?
There’s nothing wrong the classics. Whether that’s books, movies or music. Wise leaders always learn from the past.
It’s one thing to learn from the past. It’s another to freeze in it.
Without thinking much about it, irrelevant leaders freeze in a certain year. You’ve walked into some offices and thought “Wow, it’s 1998 in here.”
You’ve seen some strategies at work and said to yourself, “This feels like 2005”.
If you hope to speak into the culture of today, you need to understand what’s happening today. So even if you prefer the past, study the present.
It's one thing to learn from the past. It's another to freeze in it. Even if you prefer the past, study the present. Click To Tweet3. Everyone on your team is your age
This isn’t so much a problem if you’re twenty-two and just starting out. To have a young leadership team of idealistic people is an awesome thing.
Sure, some wisdom wouldn’t hurt, but still, the world often gets changed by young leaders on a mission.
But what happens is that twenty-year-olds eventually turn 30. Fast forward a bit, and everyone on your senior leadership team is in their mid-fifties.
That’s a big issue.
Left uncorrected, organizations tend to age with their leader.
As a leader in my fifties, I’ve had to be incredibly intentional about surrounding myself with leaders in their 20s and 30s, something that really energizes me.
You may not have the chemistry or familiarity with younger leaders that you do with your peers who have been through life with you, but renewing the leadership table with younger leaders is critical.
It’s easy for older leaders to think that younger leaders are too young to lead.
You were too, once. And someone took a chance on you anyway. And you did some of your best work then too, didn’t you?
Left uncorrected, churches tend to age with their senior leader. Click To Tweet4. Change makes you tired
Change is difficult at the best of times, but if even the sound of change makes you tired, it’s a sign that you’re becoming irrelevant.
It’s normal to default to the status quo. We all do.
A few years ago, my dentist told me I needed at least five crowns. The thought of that made me feel tired and broke all at once.
I got a bit of the work done but then took a break.
One afternoon I was eating some cereal and I noticed something that didn’t feel like cereal in my mouth. It was half a molar.
Guess where I went the next day?
Too often, that’s exactly how we approach change in the church. We wait until something breaks, and then we’ll try to fix it.
That may work with a tooth, but it’s a terrible strategy for leaders (okay, and for dentistry).
In our rapidly changing culture, waiting until something breaks to fix is one of the fastest ways to ensure you become irrelevant.
If change makes you tired, I promise you, the slow death of your organization will make you even more tired.
If change makes you tired, I promise you, the slow death of your organization will make you even more tired. Click To Tweet5. Your dominant emotions toward to culture are negative
This is a loaded point…but it’s important.
If social media is any gauge of how many leaders feel about our culture, we’re in trouble.
And even if you’re not posting on your social media is ALL CAPS, telling the world how bad it is, your attitude still matters.
Negativity leaks.
Constantly criticizing people is no way to reach them.
As a Christian leader, I am constantly reminded that Jesus loved the world. He saw the mess, the brokenness, the godlessness and embraced us anyway.
Jesus loved the world enough to die for it.
You should care enough about the world to do the same.
Negativity leaks. Constantly criticizing people is no way to reach them. Click To Tweet
