Every Leader Should be Learning

Every July for the past few years Doug and I have been gathering leaders from our L3 Leadership community to meet on the top of Mt. Washington, which overlooks the city of Pittsburgh. We spend time sharing the vision of our hearts for the future of the organization, and then we collectively pray over the city and the leaders within. As we gathered together a few weeks ago, these questions rose up in my heart….

For what are we commissioned? For what are we, as an L3 community, called to do? Right in this moment and at this time and with this company of leaders.

As I looked over the city and pondered this question, I kept coming back to what L3 Leadership stands for – Learn, Launch, and Lead. If every leader would choose to begin a personal journey of learning and growing in new ways, launching and pursuing their dreams, and leading right where we’re planted, I believe we would have healthier marriages, stronger families, more meaningful friendships, improved communities, safer neighborhoods, thriving churches, flourishing workplaces, growing cities, effective governments, united nations, and ultimately a better world. But it must start by becoming a better leader.

Every Leader Should Be Learning

I don’t care if you’re a young leader just graduating high school or if you are many years rich in life and experience, every leader should have a growth plan. I encourage you to cultivate a lifestyle of learning. Stir up a hunger to grow. Become self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Become a man and woman of character. Discover all the gifts and passions that God put inside of you. Foster an excellent spirit. Learn how to develop to your maximum potential so that you can live out your purpose in this world and make a difference in your life.

You can certainly read books and listen to great podcasts, which are wonderful forms of growth and development. But I believe nothing can truly stretch and challenge you more than developing authentic relationships and being a part of a community. You were designed by God for relationships. When you put yourself in an environment where you can learn from others and also learn more about yourself, you can’t help but grow. When you walk into a room too big for you, it forces you to grow into it.

My mastermind group is going through the book entitled, The Power of the Other by Henry Cloud, and he says this – “Without a strong and steady connection to others, nothing new or better can occur. You continue to produce the same results you were producing, even if you try harder.”

The key to getting unstuck & pushing past barriers isn’t trying harder, it’s plugging into community! Click To Tweet

Often the key to getting unstuck and pushing past barriers isn’t trying harder…it’s simply finding and plugging into a community! In January I started a Women’s L3 Leadership Mastermind Group. These thirteen girls are some of the sharpest, smartest, and most inspiring women I know!

By consistently meeting together, it made me realize that I am my greatest lid! I only have so many good ideas. I only know so much. I only have so many connections. I only know a few ways of doing things. I only have so much energy. I only have so much wisdom. I only can see things from certain perspectives.

By developing deep, authentic friendships with these high-level leaders and journeying together through life, we have been able to grow and develop in ways we could never do on our own! Why? Because together we are more innovative and creative. Together we are more disciplined and organized. Together we are more intentional, hardworking, and efficient. Together we solve bigger problems. Together we overcome fears and insecurities.

In the presence and community of other leaders, we dream bigger dreams, we break through lids, we accomplish more than we ever thought possible, and ultimately we become the very best leaders we can be. I believe it’s in a community where our growth and development is catapulted in ways we never thought possible.