As the new year approaches it's time to self-evaluate. Do you find yourself indecisive, unclear, hesitant and afraid? The root of it might be...insecurity. Even the best leaders aren't immune to it's crippling effects.
So how do you know you are being insecure as a leader?
Here are 10 behaviors to determine if you are an insecure leader:
#1 – You see people as working for you and not with you.
#2 – Everyone who pushes back on any of your ideas is automatically branded as disloyal. (Because for you “ loyalty” is defined as, “loving everything I say and do!”)
#3 – Every time someone begins to say something good about someone else you always have to be the person who says, “yes, but what you don’t know about them is…” and from that point tear them down under the disguise of being concerned about them.
#4 – You get jealous when someone on your team receives any sort of public affirmation but you are not mentioned at all. (Remember how Saul felt when it was said, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.”)
#5 – You cannot celebrate what God is doing in other churches. (OR, you always critique instead of celebrating!)
#6 – You always believe someone on your staff is going to attempt a coup and try to take over your role as a leader. (This leads to suspicion and distrust, which will destroy ANY team.)
#7 – You dismiss what God is doing in another ministry because it does not line up exactly with where you are theologically.
#8 – You lead through intimidation, always threatening to “fire someone” if things “don’t shape up around here.”
#9 – You really do like the fact that people on your staff are afraid of you.
#10 – You feel the need to prove yourself in every meeting you are in by seizing every opportunity you have to speak, believing that everything in the meeting is not going to be its absolute best until you have had your say about it.
On some level, we all have tendencies to be insecure at times but I have found the best way to battle insecurity: be comfortable being yourself.
Seems simple but being you is the best way to crush insecurity. Being inauthentic produces insecurity and there result of it in it's broadest sweep is mistrust. If you're trying to be someone you're not, others will not trust you.
So enjoy your job, community and life by being secure by being yourself and watch this year be the best yet!
Thanks to Perry Noble for the 10 behaviors.