Leadership Traction

There is nothing worse than feeling like you are slipping and losing traction.In high school and college I was the proud owner of a small grey 1990 Nissan pick up truck. The back end of that rear wheel drive truck probably weighted about 37 pounds (okay, maybe a little more). This wasn't an issue when it was dry out. But one night in high school while driving on the wet roads of Tacoma, I realized that traction is important.Wanting to turn left at a light I overestimated the amount of traction that I would have compared to the speed that I went into the turn with. Next thing I knew, I was fishtailing all over the road. Thankfully there were no other cars around.As I look back at that story it reminds me of a great principle in leadership: Traction is important.[quote align="center" color="#999999"][divider]Traction is important.[divider][/quote]If you have been in leadership any amount of time, my guess is you have felt seasons where you are lacking traction. Maybe things seem like they are not moving forward or you are gaining the progress that you would hope for.Here are two things that I have found vital when it comes to gaining traction as a leader: Clarity and Courage.As we lead people, ministries, or organizations we must seek to gain clarity to know what to do. Sometimes we never gain traction or we feel like we are in a 1990 Nissan pick up truck, fishtailing everywhere because we don't have clarity on WHY we exist and WHAT we should be doing.There are other times where we have the clarity, but we may be lacking the courage to implement. It is one thing to know what do to. It's another to actually take action on it and do it.[quote align="center" color="#999999"][divider]Two things every leader needs:Clarity to know what to do.Courage to implement it.[divider][/quote]When it comes to your area of influence and leadership, where do you need clarity? What are the things that you know need to be implemented, but need to take a courageous step and do it?