10 Ways to Become a Better Children's Ministry Leader Right Now

Want to be a better leader for your children's ministry?  Here's 10 ways to become a better leader right now.

1. Apologize when you blow it.  Instead of trying to hide your mistakes or shift blame, be quick to admit your mistakes and ask for forgiveness.

People will respect you more...and people follow those they respect.

2. Admit when you don't know the answer.  When you admit you don't know the answer, but are going to find out, people will respect you as a leader.

3. Act - don't react.  Take time to think through your responses to challenges instead of reacting to them. 

4. Give lots of positive feedback and small amounts of criticism.  People respond to encouragement...not criticism. 

5. Get to know your team members on a personal level.  Take time in meetings to ask how people's families are doing, events in their life and other personal interests.

6. Be okay with failure.  There will be times when you fail.  That's okay...As long as you learn from it and use it as a stepping stone to success.

7. Talk some...listen a lot.  Spend more time listening than you do talking.  Shift from primarily being a communicator to being a facilitator. 

8. Celebrate success.  Take time to slow down and celebrate the wins.

9. Address the hard challenges first.  There's a tendency to do the easy challenges first and procrastinate on the hard ones.   Meet the hard ones head on and it will free your mind up to focus on other tasks.

10.  Read.  Grab a leadership book and read it.  How much you grow as a leader is directly tied to how much you read.