How great leaders bring about change in people …

A distinguishing factor between good leaders and great leaders is that great leaders are effective in motivating change in people.

However, people don’t tend to like change. Some of the more common motivators for change is personal desire (we’ll do it if we want to), fear (afraid what will happen if we don’t), competition, a public double-dog dare, or almost direct hits from lightning bolts thrown personally by God.

But there is another source of motivation for change that is often effective: challenge from a leader.

Because people often don’t initiate change, a primary role of a leader who really wants to accomplish something is challenging those he leads to change themselves. Until someone literally steps up and puts a direct challenge to us, we often will not initiate real change, even if it’s desperately needed. And the more desperately the change is needed, the greater the challenge needs to be.

Church leaders who dangle a lot of biblical content in front of their congregations without challenging people to apply God’s Word to their lives in very direct, real ways are leading an audience rather than followers.

To move people in the direction they need to go, challenge them to change, and keep challenging them until they do so. So leaders, go to it … I challenge you to do so!

Scotty