Great leaders learn that facts are not your enemy. Yes, they may seem so at the time, but at the end of the day, “it is what it is”. Fretting over it, ignoring it, or glossing it all over will do nothing to get on with the business of making decisions that need to be made, based on the facts on hand.

Leaders who find it difficult to deal with facts will eventually find themselves paralyzed in the decision-making process. Once you’re there, you are no longer leading.

Another word on facing facts: sometimes it’s not so much ignoring the facts as it is not demanding the facts in the first place. Creating an organizational expectation that all persons responsible for making reports actually provide bottom-line facts, not speculation, will go a long way in empowering you to have all of the facts at your disposal when making decisions that mean life or death for your organization and the children you are working to protect.

real life application

Make a list of any areas in which you are not fully facing the facts – perhaps in the areas of finances, volunteerism, or organizational strength – and then write out a specific plan for addressing these issues based on the facts, good or bad.

Many who offer their views on this topic will be tempted to completely overlook the strength of Richard Mourdock as Lugar’s only serious challenger in at least two decades. Make no mistake, Mourdock did not back into this victory, nor was it handed to him by default. For years now, Mourdock has plodded the backroads of Indiana, speaking at Lincoln Day dinners, shaking hands, and building relationships with the folks in places Lugar rarely visited, apparently preferring the trappings of statesmanship over chicken dinners and hog roasts.

The more obvious target is the Lugar residency issue, an issue so strong that it took center stage early in the campaign and fueled a smoldering suspicion that Lugar was far more about the beltway than the corn belt. Combined with a general discontent with the direction of our nation- a discontent accelerated by the perception that the Obama administration is running roughshod over Congress while Republican moderates stand by and watch – and trouble was brewing on the front burner for Lugar long before CNN and Fox News caught on.

You could feel it in Indiana. The sense that Lugar was entitled to stay in the United States Senate as long as he wished dissolved months ago in all sectors except among the most diehard of Lugar fans. In March the whispers that Lugar could not get out of the mid-40s and was in serious trouble grew louder and more frequent. In early April the Lugar camp went negative all the way, confirming that the Lugar camp could read the tea leaves and knew the score. By late April, some of Indiana’s most influential leaders were privately conceding that there was a changing of the guard on the horizon.

Lugar’s bridges to conservative constituency groups had been burned long ago, leaving nowhere to turn for those voters he needed to sway to retain his grip on power. Within the pro-life community, the ultimate slap in the face came when Lugar became the only Republican to stand behind the controversial nomination of the radical Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen to a top Justice Department post. Johnsen, a former NARAL counsel who religiously extols the virtues of abortion to her law students, even won Lugar over as her Senate sponsor. When the Johnsen nomination proved to be too extreme even for many Senate Democrats, Lugar remained solidly behind one of the strident abortion supporters to ever be nominated for such a post. That’s the very definition of a burned bridge.

But why? Why did Lugar lose? Like most campaigns, there wasn’t a single reason. But there was a perfect storm. And right in the middle of that storm was President Barack Obama, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Dick Lugar. It was Lugar’s confirmation votes in favor of Kagan and Sotomayor – more than any other factor – that angered conservative Republicans in Indiana and spelled the beginning of the end for one of this era’s most recognized Republican moderates. Kagan and Sotomayor were the match to the fuse, the crackling spark that ended the career of a political figure that most Hoosiers one year ago today would have called untouchable.

Why did Lugar lose? Because conservative Hoosiers had finally had enough. And because in the American system of politics, no one is untouchable when the voters finally get their act together. That’s why America is still a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people — and that’s exactly why Dick Lugar lost.

If you guessed all of the above, you get the prize.

Learning to be a leader means learning from the ground up. Its means putting in the late nights, thinking through tough problems, plowing through the more mundane aspects of ministry, and gutting it out when you’d rather be doing something else a million miles away.

This is not a process that you can learn in a day. It will take years, maybe even decades. But when you finally look back, you’ll know and understand why it was all so necessary to where you want to go as a leader.

Leaders who learn from the bottom up are leaders that others want to follow, because they know you are much more than just fancy words and a college degree. Experience leads to trust, trust turns to leadership, and leadership leads to effective ministry.

Are you new to leadership? Don’t run away from — or jump over — the small stuff. Embrace it. Learn it. Live it.

real life application

Make a commitment to learn all that you can about every aspect of your ministry until you grasp these aspects inside and out.

Leadership ability is a tremendous gift that has been given to you, and one that you should never be taken for granted. Chances are that you’ve heard the debate over whether great leaders are born or developed, (I believe the answer is yes!) but rarely do you hear a discussion on the giftedness of leadership ability. Even more seldom do you hear of the servant-side of leadership, especially in secular circles, where brash CEOs are immortalized for their willingness to slash and burn everyone around them, and where the most popular books are about winning at all costs.

Leadership isn’t stepping on others to get what you want, it’s doing everything you can to make others around you look good. In sports it’s called elevating everyone’s game. In ministry, it’s called not being afraid of someone else getting the spotlight because you were faithful to serve.

Note that servant leadership is more about a heart attitude than a list of activities. Certainly there are times when you must wisely choose your priorities in order to prevent the squandering of your leadership value to your organization.

Serving others does not mean trying to do it all. But it also means that you are never above the most menial task that you might ask a volunteer or co-worker to perform.

real life application

Take inventory of those around you in your ministry and identify specific steps you can take to serve them better.

Part of becoming a great leader is learning when to trust your gut, or instincts, in making a decision on things both small and large. But’s it’s much more of an art than most people might wish to admit.

To start, trusting your gut does not mean becoming a loose cannon that always makes decisions on the fly. That’s not trusting your gut, that’s being irresponsible. Nor does it mean that your instinct overrides the chain of authority in your organization. You might feel the timing is right to invest in a major advertising campaign, and you may be ready to fight for it before your board of directors, but that doesn’t give you the green light to bypass others in making sound decisions.

The wisdom of Proverbs also warns that a fool trusts his own heart, so part of the process must include seeking input from an abundance of counselors as well as seeking God’s will through prayer.

The art of trusting your gut is the art of blending the tug every leader feels with counsel, prayer, time, and experience to arrive at a leadership decision.

real life application

Learn to listen and trust your gut instinct when making decisions, but always remember that the larger the decision, the more counsel and prayer you should seek to verify the direction in which you feel pulled.