4 Simple Hacks to Stay Consistent in Your Leadership

If you're like most leaders, we all have good intentions, but we often lack consistent follow-through. Why? Well, it's because we're busy and we've got so many opportunities and so many distractions. And the reality is, as leaders, we tend to know what matters. We need to cast vision and set goals and develop and care for people and guard the culture and drive the desired results. But, you know it, what's urgent often screams louder than what's important. And what I've learned is this very important leadership principle, and it's this. It's not what you do occasionally that makes you a great leader. It's what you do consistently. Therefore, in this episode, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you four practical hacks to stay consistent in your leadership, even when you don't feel like it. But before we do that, I wanna talk about why consistency matters. Let's start with the why, and then we'll talk about the how. Now, why does it matter if you're consistent in your leadership? And I'll give you three specific reasons. Consistency matters because, three reasons.

Consistency builds trust, multiplies impact, and turns good intentions into lasting results. This is so important. It builds trust, it multiplies impact, and it turns good intentions into lasting results. Let's talk about the first quality, consistency builds trust. Now, as a leader, you may not think about it a lot. Like, if I'm consistent, that helps people trust me more. But you know that the opposite is true, right? We know that inconsistency breeds insecurity. If your team doesn't know what to expect, they can never, ever lead with confidence. And you've probably been there before. Chances are good you may have worked for a leader that was all over the place. Your leader was inconsistent. There was always a new project, a new idea, a new direction, and you probably hated it. Why? Because you couldn't lead with confidence if you didn't know what to expect. Now, the reality is, some of us, we're inconsistent in our leadership. And it can be a problem if your team's ever wondering, like, which you is gonna walk in the door? What's the plan gonna be today? What's the mood gonna be today? And inconsistency breeds insecurity. Now, on the other hand, when you are consistent as a leader,

when you're secure in your strategy, when you're consistent in your communication, your team loves that. They thrive because predictability creates stability, and leaders thrive in stability. Remember, people may admire your talent, but they trust your consistency. It matters. What does consistency do? It builds trust. Number two, it multiplies impact. Leadership fact. Most of us as leaders, we overestimate what's possible to accomplish in maybe like a week. Like, we're gonna crush it this week, and we don't get that much done. We overestimate what we can do in a short period of time, but most of us, we vastly underestimate what's possible in a longer season. We think we can do a ton in five days, but we really, in six months, we can do so much, but we don't realize it. Consistency closes the gap, and this is really important. You will never become great in a moment of good leadership. You become great in the same moment repeated over time. What do you do? You show up every single day, and you consistently do the right things, and you do them over and over and over again, and when you do that, consistency compounds,

and I'll give you an example. Let's say that you wanna get better in some area of your life or leadership. You wanna be more focused and productive, or you wanna be better in your communication or better in your listening skills or better parent or better with your money. If you consistently improve just a little bit over an extended period of time, you have absolutely no idea how much better you can become. You can go from being not very good to literally being an expert or in the top percentage of those in that desired area. For example, let's say in the next week, the upcoming week, you simply get 1% better at whatever you want, just a little bit better. You work on it, you listen to a podcast, you read, you get some advice, you implement what you've learned, and you get a little bit better, and guess what? No one really notices. At the end of the week, you're just 1% more productive, or you're a 1% more engaged parent, or you're 1% better with your money. It's barely. even noticeable, doesn't seem like much. But if you do that for five years, if you get just 1% better every single week, at the end of that five-year period, you're not gonna be like twice as productive.

The numbers show you'll be 12 times more productive. You'll be 12 times the speaker you are, 12 times better mom, 12 times better at managing your money if you just get 1% better a week. Consistency compounds. In fact, sometimes people will kind of look at what I do and what we do around here and they'll say like, how in the world do you get it all done? And I'll shoot super straight with you. When I started the church at the age of 28, man, I struggled all the time. I was doing like 50 sermons a year. We had like 125, 150 people coming to the church. I had two part-time staff members and it was all I could do to stay alive. Now, if you fast forward to today, I'll do over 100 talks a year. I'm still very involved in Pastoral Carol. I'll typically write a book a year. I've got 1,000 staff members that I care for, develop. I do the podcast, do a lot of different things and so you're like, how do you do so much? Well, the reality is I've got really, really good people. We've got great systems, but behind the scenes for three decades, I've just made very, very small, very, very consistent improvements. They were almost not even noticeable at the time, but over three decades, those things have made me more efficient and better at working through people.

In fact, there's something that's called the Zygarnik effect. It's really interesting. This guy discovered in the 1920s that this effect shows that people remember uncompleted tasks better than completed ones. In other words, if there's something that you haven't gotten done that you're supposed to do, your brain focuses on what you haven't done yet. If you've done it, your brain releases it. Why? Because your brain craves closure. If you've got some unfinished task that creates a mental tension, there's like an open loop in your brain and your brain keeps sending this alarm, this message reminding you, it's not done, it's not done, it's not done. And once you complete that project or that task, the mental tension stops. Now, when you do the same right thing over and over and over again, you get consistent in your routines, you're building mental loops that literally, as a leader, you expect to finish. You expect to complete the project. And what's cool is you're not just changing what you do, but you're changing what you think of you. You're starting to think, I am the type of leader that finishes.

And when your mindset about your leadership changes, you're creating mental momentum. And then one day, you don't need more willpower, you recognize you just need more rhythm. And when you get the right rhythms in place, you close the gaps, you create the momentum, you get more done and you grow in your leadership. So let's talk about it. How do we do that actually? Like, how do we close the gap between the things that we want to do and the things that we actually do? How do we become more consistent? So I'm gonna give you four hacks to become more consistent in your leadership. I'll give them to you now, and then we'll go through them one by one. You're gonna pre-decide, you're going to create triggers, you're going to track progress, and you're gonna add meaning. Pre-decide, create triggers, track progress, and add meaning. Let's talk about the first hack. Number one, you're going to pre-decide, don't re-decide. In fact, I wrote a whole book on this called Think Ahead, and it's really about the power of pre-decision. And I want to start here because so many leaders, the battle begins when the day starts. Here's the problem. As leaders, a lot of us hope to become more consistent,

but I will remind you that hope doesn't change your life, habits do. Hope doesn't make you better, the right habits make you better. And the reality is, and you know this, most of us don't drift into good habits. You don't just like accidentally one day become consistent working out. And you don't just randomly get close to God by randomly spending time with God. You don't stumble into wise and healthy eating choices. You don't fall into effective leadership or deep relational investments. Here's the principle. You don't drift into consistency, you decide into it. If you don't decide in advance, what's going to happen is you'll likely default to the wrong things in the moment. So I'm just going to encourage you to pre-decide. And I'll ask you a question and you can work on this with your team. What habits do you want to practice consistency in? consistently. Stephen Covey says this, the key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. What habits do you want to practice consistently? And what I want to encourage you to do is like be really, really specific. What will you do daily?

Don't be vague. We're not talking about general ideas, but very specific habits. For example, if you want to create a spiritual habit, you may say, I'm gonna journal one sentence of gratitude every day before bed, or I'm gonna read one chapter in the Bible every single day. Relational, you might want to say, hey, I'm gonna take my kids to breakfast every Saturday morning. Years ago, Friday was my day off and it was daddy's day off is donut day. Well, I don't do donuts anymore, so daddy's day off is not donut day. Professional, it might be you're gonna say, hey, I'm gonna return all emails within 24 hours. Whatever it is, you decide what specific habit you want to create and do daily and be very, very clear and very specific. I'll give you a couple of mine. I prioritize the sermon, the message that I give to our church above everything else that's work related. So for me, a message series outline, if I'm preaching on, let's say, Elisha, which I will be, I'm going to write all four outlines before we ever start the message series. It's a discipline, it's a commitment, and I do it. Then before the weekend's message, my message is due on Wednesday at noon.

That's no one's goal but mine, and so every single Wednesday by noon, I have the message completed. I just don't miss. And the reason is because I've decided I'm the type of leader that finishes. I do what I start to do. And this is my top priority, so it comes first. I attack it first in the week. When I finish my top priority, then I can focus on the others. And the challenge is most leaders don't do this. Most leaders don't do first what matters most because all the urgent things tend to crowd out what's important. And that's why you want to be really, really specific what matters to you. Here's the principle. You cannot do what you don't define. It sounds simple, but it's powerful. You cannot do what you don't define. So decide in advance what matters most and then build your life and your leadership around it. So number one is you're going to pre-decide. The second thing is you're going to create triggers. You create triggers, not just goals. Now, what I'm going to talk to you, these are not my original ideas. There's two books that I'd highly recommend. Atomic Habits by James Clear is a must read.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I'm actually going to interview Charles on the next podcast. Brilliant interview, brilliant man. My ideas come from their work, so I want to give them credit. And they go into way more depth on these subjects, so promise me you'll read those books. But here's what they teach. Goals don't create consistency, triggers do. Goals don't make you consistent, the right triggers make you consistent. And what's the difference? A goal tells you what you want to do, what you want to accomplish. But a trigger tells your brain when to do it. And this is so important. You need a cue that tells you when to do what you want to do. Some of my weird cues, and you can make fun of me for these things, but it's what I do. Before I go to bed, I set my clothes out for the next day. I put all my supplements out for the next day. I fill my water jug the night before for the morning. I put my backpack by the door. I've packed my gym bag with stuff in it. I put my dishes out. I put my Bible on the table. And so when I get up, all my triggers are there.

I'm really organized and I'm efficient. And I am productive and I start my day in a way that says I'm organized, productive, and gonna serve God well today. I'm not gonna insult you with just like tons of details, but I'll give you some examples. If you want to journal, then get a journal, put it out by your bed. And so every night before you go to bed, you actually journal. Or if you want to like eat healthy snacks instead of all the junk food at your office, buy healthy snacks and set them out in your office. If you want to be more grateful to people around you, maybe you're saying, I'm gonna write one note a day. So at the end of the day, set out a little note card on your desk. So the next thing you do, the first thing coming is you write a note. This is just a cue to help you do what you want to do. Then the best on habits, they talk about what's called habit stacking. And I love this. What you want to do is you want to predetermine a habit flow. So you're gonna do one right thing. And then after that, you're gonna do the next right thing. And after that, you're gonna do the next right thing. So for you, your morning routine might be, after I drink coffee,

I'm gonna open my YouVersion Bible app and I'm gonna read one chapter in the Bible. Then after I read. The Bible, I'm going to pray, and I've got my prayer list already out. And after I pray, then I'm going to do, I don't know, 10 sit-ups. And after I do 10 sit-ups, I'm going to do five minutes of stretching. And so then, after you've spent time with God, and you've created some physical movement, you're going to eat your breakfast, which I'm going to suggest is predetermined to put the right things in your body. And after breakfast, before you leave for work, you're going to maybe review your top three priorities of the day. And what you're doing is you're creating this rhythm that tells you, I have predetermined the right things to put into my mind, into my body to help me be most productive in the day, and it is not accidental. Now, why does this work? It's because your brain loves patterns. And you have patterns. The problem is, for most of us, our patterns are unintentional. And when you choose your patterns, and when you repeat the right patterns, then your healthy, intentional patterns become automatic. And so, you don't just set goals, you actually design triggers. How do we do the right things consistently? Predecide what you want to do. Create triggers. Number three, you track progress, not just effort. You track progress, not just effort. You've probably heard the famous Peter Drucker quote, and there's different versions of the quote, but he says something like this, what gets measured gets better.

What gets measured gets better. So, if you want to be consistent, it helps to see some results, because effort without feedback creates fatigue. If you're just like trying really hard and you don't get any positive feedback, you get worn out and you want to stop. Our church created the YouVersion Bible app, and I'm excited to share that later on this year, we will have been privileged to give away the YouVersion Bible app to over 1 billion people. Amazing, over 1 billion people. We don't want people just to have it, but we want people to be engaged in it. And we did one simple thing, one ridiculously simple thing that massively increased the Bible engagement, meaning people coming back every day. You know what we did? We created streaks. Streaks, where you can just say, hey, I've read the Bible eight days in a row. I've read the Bible 13 days in a row. All we're doing is we're helping people see, hey, I'm making progress. And so, you'll want to find your own rhythms that help you track progress along the way. One of the things I do is I've got, like right now, I've probably got about 20 different talks that I'm developing. And so, I have this board on my wall and I write them all down and then I check them off. And so, it helps me to feel like I've got progress.

If I forget to write one down and then I do the talk, I actually go write it down just so I can check it off. Why? Because I'm sick like that and you might be too. We just like to feel the progress, measure the progress, because it gives us a sense of fulfillment and momentum. Why does this matter? Because progress you can see becomes progress you want to repeat. Let me say it again. Progress that you can see becomes progress you want to repeat. So, when you're creating the right habits, you're celebrating the progress and that creates momentum in your life and your leadership. How do you become more consistent? Number one, pre-decide. Two, create triggers. Three, track progress and you add meaning. Number four, you connect your actions to a why, not just a what. You connect what you're doing to why you're doing it, not just what you're doing. For example, if you try to do some random task and you're not getting very far, you'll probably quit. But if you're doing something that has a purpose and has meaning to you or meaning to others, you can actually fight to protect it. So, for you it might be, if you're a Christian like I am, you're not just working out,

but you're taking care of what the Bible calls the temple of the Holy Spirit. There's a spiritual meaning behind your physical exercise. Or you're not just reading your Bible, you're actually strengthening your soul to do the work of God. Or you're not just encouraging and motivating your team, but you're empowering other people to fulfill their God-given calling. Or you're not just creating rhythms at work, but you're living a mission that impacts people around you. And you may say, hey, I wanna do that, but my job's not that important. And you might say, well, my job's not even that spiritual. And I wanna say, hey, your job is important. And everything you do in some way, you're actually serving other people, you're creating value, and so you wanna remember why it is that what you do matters and make a difference. Because the what won't keep you going, but the right why will. And it's the why, honestly, that keeps me doing this podcast. I talked a little bit about my schedule, and I'll just. shoot real straight with you, like, I don't need any more to do. I got a full-time job as it is. And this podcast, we're not monetizing it. You don't get an award, like,

hey, it's a really good podcast. You don't even get a whole lot of feedback. I just truly believe with every fiber in me that good and God-honoring leadership matters, that it makes businesses better, that good leadership makes ministries thrive to impact more people, that it helps schools better educate kids, that it helps missions, organizations impact the world. Great leadership changes families to become more God-honoring. And so when I work on this content and when I bring my best to bring it to you with passion, intensity, and authenticity, what I'm doing is I'm just, like, genuinely visualizing sitting down with you because I care about you and helping you get a little bit better. When you get just a little bit better, you get a little bit more confident. And then you get a little bit more competent. And as you get more consistent, you get more confident and more competent. And maybe it's just 1% this week. You listen to this episode and you apply one thing and you're 1% better. And then it's 1% next week and 1% the week after that. And no one really noticed as much at first. But five years later, listen, you're 12 times the leader that you are today.

You're 12 times more effective in your ministry. You're 12 times more profitable in your business. You care about people 12 times more than you did. And you're changing 12 more times the lives. And it's hard work and it takes time. And it's the things that no one sees that bring about the results that everyone wants. And so you don't get great in a moment, but you get really great in that same right moment over and over and over again, because it's not what you do occasionally that makes you a world-class leader. It's what you do consistently. And I wanna just tell you very sincerely, thank you for being a part of our community. I believe in you, I care for you. I believe that there's more in you. You have visions, you have dreams, you have hopes that you have a hard time sometimes bringing them to fruition. Consistency closes that gap. Take one step today, one positive belief about you, implement something small in your life in leadership and do it again and again and again. And a little bit at a time, you're gonna get better. And guess what? Everyone wins when the leader gets better. ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪