Leaders Don't Wait Until January

At the time of this release, we're releasing it in the 1st of December at the end of the year 2025. And so if you're wise in your leadership, now is the time to look back at the previous year to start planning for the year ahead. Now, to be clear, you do not have to wait until January to make important changes. January 1st is like, it's just another day, right? There's nothing magical about that day. And personally, I prefer to make changes early. This is a really important part just of my mindset. For example, I'll dial in my diet before Christmas. And the reason is I want to start early. Why am I gonna wait to get better when I can begin now? And so what it does is it just frames your mindset of I'm not going to gorge myself now or I'm not gonna be lazy now and start to be disciplined later on. I like to start early and it frames a mindset that helps me move forward with consistent discipline. So the best leaders don't wait for a date on the calendar. They start early and they start strong. So before you plan next year, what I want you to do is together, we're gonna look back. Now, at this moment is the time to evaluate the previous year. You wanna look at your wins, your losses, your successes, your failures, the surprising victories, the missed opportunities.

And I wish I didn't have to say this, but I feel like I have to because leaders tend to lie to themselves a lot. But what I want you to do when you look back is tell the truth about what happened. It's so easy to make excuses and say, well, it wasn't or there was this or there was this external factor. Tell the truth because growth doesn't start with excuses. Growth starts with honesty. Be honest as you look back. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at six things every leader should evaluate. Six things, I'm gonna give them to you and then we're gonna go through them one by one. You're gonna wanna evaluate, number one, the successes. Number two, the misses. Number three, the patterns. Number four, you're gonna evaluate the people around you. Number five, the priorities. Evaluate your priorities. Number six, evaluate yourself. Successes, misses, patterns, people, priorities, and yourself. Let's talk about them one by one. We're looking back to plan the best year as we move forward. Number one, evaluate the successes. Why do you do this? If you don't know why something is working when it is, you won't know how to fix it when it's not. That's an Andy Stanley quote, very, very important.

Evaluate why did this work? If you don't know the reason for the win, the reason for the success, then one day when it's not working, you're not gonna know how to fix it. Here's what tends to happen. When something's going well, it's tempting just to take it for granted or you might even celebrate it and then you move on. Smart leaders never take wins for granted and they don't just celebrate, they start to ask and analyze and study why exactly is this working? You wanna ask yourself some questions if you've got some wins, a department's winning, you've got a part of the team, you've got a product, whatever, you're gonna ask yourself like, what specific made this ministry grow when the other ones were struggling? Or why did this one product take off when others are in decline? Or you might ask something like, what created the shift that sparked new momentum? If the culture got better, what were the contributing factors that made the culture get better? Because again, if you don't know the reason behind your success, you're actually gonna struggle to reproduce it. So you don't just do autopsies on the failures,

but you really try to understand what's going into, what are the contributing factors making these things work? Now I'll give you an example. Our church meets in 45 different locations and some of them grow faster than others. Some are explosive in growth, 25% growth, some might be 4% growth. And what's really interesting is if you look at our model, all the churches have basically the same contributing factors, right? Every staff member we have comes through the same hiring process. They all come through the same training system. They come to, we have the same systems at the locations. We have the same values in our whole organization. They even, they'll have similar worship songs, they have the same messages. And so why would one be explosive and one struggle some? Well, the most obvious reason is what? It's leadership. It's always leadership. Great leadership tends to get better results. We know that, but here's what's interesting. The longer we do this and the more kind of test cases we have, there are X factors. We discover other contributing factors. For one thing, for us, this is spiritual. So there's just the God factor and there's that, and you never can quite explain it.

But also practically standpoint, Practically, we wanna see why do some do better than others. And it is always a part of the leader, but it's not just the leader. For example, we've discovered that who the leader is paired with matters just as much as the leader. For example, if we've got a really charismatic leader that's really good with people, but has no organizational skills, you have to pair that leader with the right partner in order for it to work, or vice versa. You've got a very systematic leader that follows the rules and good with deadlines and processes, but really isn't warm, you have to pair that leader with the right person. So for us, we've learned that it's not just the right point person, but it's the right team. We've also learned a lot of other things. The age of the campus can make a difference. Like a newer one tends to grow faster. One that's been in the same community for 15 years, people are used to it and it doesn't grow as fast. Sometimes the community demographics impact growth. Is the community growing? Is it aging? Things like parking matters. If you can't turn cars, you can't grow services. And so we've discovered multiple documented factors

to fast growing campuses. It's not just leadership. There are multiple different reasons of why one might be doing better. You wanna do the same thing in your organization wherever you're seeing wins. Don't just go with it. Well, it's good leadership, or it's just a good season, or it's just a good product. Whatever it is, you wanna look deeper into it. Who created the product? Who created the systems? Why do the systems work? And so you don't just celebrate the desired outcomes. You study the ingredients, the contributing factors that brought about the desired outcomes. So what decisions and disciplines or people created the wins. And here's what's really interesting. Success leaves clues if you're wise enough to look for them. So I'll say it again. If you don't pause to evaluate, you might accidentally drift from what made something work in the first place. We're gonna evaluate the wins. The second thing we're gonna do is obvious, but we've gotta do it and it's important.

We're gonna evaluate the misses. Why? Because a mistake you don't learn from is a mistake you'll likely repeat. Let me say it again. A mistake that you don't learn from is a mistake that you'll likely repeat. And the reality is we all miss. Every leader misses occasionally, some of us more often than others, right? We make the wrong hire. We launched the wrong project or at the wrong time. Or you trust your gut and your gut's usually right and this time it backfires. The danger isn't in failing. You do wanna fail sometime if you're not failing every now and then you're playing it too safe. The danger isn't in failing. The danger is not learning from what didn't work. When something doesn't work, we have to stop and ask, why? Where'd we get it wrong? Why'd the project fail? Or why do we have a goal and not holding anyone accountable to not making the goal? And so you're gonna ask questions like these and these are in the leader guide. You're gonna ask, what did we overlook? I like this question a lot. You're gonna ask, where did we lead with ego

and lack humility? Super important. Where did we lead with ego? We thought we knew it all. We were overly confident. We had hubris. And where did we lack humility? We weren't listening. Someone might've warned us. We weren't thorough in our study. And then we're gonna ask, what will we do differently next time? Super important. What'd we learn from? What's our takeaway? I'll give you an example. One I'm not proud of, but it was super helpful. Like I said, we do church in multiple locations in I think 12 different states. The first time that we went out of my local state into a new state, we tried to start two different locations in Phoenix. Well, they didn't work well. So we combined two into one and eventually the one didn't make it. We went back and did an autopsy on it. And I can't remember the exact number. It was 32 or 34. But anyway, we listed over 30 mistakes that we made. A better way to say it is we learned 30 lessons

from that failure. And so what we do today, if you ever look at it and say, you guys do a pretty good job of that. What we do today is a result of what we did poorly before because we learned from it. You have to learn from it. A failure is only bad if you don't learn from it. And so if you have something that doesn't work, the fact that it didn't work isn't the problem. You have to learn from it. I always tell our team, don't waste a failure that we already paid for. It's already expensive, so learn from it. So we're gonna evaluate the wins. We're gonna evaluate the misses. The third thing we're gonna do, and this is really important, and a lot of leaders miss this, is we're gonna evaluate patterns. Evaluate patterns. What happens occasionally is a circumstance, but what happens repeatedly is your culture. And so you wanna look at something. If something good or bad happens once, that might be good luck or bad luck. But if it happens over and over again, it's a reflection of what you've created or allowed. For example, if you have one missed deadline, that's understandable, right?

If you got five missed deadlines in a row, that reveals a lack of accountability somewhere in your organization. I'll give you an example of a pattern that we noticed that was not healthy and we had to change. Most of our churches have like four services, five services, six services, some seven or so on a weekend. And for years, the message was broadcast live to each of those services. And so the local pastor has five minutes, 300 seconds to pray, to welcome, to introduce the message, to love on the people. And because of technology now, we can actually delay the start. It doesn't have to be to the exact second like it did for a long time. So over time, as you can imagine, without the strict guideline, some pastors started to go a little bit over, no big deal. 10 seconds over became 30 seconds over, 30 seconds became for a few minutes. And since they could go over before the message, they kind of thought, well, I could go over after the message. And so services would end six or seven minutes late. Well, you may say that's not that big of a deal. And our culture is a really, really big deal because it's the difference between being able to add another service or not. Hitting the time for us, it's a matter of integrity.

It's a matter of excellence. And if you don't have boundaries, then you kind of grow into it. And anytime you create a boundary or artificial constraints, it makes you better. This podcast, I could give you this content in 60 minutes. I could just, I could sit up and talk with somebody and talk for an hour and a half about this. But what I do is I try to keep it at 20 or 25 minutes because it keeps me focused, sharp. I'm valuing your time. And so for us, hitting time marks really, really matters. Without intentionality, people drift and the quality decreases. So this is the important point. What you allow, you endorse. Or we could say it this way, what you permit, you promote. Your culture doesn't just naturally become what you want. It starts with what you allow, it's the patterns. And so if you don't evaluate the patterns, your culture will drift. Look back and say, where are we drifting away from what we really value? Fourth thing we're gonna evaluate is the people. Super important, why? I've said this before, I'm gonna say it again. The potential of your future rests on the strength of your people. It's all about people. And I'm not gonna spend a lot of time here

because we've done plenty of episodes on the importance of developing people. I'll give you a couple you can listen to. Episode 44, how to recognize leaders with high potential. I love that episode. Episode 166, winning as a rising leader. But I wanna say what is true, and you know this, you can have the right vision, the right plan, the right strategy and still fail if you got the wrong leaders, why? The wrong leaders can make the best plan look bad and you've seen it happen. And the right leaders, they can make an average plan look brilliant. Evaluate your leaders. If your leaders aren't growing, your organization is gonna struggle to grow. It's gonna eventually slow. So you wanna look at all of your leaders and ask who's thriving, who's coasting, who's quietly disengaging, who needs a challenge, who needs a hard conversation? Many organizations do something like this. We call it like a quarterly staff planning time. And the top leaders, in order to care for all the team members are gonna look and see, how's it going? Who's ready for a promotion? Who needs developing? Who's got personal challenges in their lives?

So what we are is we wanna be acutely aware of what's going on in the lives of the people that we love and care for so we can help them be most successful. Develop them, strengthen them, move them into the right roles. Who needs the right conversations? Why do we do this? I've said it before. You don't find great leaders, you build them. So once you look back over your year, look at the leaders you interact with and ask, how are they doing? Who's ready for growth? Who needs coaching? Who needs care? Care about your leaders. Number five, we're gonna evaluate priorities. Why? Because what gets your attention will always determine your direction. Where are you putting your focus? As a Christian and as a pastor, I tell our church, if your spiritual enemy can't destroy you, he'll just distract you. It's almost as good. And the same is true for your business or your nonprofit. Most leaders I know, and this is probably true for you because you're an exceptional leader, the people in our community are the best of the best.

Most leaders don't struggle with a lack of passion. Most leaders have a lack of focus. It's not that you care too little, but because you care so much, you're often doing too much. And I'll state the obvious, but I wanna say it as you evaluate last year and move into next year. Busyness does not equal effectiveness. You know that, but sometimes we get sucked into busyness, don't we? If everything is important to you, nothing is important to you. And so that's why one of your most vital leadership assignments is one of the most important things, but it's actually one of the least talked about things. And I don't know why. I can almost not even find an article on this. I just call it resource allocation. And we'll link to a episode I did on that in the leader guide. You only have so much time. You only have so much energy. You only have so much money or capital. You only have so much focus or attention. Those are limited resources. So you want to invest them in the places that have the biggest return. What tends to happen, though, is whatever screams the loudest gets your attention. Whoever makes the biggest presentation gets the resources. You have to determine where your resources go.

Your focus determines your future. So give your best energy toward what drives your greatest impact. Let me say it again. We're looking at the resources we have. Your focus determines your future. So give the best of whatever you have, your energy, your money, your time, your talent, toward whatever drives your greatest impact. We're gonna evaluate resource allocation. Number six, evaluate yourself. Super important. Why? Because the hardest person to lead is always the one in the mirror, right? I'll give you a couple of episodes if you want to work on some personal leadership development. Episodes 97 and 98. Learning to lead yourself is the first one, and then Three Secrets to Lead Yourself is the second one, 97 and 98. Here's what we know. It's really easy to spot pride in other people. It's easy to see their excuses or their blind spots in everyone else. But it's much harder to see those things in yourself. And that's why real personal growth starts with ruthless honesty. Growth starts whenever we stop defending our own weaknesses and we start confronting them.

I always say this. You cannot correct what you won't confront. And so when you're looking at yourself, don't just look at the exterior leadership, what everybody else sees. Look inside. Look at your character. Look at your values. Look at your integrity. Ask yourself, am I overcompensating for some insecurity? Or am I too strong because I'm actually afraid? And it's really, really easy to hide behind last year's success. But the truth is this. The areas you ignore privately will eventually hurt you publicly. There are a lot of good questions to ask. I'm gonna give you a few. As you look at your last year, ask yourself, where am I making excuses? I'm talking about any area of your life, as a wife or a husband, as a mom or a dad, physically, spiritually, in your leadership, in your organization, where am I making excuses? And be really, really honest about any area that you are. Ask yourself, what am I avoiding because it's uncomfortable? What am I avoiding because it's uncomfortable? Then my favorite topic is this. And I want you to think for a moment about something that you wanted to change last year,

but you didn't change it. Chances are pretty good that the year before that, you wanted to change that very thing and you still didn't do it. Ask yourself this question. What's the one thing you need to fix, but you haven't? This is so important. At the end of this year, I want you to think about, what's the one thing you need to fix, but you haven't faced yet? And remember, the most dangerous lies are the ones we tell ourselves. Growth doesn't start with excuses, it starts with honesty. And so face whatever it is that's holding you back. It may be that you don't know how to read a spreadsheet. You can fix that. It may be that you're insecure and therefore you're harsh with people. It could be that you're afraid of having difficult conversations because you wanna be liked. Whatever it is, you gotta call it what it is. And then have the faith to believe that you can change, you can grow. From a spiritual perspective, I tell people all the time, you have everything you need to do everything God calls you to do. And so believe it, own it. And I wanna tell you right now, your leadership matters. Your personal growth matters.

Your integrity matters. Your example matters. You, who you are, you set the pace for your team's potential. So with God's help, you can change whatever it is that holds you back. And I'm gonna tell you right now, don't wait until January. The reason I dial in my diet before Christmas is I don't wanna go through Christmas feeling lazy, feeling like I'm putting off my best until later. And so it frames my mind that if I can be disciplined in this one area, because believe me, I like junk food. If I can be. disciplined in this area that's difficult for me, I can be disciplined in work, I can be disciplined spiritually, I can be disciplined as a husband, I can be disciplined as a dad. When I take the most undisciplined areas and I don't wait for a day, but instead I start early, I attack them, it does something in me, it's like a keystone habit that triggers. I mean business. It's the same thing with hitting a time. I'm gonna hit this time because time matters to me. I'm not gonna be lazy, I'm not gonna make excuses, I'm gonna do what I set out to do.

So what are you gonna do? You're not gonna wait till January. The best leaders don't wait till January. You're gonna start early, you're gonna start strong, and you're gonna lead the way because that's what great leaders do. As the year wraps up, look back. What can you learn from the year? Take it, analyze it, pray about it, and apply it. And as you move into next year, move into next year with the faith that you can do everything that you're called to do. That if you cast a vision, you can make the world better. That if you believe in people, you can help raise up leaders that can do more than they ever thought or imagined. If you work together with great God-honoring people, you can genuinely make a difference in this world. I believe in you. I'm gonna do my best to invest in you. More importantly, God believes in you, so step into his calling and be who he created you to be. Look back, plan forward, don't wait till January, start early, start strong, lead the way because that's what great leaders do. Congratulations to you. This year, you did get better. And guess what? We know that everyone wins when the leader gets better.