The World Race is unlike any leadership environment I have ever found myself in. I have led sports teams, people into the great outdoors, administrative teams, and even young boys at summer camp. I haven’t put my finger on what exactly makes team leading on the World Race completely different than anything I have experienced (intense community, spiritual warfare, length of time, squad dynamics, the “nature” of the Race, etc, I dunno!), but I’ll let you know what I have learned as a team leader in my first month of the Race:.
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Seek God first. Seek Him before the team.
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As servant leader it seems logical that you would serve your team above all else, but as a TL you are serving your team much better when you are seeking God at all costs.
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Communicate clearly and often. About everything. Big things, little things. If you know something your team should too. Communicate as soon as you can. Your team will appreciate it. Always set a time and location.
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If you need to have team time, a team meeting/discussion, or do anything as a team let your teammates know ASAP. People will make plans and won’t be available when you try to plan a team meeting 30 minutes before its anticipated start.
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Delegate! If you are feeling burnt-out you are doing too much. Empower others. People love to do what you hate.
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Alone time is serving your team. This is similar to my first point, so I guess I am repeating it because it’s important. Mary and Martha!
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Be confident. God chose you to be a leader. Therefore, no need to hesitate, God’s on your side. Your team will appreciate confidence with some mistakes rather than hesitancy with few mistakes. You are a team of like-minded individuals, they will show you grace when you fail and enjoy seeing you step up in confidence and own your leadership role.
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Don’t be an all-star. Leadership is about empowering others, not about being better at everything than every single other teammate. If you think you need to be the best you will muffle the gifted individuals on your team. Don’t do that. Empower! Empower! Empower! You may need to stop and humble yourself many times during the day. If you do that you are serving your team well.
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Get to know your team. This will facilitate a tight-knit community and nurture an environment for teammates to open up and express opinions. I guarantee that you will learn something from every single teammate. Besides, you are going to spend the next 11 months with these people, might as well make friends right off the bat.
I’m grateful that God is teaching me these lessons early on!
