Rick James – Healthy Leaders

Welcome to the Healthy Leaders Archive, a collection of quality writing on healthy Christian leadership. New articles are now published at www.healthyleaders.com.

Author

Rick James

About the Author

Dr. Rick James is an organizational change specialist with more than 25 years’ experience consulting with over 100 NGOs (Non-Governmental Organization), mission agencies, churches and government aid departments. He worked for ten years in Malawi and four years in Latin America. He has a Ph.D. in OD (Organizational Development) and leadership development in Africa from CASS Business School, London. His most recent books include: Leading with Courage and Humility; Inspiring Change and Capacity Building for NGOs: Making it Work. Rick has facilitated the OD and Christian Organization Learning group http://developingchurches.ning.com/ since its inception in 2008.

Daily Choices of Character

The choices we face today are the same as ever, are we going to follow Jesus today?

Facing Fears and Taking Responsibility

Frustration and fear feature strongly in change processes. Churches and Christian NGOs are no exception in my experience. Not surprising I suppose, given they are staffed by humans, not angels. But left undealt with, frustration and fear give rise to mistrust and effectively block efforts at change.

Finding Character and Chemistry in Recruitment

Obviously it’s almost impossible to really know someone’s character before they start work. But that’s no excuse for just ignoring it. We can at least try to find out what drives people and how they react in difficult situations. And it does not stop with recruitment – what about staff appraisal and development?

But What About My Brother’s Killers?

Forgiveness is hard work. You are dealing with a reality of pain and loss that cannot be pretended away. As leaders we must ask forgiveness as well as forgive, even if it seems impossible.

Ending Well

Endings that bring healing, reconciliation and new life often involve forgiveness.

Active Recovery

We want to bring the best of ourselves to work. There is a science to how we rest and restore our energies and creativity.

Deliberate Rest

It seems that like breathing, we can all rest naturally; but to perform at our peak, we can all learn to do it better. It turns out that we have to work at taking deliberate rest. What do you do to rest and recover? How do you detach from your work?

The Courage to Follow

Without followers, leadership does not exist. It’s the first followers who “transform a lone nut into a leader.” Or as the Malawian proverb beautifully puts it: “A leader without followers, is simply someone going for a walk.”

4 Steps to Ensure Healthy Transition

We all know about founder’s syndrome – where a successful leader is unable to let go and move on. Christian leaders are in no way immune. It may be painful and challenging, but it does not have to be fatal. We therefore need to avoid the syndrome or treat the underlying issues in a timely and appropriate way.

Trust in the Face of COVID

Even in the midst of restructuring, divestment and redundancy programs during COVID, here are the four key ingredients of trust that high trust leaders still lived out.

Looking to See What God Is Doing

I’ve been noticing recently how many of my prayers seem to start with the words “Help”. I’m usually praying for God to sort out difficult human situations.

Taking Responsibility to Change

If we look at our own lives, where are we blaming others for a situation?

Feedback – It’s the Key to Change

Feedback is an essential part of change. Feedback should be both positive and ‘negative’.

The Interruptions Are Your Work

What if we saw interruptions as the real purpose of our lives? What if we saw them as a gift – an opportunity to be open to what God would have us do in that moment?

Identifying Blind Spots and Hot Spots

When we look at ideas for future direction, who we are in relation to what we are looking into will influence what we see – and what we don’t see – how we do it and what conclusions we draw from it. This is because our subconscious assumptions, biases, filters and defence mechanisms create blind spots and hot spots.

He Has Overcome the World

Hope is a virtue, not a personality type. It is a mindset that helps us to stay in the game in the face of significant adversity.

The Extraordinary Power of Gratitude

Having a grateful attitude, literally counting our blessings each day, makes a huge and practical difference. No wonder the Bible encourages us to be thankful. Just like plants, we are made to grow towards the light, to what gives us life.

Re-Considering 2020 as ‘Pure Joy’? Seriously?

As our idols come into the light we may be better able to let them go. 2020 can lead us to an appreciation of life, restored relations with those around us, recognizing personal strengths we did not know we had and realization of new possibilities. Such post-traumatic growth can be considered as pure joy.

Creating Some Space to Untangle My Identity

I find it helpful to create some space to explore prayerfully my real motivations for doing things. It helps me re-align what I’m doing with my sense of God’s calling.

Spiritual Leadership – Bringing Inside-Out Change

A large Christian NGO in Africa demonstrates the powerful combination of strong, servant leadership with relentless prayer and painful personal confession. Change was not cheap, easy or quick. But it happened.