Effective Communication: The Key To Building Strong Relationships

I can’t hammer it home enough how important communication is in leadership and, more importantly, your life overall. While John Maxwell says everything rises and falls on leadership, I have to diverge from this great leadership thinker.

Leadership is important, but I believe communication is even more important.

Without communication, you can’t rise to the level of a great leader. People won’t follow or understand you if you can’t effectively communicate your

  • Mission
  • Vision
  • Desires
  • Thoughts
  • Agendas
  • Etc…

Communication is the key to getting things done in leadership. It holds that communication will get you to the next level. Especially in building relationships.

Many relationships, in business and personal, have fallen because a person couldn’t communicate. They failed to share their needs, desires, and wants. They couldn’t spit out the words to let the other person know.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Reel Leadership Article

My latest book, Reel Leadership, is now available on Amazon. If you love movies and leadership, you will love this book.

It’s time for another edition of the Christmas At The Movies Reel Leadership series. In partnership with The Gateway Church in Spring Lake, MI, I’m bringing the leadership lessons found in great, classic Christmas movies and they’re sharing the wonderful message of Jesus Christ through the films. It’s a great pairing in my mind and theirs. (And due to a mistake on my part, you’re going to get an additional article on Sunday, Christmas Eve with leadership lessons from It’s A Wonderful Life!).

Today’s article will focus on the Charles M. Schulz classic A Charlie Brown Christmas. This movie has a special place in my heart, as another youth group student gifted me a DVD copy of it shortly after my youth group days. 

Red movie theater curtains

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Elf

A Reel Leadership Article

My latest book, Reel Leadership, is now available on Amazon. If you love movies and leadership, you will love this book.

Welcome back to another special edition of Reel Leadership. This is the third entry in the Christmas At The Movies series. Previous entries include How The Grinch Stole Christmas and The Polar Express. We’ve explored the leadership and life lessons hidden within these fantastic Christmas movies. Today, we’re returning to the movies for a modern Christmas classic: Elf.

Elf tells the story of Buddy The Elf (Will Ferrell) and his search for his birth father, Walter Hobbs (James Caan). Directed by Jon Favreau and written by David Berenbaum, viewers will find themselves in stitches as they laugh at Buddy’s crazy antics.

Will Ferrell dressed in a green suit with a green hat. Buddy the Elf from the movie Elf

But Elf is more than the story about Buddy. Elf is the story of discovering joy, seeking peace, and finding your place in a world you don’t feel you belong. It’s not only a great Christmas movie; it’s a great life movie.

Embracing Servant Leadership in Your Relationships

Servant leadership is an especially popular idea in the faith community. Yet, servant leadership is applicable in more arenas than in the religious world. You can practice servant leadership wherever you lead.

But, you may be asking yourself, what is servant leadership?

Servant leadership places an emphasis on the leader to steward and care for the resources of an organization. They believe they’ve been placed in a position of trust. More than that, this line of reasoning uses the idea that leaders are servants first. They have to make the needs of their employees a priority.

This flips the script on the traditional leadership paradigm. The leader is no longer at the top. Their main goal is to serve others and help the organization thrive. 

It’s a bold concept. That works.

5 Ways To Strengthen Your Marriage Amidst The Demands Of Leadership

What do you think of when you think about the most important relationships in your life? You might think you have to pour everything into your business relationships. Or it may be your child’s life. It might even be the friends you have.

I want you to think about the most significant relationship in your life that gets ignored. You may be surprised by what I think it is. Yet, if statistics are correct, it gets overlooked more than any other, ending in the dissolution of the relationship.

The most significant, most important relationship that we ignore, especially as leaders, is the relationship at home with our spouse.

When you choose to get married, you commit to this person for life. If you’re a Christian, you commit to this relationship in front of God and covenant with Him.