Encouragement Changes Everything

Encouragement Changes Everything

This week’s NIV Leadership Bible devotions focused on the leadership skill of Encouragement. In my last post, I mentioned how much I benefitted from my Dad’s encouragement. A few years back, as I was preparing for a promotion at work, I recognized that I needed to be more of an encourager at work, so I did what I generally do in that circumstance…I found a book that would help me out. At that time, I read John Maxwell’s Encouragement Changes Everything: Bless & Be Blessed.

Maxwell’s premise is that people who add value to others almost always do so intentionally. He says that because adding value to others requires a person to give of himself, and that rarely occurs by accident.

Learn more from Maxwell’s perspective and some of the leaders he points to as example Encouragers.

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Are You an Encourager?

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It’s already Week 41 of 2014! This week’s NIV Leadership Bible focuses on the importance of encouragement in relationships for a leader. Encouragement breeds success…and I’m living proof of that. My dad is the ultimate encourager…and my brother and I greatly benefitted from that growing up. First, he was always there for us…at our sporting events or other extra-curricular activities. After watching us, he would always find ways to share words of encouragement—no matter how we’d done or what the result. For that, I’m grateful, as I try to emulate that practice with my kids.

Few functions a leader performs are more important than that of keeping hope alive. Out of This World Leaders navigate the maze of despair and drive away darkness with positive projections for the future. They infuse others around them with optimism regarding themselves, others, and the future of the organization.

Let’s take a look at examples of encouragement from Zechariah, Jonathan & David, and Barnabas (the “Son of Encouragement”).

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