What Are You Doing For Your MVP?

Meet Edward

Edward was a great pastor, who had a huge heart for people.  In his community, he was renown as a godly leader to such a degree that his advice was frequently sought out by people who didn't even attend his church. Everybody knew they could call pastor Edward, and he would make time for them.

One day Ed got a call from one of his church's regular attenders - a woman named Sharon. She had been struggling with depression for some time, and confessed that today she was thinking about taking her own life. Ed was shaken. He felt a deep sense of personal responsibility for the people who looked to him for guidance.  Fortunately, he was able to talk her out of suicide and into an inpatient recovery home. Good job Ed. He continued to care for Sharon with weekly visits to the recovery home.

The next week he got a call from an old friend, who asked him if he would consider taking a spot fielding phone calls on a local radio station's counseling show. It was an exciting opportunity to do something Ed really loved, so he said yes.

The next week, Ed had three walk in congregants who needed his help for various things. With a huge burden for the people in his church he did everything he could to help them. Pretty soon, Ed was working an extra 10 hours a week. As his family began to feel the burn, he started cutting corners in other areas of his job to keep up with his rigorous counseling agenda. His sermons were getting sloppy, and he wasn't communicating well with his team. Ed's leadership was beginning to spiral out of control, and he was feeling it.

The most valuable person for you to consider is you.

It can’t be said enough. For a lot of leaders, the above statement is common knowledge. Still, so many of them fall out of balance by rarely or never caring for themselves. They fall prey to the temptation to neglect their own needs to rush to the aide of their team members or excepting exciting new opportunities. They have great intentions, but in the end, they're not helping their teams or themselves. Many times, as these leaders work to alleviate pain and put out fires, they're creating fires in other areas.

Exceptional leaders learn how to maximize their helpfulness to others by setting important boundaries. One church leader I know has committed to not accepting any new opportunities before consulting his wife (that one is probably just a good practice in general).

There’s another pastor I know who loves his congregation deeply. So for their sake and his own he leaves three available meeting spaces in his calendar each week. After they're filled, he's unavailable until the following week. Of course, if he got a call from a ‘Sharon’ who wanted to do something unthinkable, he’d take it. But he focuses on drawing healthy boundaries with people so that he can be an effective leader.

Where will you draw the line?

As 2014 barrels forward, the people on your team aren’t going to have less problems. And the number of exciting opportunities aren’t going to decrease either. So it’s important that you work now to draw a line in the sand to help you prioritize your own needs, and continue to be truly helpful to other people.

Today, before you get back into the thick of it, I want to challenge you to think about one thing you can do that’s truly for yourself. It may be a regularly scheduled thing, like spending some quiet time alone each day or having coffee with a good friend. Or it might be a one time event, like going camping or heading out of town for a couple days.

I’ve got my one thing figured out, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. In February, I’m going to compete in a challenge with 1300 other people on Endomondo.com (it's a fitness website and app) to see who can burn the most calories. I’m planning on going running nearly every day during Feb. And I love competition. Anything where I can see my score, compare it to other, and try to beat them is an exciting challenge for me.

So what will it be for you? What is one thing you can do for yourself in 2014?