The most influential contributor to the growth curve of an organization is the growth curve of its leaders. A recent survey of business people from both large and small organizations revealed that the vast majority of those polled encounter company bottlenecks on a regular basis. When asked about the source of the bottlenecks… here were the top four responses: Poor communication… too much work… confusing processes… and lack of training.

Responsibility for these issues fall primarily on the shoulders of leadership. The uncomfortable truth is the bottlenecking factor in most organizations… business world or church world… is the inability or unwillingness of leaders to grow and adapt.

Let’s use the local church as an example. As a church passes certain size plateaus… the way decisions are made changes… the people who make the decisions change… and the leadership style has to change. The leadership model that brought your church to where it is now won’t get the church to where you want it to go next.

So how does a leader adapt? How does he or she keep growing so they can avoid becoming their organization’s bottleneck? Let me suggest three behaviors:

Stay Teachable

Proverbs tells us bluntly that “He who hates correction is stupid.” Teach-ability is more than gathering facts. Teach-ability is letting those facts transform our character, behavior, relationships, and yes… the way we lead. The longer we lead… the harder we have to fight to stay teachable.

Stay Experimental

At my home church, our pastor often says, “Everything is an experiment.” He might not realize it… but his approach takes the pressure off! Leaders often fear making decisions or trying new things because deep down they wonder: “What if this blows up?” And the fear factor associated with trying new ways to lead, organize, and share work keeps their organization bottled up. Staying experimental allows you to try new things, and if they don’t work… oh well. Learn from it, dust yourself off, and move on.

Stay Humble

The day you discover you can’t do it all is a historic day in your leadership life. When it dawns on you that your primary role as a leader is to equip people to share the work… you loosen the bottleneck in your organization. If your organization has stagnated, resist the temptation to blame others. Humble yourself instead by looking in the mirror. Is your leadership skill growing and your style adapting? Are you learning new and better ways to lead? Are you trying new things? Are you allowing others to share both the load and the applause?

Teach-ability… experimentation… and humility. These behaviors allow you to grow… to adapt… to transition to the next level organizationally. It’s time to uncork the leadership bottleneck.