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In this episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, as part of a two-part teaching, Doug Smith shares his top lessons in learned in 2020.

Key Take-Aways From Episode 270.

1. Life is Hard, Don’t Quit 

Doug shares 5 Truths: You are going to die, Life is hard, You are not that important, You are not in control, Your life is not about you -  You must experience your own powerlessness before a true spiritual journey can begin. 

2. Learn to Rest and Recover...or you’ll be forced to. 

"Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life." -Dallas Willard 

"If you don’t have plenty of time to do what I called you to do, you’re wasting time." -Keith Moore 

"The world aches for the generosity of a well-rested people." -Wayne Muller 

"Rest is an act of faith." -Dallas Willard 

3. Doug shares what God taught him most in 2020. 

“Doug, what if you’d knew it’d all happen. You know it will. Think back to all the stress you put on yourself trying to make it happen. You can’t make anything happen. Let me surprise and delight you Let me make it happen. Rest.”  -God

4. Doug shares his Top Leadership Lessons in 2020: 

a. Leadership does suck! 

• "Those who wish to become CEO’s, be careful what you wish for. It takes your life to be devoted to the company's life. In the end, work is just dust." -Joel Manby 
• There are no two easy consecutive days in a leader's life. 

b. Always Ask Who not How! 

• "If there are things before you that aren’t getting done, consider then that it may be someone else’s assignment!" -Rick Wellock 

c. Leading Teams: 

• "If you find yourself angry at your team, it’s likely not them that you are mad at, it’s you being mad at your inability to lead them." -Carey Neiwhof 
• Doug shares his journey from pleasing people to leading People
• I’ll always love people, but I’d never depend on their love. Your relational gifting won’t get you through all the time. 

d. Managing/Firing:
You may not understand, when you move into leadership, you will. It’s the most painful part of leadership. Leaders are willing to do what others are not.  

• "The moment you feel like you have to manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake. "-Jim Collins 
• Dealing with underperforming people:
• Lessons from letting people go.

Quotes 

“When things go wrong, when obstacles seem too great, when the difficulties get to be too much, when your dream seems to be impossibly far away, your job is to simply keep going.” -John Maxwell

I’ve never had a senior leader that has fired someone regret it. Their only regret is they should have done it sooner. - Sam Chand 

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. -Henry Thoreau

If you have no joy, there’s a lack in your Christianity somewhere. -Billy Sunday 

Links:

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan

Top Lessons Learned in 2019