The effective leader finds a number of ways to constantly restate the goals and priorities of their mission. Read Luke 15:1-32.

Jesus was clear about His mission. According to Luke 19:10 He came “…to seek and to save what was lost”; those that were separated from God. Jesus found many ways to communicate that goal to the crowds that followed Him, His team, and the religious and political leaders. In Luke 15 Jesus reinforced His mission through three different stories about different situations; the sheep were lost naturally, the coin got lost accidentally, and the son got lost willfully. No matter what created the lost condition, Jesus came to find and help those who were separated from God.

Effective leaders know the powerful secret of being a good listener. Read Luke 2:41-52.

The Old Testament required those of the Jewish faith to go to Jerusalem each year to make special offerings at the temple and take part in the Feast of Passover. Children, including Jesus, were left behind until they reached the age of accountability. When Jesus was 12 his parents took Him with them to the Passover but when they left Jerusalem for the trip home, unknown to His parents, Jesus stayed behind. After three days of searching, His parents found Jesus in the temple courts “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.”

The effective leader understands the value and dangers of exhortation. Read Mark 6:14-29.

John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin and friend had publicly exhorted King Herod saying “It is unlawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herod’s response was to have John imprisoned. Herodias, the wife in question, responded by nursing a grudge! Ultimately, Herodias, through her daughter, got her chance to publicly exhort Herod to kill John and, socially backed into a corner before his friends, Herod had John executed. Lest we be too hard on King Herod, most leaders written about in the Bible responded unfavorably to prophetic exhortation or rebuke. How a leader responds to exhortation says a lot about their character or lack of character.

There will be times when silence is the best leadership communication tool. Read Mark 5:35-43.

Jesus’ public ministry was gathering large crowds. In fact, the crowds were so large they were physically pressing in on Him and demanding all His time and energy. After preforming a miracle, raising Jairus’ young daughter from the dead, Jesus urged those who witnessed the miracle to be silent on the issue. Jesus knew that information about this miracle would bring increased popularity, even larger crowds, and have a negative impact on His ability to freely move about the countryside.

It is critical that a leader constantly restate the organizational goals. Read Mark 4:1-20.

Jesus told a lot of parables (short simple stories intended to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson) during His communication with both His team and the general public. We discover these parables had a specific purpose when Jesus explained them to His closest teammates, but there are alternate truths that come out of these parables without destroying the original reason the story was told. In the parable of the sower Jesus talked about a sower of seed (the Word of God) and also the result when that seed landed on a certain type of soil (the hearts of the people). His point was that all may hear but not all will act upon the Word and only a few will have fruitful results from the truths they heard.