This is a guest post from Scott Couchenour. Scott is passionate about the health of ministers and leaders and has one simple mission, to make your mission less burnout. You can find more information at servingstrong.com where Scott provides useful content and dynamic coaching. Also follow Scott on twitter @servingstrong.

Park between the sign and the intersection and you risk receiving a ticket on your windshield. Pack your day so full you can’t possibly get it all done and you risk burnout.
Simple. The road sign provides margin for safe traffic.
Using time wisely provides margin for effective ministry leadership.

We all agree – it’s impossible to fit 9 pounds of anything in a 6-pound bag. Doesn’t matter how hard we try to stuff it all in. Why? Because we live in a finite world. Only so much time in our day. Only so much energy in our being. We need daily margin.
But how do we build margin into our daily routine?

From Hundreds… Place every task into ONE SINGLE LIST. The minute you have more than one place to look, your mind spends energy trying to keep up. This is energy you can’t afford to lose. Knowing it’s all in one place frees mindspace for being present in the moment. This goes for one single calendar as well.

…To A Few… Prayerfully prioritize. Ask for God’s wisdom as you scan your master list. Allow Him to lead you to the important few among the trivial many. Lift those key items out of your master list and place them on a weekly planner.

…To Three… Plan no more than 3 tasks per day. I know what you’re thinking, “Only three? You must have it made.“ But here’s the deal: when you put a dozen tasks on your list for the day (knowing full well you will never get it all done) you put your head on the pillow at night in a defeated mindset – not a good thing to sleep on.  The key benefit of 3 tasks is this: If you get all 3 completed, you can borrow from tomorrow’s 3. Then, at the end of the day you feel ahead of the game.

The truth about time is that interruptions will happen. It’s not a matter of “if”. It’s a matter of “how many”. A phone call, a bunch of email messages, a family’s crisis, a broken kitchen sink pipe… we never know what the day holds. Be realistic and learn to never “park too close to the intersection.”

Serious about building margin into your leadership? Here are some additional resources:

Margin (Dr. Richard Swenson)

The Big Rocks (Steven Covey)

10 Ways To Create Margin Time (Ron Edmondson)

James waits to get out of bed until the second snooze alarm sounds, his way of preparing to get out of bed.

Jason sees Tracy coming down the hall at church.  Jason jumps into the bathroom before Tracy sees him.  ”Whew”, Jason sighs, another close call.

For Gerry, paying personal bills twice a month is difficult.  After paying a late bill she asked herself, “Why do I wait so long to write the check and mail the envelope?”

Putting off, avoidance or even waiting are descriptions of resistance.  Commonly known as “procrastination”, resistance is generally an internal struggle, often a emotional and mental battle.  How do you fair with your internal resistance?

Anxious, worried and even fearful feelings about people and situations, often affect our thinking and behaviors.  In fact, these uncomfortable feelings generally cause us to make impulsive decisions about awkward situations.

What can be done to rescue yourself from resistance?  Here’s a few ideas:

1.  Remember a time when you were disappointed by giving into your emotional resistance.  How did your procrastination affect you?  Others?

2.  How do you want the next awkward situation to be different?  Write the specific difference down on paper.

3.  Write down what you are willing to do to make the situation different.

4.  What are you willing to give up to be different?

Here are some examples below:

Abby found herself remembering a time last week when she did not know what to do about a noise her car was making when driving down the highway.  She ignored it, hoped it would go away.  Later that week, her care made the same engine noise again causing her to worry about how she can not afford to pay a car repair.  Today, she decided to schedule an appointment with an auto repair shop cause she does not want to pay for tow truck costs if her car breaks down.  Abby had to give up her anxious feelings, face the uncomfortable call to the auto repair shop and take time off of work to get her car fixed.

Ryan arrived too late to visit Mr. Jones at the hospital, since he was discharged about an hour before Ryan came to visit.  Ryan thought visiting Mr. Jones before he went home for the day would be a good idea, though not this time.  Ryan felt disappointed, missing an opportunity to see Mr. Jones at the hospital though a little relieved, since making hospital visits is not easy due to difficulties finding the right room and the smell is pretty bad.  On his way home, Ryan felt convicted of the importance of caring for people who are sick, as Jesus did.  He considered making hospital visits a priority in his schedule by putting a note in his calendar the morning of his hospital visits.  Ryan realized, giving an hour or two to visit hospitalized, church members may require him to come into the office a little earlier that day.

Sounds simple?  What’s holding you back?

Uncertain times and uncertain future often causes stress on pastors and ministry leaders.  With the economic downturn, church members feeling stressed by increased demands at work and new budget cutbacks at church are often stressful.

Leaders voice their concerns in private and sometimes in their office.  Here’s what some are saying:

“I feel like I am walking on pins and needles around some of our staff.”

“How can I plan an event this year when half of my 2010 events were not well attended or attendees were jut unenthusiastic.”

“Sometimes I begin to spiral downward when I think about our decrease in attendance and offerings.”

A feeling of uncertainty, in most people, causes an uncomfortable, emotional disturbance that leads us to react both frustrated and/or anxious at times.  While reading this post you may not feel the stress or pressure, though consider a tense moment with someone you experienced at church last month or a criticism by someone that is hard to let go.  What about a moment of reflection you had driving home from church office that left you worked?  If you have felt this way towards the end of 2010, you may still have residual stressful tension in 2011.

Ministry leaders often find success when they are able to adjust to both low and high tides.  Life is uncertain and church members, like sheep are fickle and wanting life to happen on their own terms.  Making ministry adjustments are critical to riding out the church ocean tide.  We all know about adjustments in ministry, though what about emotional and mental health adjustments?

For those who want to move beyond wishful thinking to what can I do to be different this year, here are just a few responses from veteran ministry leaders who are surviving the emotional and mental low tides.

“I find refreshing myself with God’s Word for confidence and a pointed Scripture stuck on my computer monitor as a reminder to put life into the right perspective”.

“Realizing I am not alone is big for me.  That’s why I have been calling friends in the ministry to help me get a positive perspective on 2011.”

“When I come back from time off or a holiday break, I feel fresh and motivated to handle more of the difficult challenges.  That’s when I schedule one a day and then find support from my spouse.”

“While in the midst of tense meetings or challenging e-mails, I ask God for help to listen, not react.  I find a few deep breaths, saying my responses in my head before saying them out loud is critical for me.  Then I can choose what is a helpful way to respond.”

What’s your response to handling low tides?  What do you plan to do to have a positive outlook for 2011?

Alexander the Great believed that the strength of an army depended on the heart of its leader. “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep,” he said. “I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”  I can’t be sure exactly what Alexander had in mind, but I can think of two characteristics of the lion leader that can make or break a team, regardless of the makeup of the team members.

When God called Joshua to leadership he gave him a brief training session in these two characteristics: “Be strong and courageous!”

A leader’s strength of heart, that is, his integrity, his tenacity and perseverance instills confidence among his team members.

A leader’s courage of heart to take a risk for something valuable, to love without conditions, to confront his enemies without showing intimidation, gives hope and security to his team.

The lion leader protects his own and assures them that he will drive the organization with strength and courage.

Written by Mark Reed, MC contributor

Admiral Hyman Rickover reportedly told his leaders, “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” When trying to direct a team it’s easy to get caught up in day-to-day events, because that’s what the team deals with every day and that’s what they report to you. It’s even easier to become distracted by people problems, by personality differences, and by gossip. Those are the things managers and supervisors wrestle with all day long.

When leaders focus on personalities or even on day-to-day events, we call them micro-managers.   The macro-manager, the big-picture leader, the visionary leader guards his conversations and his meeting agendas from digressing into the smaller things of events and people. In his own to-do list he concentrates on concepts and ideas that shape and guide the organization. In his conversations with team members he conveys vision and principles, expecting each member to apply the principles according to their training and skill.
What principles will you convey to your team to guide them this year?  In the next five years?

Mark Reed, contributor

Are you the kind of leader known for doing things right and often doing them yourself to make sure they get done right?  We look up to those leaders who believe in themselves, who exude solid self-confidence, as long as they’re not arrogant or egotistical.  But leaders cross over into greatness when they believe in other people.

Think about the confidence Jesus placed in his disciples.  A few months of training—without books or podcasts—and he sent them out in pairs to start preaching and healing. A few years of mentoring and he left them to do the work he initiated. He called spineless Peter “The Rock” and told his greatest enemy Saul, “You work for me now.”

The hardest thing I’ve had to do in leadership is to let go of some tasks and guide others in accomplishing them. It’s that feeling of watching a computer user fumble through a program, while I fight the urge to grab the mouse and rumble my fingers across the keyboard.  With time and patience, people can be trained. I’m not the only one who can get a job done right. Successful delegation and empowerment begin with belief in the capabilities of others.

Posted by Mark Reed, contributor

We know that decisiveness distinguishes the strong leader. The decisive leader knows where he’s going (vision) and what path to take to get there (guidance). Decisive leaders make followers feel secure, because they know someone knows the way and has a lantern to light the dark path.

That desire for security attracts followers to demanding personalities and dictators. But dictators and wannabe leaders who make decisions in a vacuum enjoy only temporary success, eventually imploding or suffering a coup.

While directing is an important role of leadership, the way a leader directs distinguishes the character and success of his leadership. Jim Womack, lean-manufacturing guru, suggests that CEOs “ought to be asking questions rather than giving answers, and they ought to be looking at things that don’t understand rather than things they do.”

The leader who seeks varying opinions, consults those who question him, and listens to those who disagree with him, will solidify his own decision.  He gathers information, he examines alternative courses, he evaluates and synthesizes what he discovers so that he can guide without hesitation.  If you wish to give a wise answer, ask many questions.

Posted by Mark Reed, contributor

What is a healthy leader?  If you saw one, what would he or she look like?  Sound like?