If you’re a leader, guess what? You’re never “off.”

That’s right. There is no “off the clock,” there’s no “off duty,” there’s no “time off” when you’re a leader.

For the past couple of months, I’ve had a group of Sr. High guys from RSM (that’s Refuge Student Ministry, our teen ministry here at FCC) that I’ve met with to talk about, study, and grow in leadership. One of the things that I hope is being communicated extremely clearly is this simple, foundational lesson in leadership: when you’re a leader, you’re always leading.

What that simply means is that people are always watching you. You might think that you can “get away” with something when no one is looking, but the truth is that someone is always looking. Your leadership doesn’t click on when you show up to RSM or FCC (or to wherever you lead; a job, school, home, church, organization, etc.).  Leadership isn’t something you can “turn on” when you come to a worship service or a Bible study or a church event. And just the same, it isn’t something you can “turn off” when you leave.

And leadership isn’t necessarily always something you choose. Often, leadership chooses you. Or to put it in better terms, God chooses you to be a leader. Sometimes just by choosing to follow Jesus, you’re choosing leadership. It isn’t a responsibility you really get to pass on, either. When people begin to view you as a leader, they’re going to watch your example and usually they’re going to follow it.

So what does this mean for you? It means you’ve got some serious responsibility. You’ve got to keep in mind that you have the ability to earn yourself a reputation for being an honest person of integrity, or for being a hypocrite and a liar. You’ve got to remind yourself frequently that people see what kind of person you are no matter where you are and when you’re there, and just like you can’t fake doing the right thing, you can’t take back doing the wrong thing. So you’ve got to walk through your day-to-day life with that understanding.

Before you stress yourself out, you need to know that everyone makes mistakes. Everyone does stupid things in leadership that they wish they could just go back and hit the “reset” button or the “delete” key. We’d love to have some kind of super-whiteout that could cover up those embarrassing blips in our lives that we’d rather not have on the record. Don’t think that one mistake will blow your chances at being a good leader forever. It does mean that you might have to work hard to make up for something, but it’s work well worth it.

What does your life look like? Would you be embarrassed if someone that looked up to you heard what kind of language you use around certain people? Would you be building a positive or a negative reputation if people saw who you were when “no one’s looking?” Take some time to think about what your life looks like when you’re not at RSM or FCC or your place of leadership. What do other people think when they see you when you’re out of the leadership spotlight?

How do you hold yourself accountable to “walking the walk?”