If you’re going to lead, you have to learn how to effectively deal with pain.

Capacity to handle pain is one of the factors that will determine the scope of people you can lead. You can be a great leader of 100 people but not have the pain capacity to lead 200 unless you learn to increase your threshold of pain. Here’s a few thoughts about pain’s role in your leadership.

Expect that pain is a natural part of leadership
Pain is a natural & necessary part of growth. Growth is a natural & necessary part of change. Change is a natural & necessary part of leadership. The only constant thing in life is change which means crisis & pain.

Lean into the pain
The easy thing to do then is to get desensitized to the pain over time – I mean that is our natural defense mechanism. But it is essential that we feel the pain and allow it to work brokenness & humility in the deepest parts of who we are. Only then can we learn from our pain and empathize with the pain in those around us.

Understand and increase your pain threshold
How healthy are you in an emotional & spiritual sense? Healthy people deal with pain in much more constructive ways so you need to have an accurate assessment of your health in the season you find yourself in. Dealing with pain in healthy ways (humility, brokenness, leaning into & learning from) – begins to increase our threshold for pain and your ability to lead others.

Embrace reflecting thinking
Most leaders are doers so this one can be tough. But regular time for reflective thinking is important to dealing with and healing from pain as well as increasing our threshold of pain.

One of the crucibles for being used by God in a great way is how healthy we can remain through the pain. Oswald Chambers says “Before God can use a man greatly, He must wound him deeply”.

Stay healthy my friends.