Pastor Derwin Gray shares three everyday, transformative leadership reflections from his own life.

God has created, designed, and placed the potential for leadership in our spiritual DNA.

Marinate on these three everyday, transformative, leadership reflections I’ve implemented in my own life.

1. Leaders ruthlessly focus on and guard their unique calling from God.

My calling is to love God, be a husband to my best friend Vicki, be Presley and Jeremiah’s papa, pastor Transformation Church, and steward my leadership potential and leadership influence.

Every day, I’m bombarded with good opportunities. However, if I said yes to all these opportunities, these “good opportunities” would pull me away from the great things God wants me to do.

Life is too short to settle for good, when God is offering great things according to the uniqueness of our calling. GOD WANTS TO DO GREAT THINGS THROUGH YOU!

And, please define great things by who God has called you to be and what He has called you to do, not in terms of who God has called someone else to be. Stop comparing yourself to others!

2. Leaders ruthlessly manage their time or they’ll constantly feel and respond to people like they never have enough time.

You will live in a perpetual state of “hurry.” You can’t do anything with excellence, in your relationships or your job, when you live a perpetual state of “hurry.” And “hurry” wears you down and wears on the people you’re around as well.

3. Leaders ruthlessly love people enough to tell them the truth, even if it hurts.

It’s better to hurt someone into greatness than to harm them long-term by allowing them to remain in mediocrity.

I thank God for my high school defensive back coach, Mike Sullivan, who “hurt” me when he said, “Dewey, you won’t play for me if you don’t plan on being great. I will not allow you to settle for being average or just good. You can be great, if you’re willing to give me everything you have!”

That conversation hurt–bad.

But that conversation healed me and produced greatness in me. Thanks for “hurting” me Coach Sullivan! You hurt me all the way to the NFL!