Recently, I found some notes I took from a gathering last summer I was honored to be a part of with Brian Houston and several pastors. Brian is the senior pastor of Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia, and a GREAT leader. He shared some great insight and great leadership wisdom. Check out some of the great resources available from Brian here. I had saved these notes on my computer with intentions of sharing here on the blog, and so here you go. We'll start with a few points on creating a great team that Brian shared with us from his experience.

1. As a leader of an organization, the most important thing you do is select, equip and release leaders.

2. Live and lead so that your team is an overflow of your leadership. Don’t think too much, or too little, or too often, of yourself. Can people flourish on your team, or does your personality or stature get in the way? If someone can't flourish, why would they stay?

3. There’s no such thing as forever when it comes to your team. People won’t be with you forever, so make sure you create layers of generational leadership. Be intentional about it.

4. You won't necessarily always find the right people, but you can build them into the right part of your team.

5. Big difference between a strong leader and a controlling leader. Strong is not wrong, but controlling will limit who stays with you for the long term.

6. It takes time to build a great team, and takes time to build great leaders on your team. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Avoid shortcuts.