Think Like A Leader: 7 Mental Shifts of Highly Effective People
We tend to think leadership belongs to a very specific group of people—the confident ones, the natural speakers, the ones who seem to walk into a room already knowing where to stand. It’s an appealing story. It’s also mostly wrong. Leadership isn’t inherited, and it’s not something you grab by wanting it badly enough. It forms quietly, over time, shaped by the choices you make when no one is applauding, by the posture you take toward others, and by how willing you are to put something larger than yourself first. Leadership doesn’t show up with a title or a polished plan. It begins much closer to home—with the way you think.
Long before we’re trusted to lead anyone else, we’re already leading ourselves. We’re building habits. We’re reinforcing assumptions. We’re training our reactions. Every day, often without noticing, we’re deciding who we are becoming. Influence, then, doesn’t start with action—it follows mindset. Leadership isn’t a moment; it’s a direction. And when that direction is shaped by the example of Christ—who overturned every conventional idea of power by choosing service over status—leadership stops being about advancement and starts being about impact.
That’s where M.I.N.D.S.E.T. comes in. Not as a clever acronym or a leadership trick, but as a way of paying attention to how influence actually works in real life. It’s a lens for living leadership faithfully—one that honors God and, almost quietly, adds value to the people around us.
M — Model
Here’s the reality most leaders eventually face: people are watching you more closely than they’re listening to you. Long before your plans are evaluated, your behavior already has been. Leadership is personal in that way. It doesn’t rise or fall on ideas alone—it rises or falls on credibility. And credibility is built when your life makes sense.
Modeling leadership isn’t about getting it right every time. It’s about showing up consistently. It’s the steady alignment between what you say and what you do. When people see you prepare, keep your word, and respond to pressure with restraint instead of reaction, they begin to trust the pattern. And trust, once established, spreads quietly but powerfully.
You can’t ask people to walk a road you’re clearly avoiding yourself.
I — Invest
Some leadership work is loud. Investment is not. It happens in conversations no one sees, in time given without recognition, in patience extended when efficiency would be easier. But this quiet discipline is what separates authority from influence.
Leaders who invest don’t ask, How necessary am I? They ask, How capable are the people around me becoming? That question changes everything. The strongest leaders don’t measure success by how indispensable they’ve become, but by how capable the people around them are. It shifts leadership from self-preservation to the development of others.
The best leaders give away what they’ve learned. They invest their time, energy, and focus to teach, coach, correct, and encourage. Why? Because they understand something simple but yet powerful: people grow fastest when someone believes in them enough to prepare them to rise higher than they thought possible.
N — Navigate
Leadership begins with seeing what others can’t—or won’t—see yet. As the leader, you are the navigator—the captain of the ship. You carry the responsibility of the big picture: where we’re going, why it matters, and how today connects to tomorrow. While others focus on their piece of the work, you’re watching the horizon, looking out for an iceberg.
When a team loses direction, it’s rarely because of a lack of motivation or effort. It’s because clarity is missing. You don’t have to do everything, but you do have to know where you’re headed. And when you’re clear about where you’re headed, you give people confidence to move forward, even when the path is uncertain.
D — Decide
Every leadership role comes with an uncomfortable truth: uncertainty is unavoidable. Waiting for perfect clarity is tempting—but costly, especially when a decision needs to be made. Indecision feels safe, but it slowly drains the momentum and trust of a team. People don’t lose confidence because leaders make imperfect decisions. They lose confidence when leaders won’t decide at all.
Strong leaders prepare before they decide. They listen. They pray. They seek wisdom. But they also understand that leadership isn’t about making perfect choices—it’s about making responsible ones.
And if and when decisions don’t work out, a good leader doesn’t disappear. Instead, they own the outcome, learn from it, and move forward.
S — Serve
The world often defines leadership by power and control. Jesus Christ, however, redefined it as service. He turned leadership upside down, showing us that the deepest influence flows from humility, not authority. In His model, the greatest leaders aren’t those who stand above others, but those who lower themselves for the sake of others.
Jesus said that He “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). That single sentence dismantles our instinct for self-advancement and redirects our leadership back to human flourishing. It flips the question from, What can I get from you? to asking something far more powerful: What can I contribute to benefit you? A true leader has the mindset to serve those entrusted to them.
E — Evolve
An organization never outgrows the capacity of its leader. The standard a leader sets for themselves—the expectations they quietly live by—becomes the ceiling for everyone else. And that ceiling only rises when the leader keeps evolving, becoming someone slightly better than they were yesterday.
Effective leaders stay curious. They read. They reflect. They ask questions that are slightly uncomfortable. And when a leader keeps learning, something subtle happens—the standard quietly rises for everyone around them. Organizations grow, but only when the people leading them grow too.
T — Trust
Leadership was never supposed to be a one-person show. In fact, the moment it becomes one, things start to break down. The most effective leaders understand that influence doesn’t grow by doing more themselves—it grows by trusting others with real responsibility. When you delegate well, you’re not just doing less, you’re creating room for people to step up, take risks, and discover what they’re capable of.
And here’s the interesting part: trust has a way of coming back around. When leaders extend it, teams respond. Respect deepens. Ownership follows. Culture strengthens—not because someone mandated it, but because people feel seen and trusted. At that point, leadership stops being about control and starts to look a lot like progress.
So if you’re wondering where leadership begins, the answer is closer than you think. It begins with how you think, how you choose, and how you serve—today.
M.I.N.D.S.E.T. isn’t a formula for success; it’s a posture for life. It reminds us that leadership begins long before anyone calls us a leader and continues long after titles fade. It’s formed in private disciplines, revealed in public pressure, and ultimately measured by the people who are stronger because we were there.