One Day At Time
The Christian life at times can be extremely complicated. We all suffer from the consequences of our bad decisions but sometimes we suffer not because we have done something wrong but as a testimony to the world that God’s grace is indeed sufficient.
I have learned the hard way over the years that the only way to work your way out of one of these black holes of the soul is to discipline yourself to live one day at a time. When you do not know why things have happened and how it is all going to work out it comes down to what can I do right now.
The first practical step in this process is to experience forgiveness for the past. We must first receive it for what we have done wrong and then give it to others who have hurt us and caused pain. We should learn from the past but we cannot live in it.
The second step is to have faith for the future. God is able and He is good so you can rest in the fact that He will meet our needs. All worry and fear will do is to rob us of the spiritual energy we need to live today.
The last and probably most important truth is to embrace His promise of grace for today. Every new day comes with the necessary spiritual power to deal with whatever happens within that twenty-four hour period of time.
If we do not waste that power on unforgiveness for the past or fear of the future then we will be able to live today with eternal perspective. That perspective is that no matter what happens to me in this life that may hurt deeply at the time we win in the end.
Generational Leadership
As a follow up on the last posting about Situational Leadership I want to make an observation. I recently spoke at national conference on the subject of Leadership for 21st Century. The major point of the presentation was the need to shift from a positional leadership model to a participative one.
The feedback after both of my sessions confirmed everything I have been reading on this subject. There is very little honest and clear communication taking place between key leaders and their teams on an ongoing basis.
The challenge for most corporations today is that the majority of senior management positions are filled by baby boomer age leaders who know nothing but a positional model. They were trained that way academically and that is the only system that has been a part of their entire career.
The new workforce is made up of generation x employees that have an entirely different world view that impacts how they view their career. They are highly motivated and want to be a part of interactive team where they can actively be a part of the process.
If we do not provide the critical situational leadership skills that both generations need then we are creating unnecessary leadership cultural wars that destroy moral and diminish productivity. The result of any lack of relevant training is that the older generation think the younger are too aggressive and the younger are convinced that the old guard will simply not let go and delegate.
Personnel Qualifications
When hiring any new employee you can ultimately place all of the criteria you are evaluating into the two major categories of character and competency. In the old days of the Industrial Age model of hiring the priority was given to job competency over personal character.
The process was started with a specific job description and then you would try to find a person with an educational and experience background that matched that job assignment. Their character was a factor but just not the main one.
In the new Information Age character has now clearly moved to the top of the list. Today you find the right person that will be a good fit for your team and over time you know they will find their right seat on the bus.
Jack Welch had three major things he was looking for at General Electric with all new executives. Two of these criteria related to character and only one to competency.
The first test was integrity because he wanted to know they would keep their word and tell the truth.
The second test was for intelligence because it takes smart people to compete in today’s complex global economy.
The third test was for personal maturity which means they can handle the stress and setbacks with equal parts of joy and humility.
The major reason for this significant shift in hiring priorities is that people now have to know how to work well in a highly participative environment. In this culture the mutual goals of the group are the target and not just personal success.
Everyone must have the mindset that what matters is that we succeed regardless of who gets the credit. Competency will always play a part in the hiring decision but today personal character clearly separates the winners from the losers.
Conflict Management
Filed under: Leadership Callling, Personnel Development, Servant Leader
At times we all have difficulty working with other people especially in stress charged environments. It is very easy especially as leader to fall into the bad habit of making negative comments about people especially when they are not present.
This type of conflict resolution will do nothing but add to the problem and ultimately destroy your leadership credibility. When anyone hears you making destructive comments about another person who is not there, they too realize that one day they will not be there either.
The principle that I have adopted is that if I have something negative to say to another person I will go directly to them and talk about it privately. If it is not a big enough deal for me to go and talk privately then it should not be a big enough deal to talk with others.
This one discipline has eliminated at least seventy-five percent of my need to make negative comments to other people and almost completely stopped the destructive habit of public personal criticism of others. Now when I do need to talk with someone about a real performance issue my motives are right and my methods are positive.
Called vs. Driven
Filed under: Core Values, Leadership Callling, Life Balance, Personal Development, Servant Leader
It is very important that we all know the difference between these two power words. If you are not careful and buy into the media’s definition of success you will be driven to get all the perks of this lifestyle.
Driven people see their career as the primary provider of their physical and emotional needs. It gives them power, possessions, position, pleasure and all the emotional significance they want from all the outward success they achieve.
Called people on the other hand see their career as a means to a much more important end and that is impacting other people. They get up every day on a mission to make a difference and the bottom line for them is not profits but people.
I am convinced that called people in the marketplace can be more successful in every way than their driven counterparts. They have a passion that goes way beyond just showing up for work and hitting the numbers.
All of us have a strong desire to look back at the end of our lives and know that we have made a real difference. That difference will not be who has the most toys but who has helped the most people.
Character Matters
I have hired a lot of people over the years from working in the corporate world to being involved with several different large churches. I ultimately take all of the factors involved and put them into one of two categories, character or competency.
Competency is the possession of the skill set, experience or aptitude to do a particular job with excellence. This can be accessed through a variety of performance evaluation tools and talking with references.
Character is the sum total of the moral and ethical qualities of an individual that is based on their core beliefs about life. This takes quite a bit longer to evaluate and many times references will give you only one side of the story.
I make sure I am able to spend a lot of informal time with the person so that I can eventually move beyond the interview script and hear their heart. I also never hire a key person without meeting their spouse.
The priority of evaluating this part of the person must take first place over all other qualifications. As a matter of fact, character has moved to the top of the list in the corporate world.
The first test in hiring anyone at General Electric under the leadership of Jack Welch was the character quality of integrity. He wrote, “people with integrity tell the truth and they keep their word. They take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes, and fix them.”
Someone has well said, your ability may help get you to the top but it will be your character that will keep you there.
Core Values
If you are going to accomplish anything important in life then you must identify your core values that will determine all of your priorities and goals for your personal life or the organization you lead. If you are a church then here are some values that you might consider.
Authentic—We believe the role of the church is to help represent the biblical truth about God to the world.
Relevant—That truth is to be shared so that people can apply it every day in their real world
Significance—Every person is important and we want them to find value and meaning in life through a relationship with Jesus Christ
Transformation—We want to help everyone grow in that relationship with Christ so they can reach their own unique potential
Community—Connecting with other people in genuine relationships is where personal fulfillment is found
Involvement—Moving beyond ourselves and serving others is what produces lasting contentment
Missional—Every day we can change the world one person at a time through meeting their needs and sharing our story about what Christ has done in our lives
Supply vs. Demand
We all know the basic principles involved in this economic formula and how it affects price. I was recently exposed to a piece of this equation that I had not experienced before.
Last week I returned from a business trip from Phoenix with a stop in Atlanta with a lot of thunderstorms in the area. When I walked into the terminal I knew there were major problems because there were twice as many people there as should be this late in the day.
After checking the departing flight board three times my flight to Birmingham had been delayed to 11:45 p.m. which translated to me that it would probably be canceled. So I decided with seemingly thousands of other people to go and rent a car to drive instead.
It was obvious that demand was out the roof by the number of people trying to get cars. When I finally got mine the rate was extremely high for a compact with no room for negotiation. I wrote if off to supply and demand economics.
When I entered the Hertz lot I was shocked to see hundreds of available cars on the lot. I had experienced for the first time that at least I was aware of the economics of high demand and high supply.
When any company takes advantage of a high demand situation by artificially driving up prices they are digging their own graves. One day the pendulum will swing and the demand will be low and everyone will remember the day Hertz placed greed above customer service.
Charge a reasonable price with world class service and your organization will be able to weather any storm and thrive when others are failing all around you. If you want people to stick with you during your hard times you had better treat them well when they are in the midst of theirs.
Sweat the Small Stuff
We all love the great Bible story of David killing the giant Goliath. There are many incredible truths in the several chapters that are dedicated to this event.
The most significant one for me is that if we take care of the seemingly little responsibilities in our lives God has a way of taking care of the major ones. The reason David had no fear of this monster of a man is because with God’s help he had already killed a lion and a bear.
All major public victories that everyone sees are preceded by the smaller private ones when no one is watching. The other side of the same truth is sadly all major public failures occur because of a series of small compromises that seemed so unimportant at the time.
If you don’t think this is true just ask Eliot Spitzer or John Edwards and they will be glad to share with you how quickly this can happen. How could these highly intelligent, powerful and dynamic leaders let this happen to themselves and most of all to their families? Someone has well said an unguarded strength is a double weakness.
Sweat the small stuff and the big stuff will take care of itself.