Promises We Make
Filed under: Core Values, Family Ministry, Leadership Callling, Personal Development
We all struggle with the commitments we make either to ourselves about eating a healthier diet or to someone else about something we said we would do and simply forgot. When we want to take our commitment to the next level we start making promises.
A promise is defined as a declaration that something will or will not be done and there is assurance given and an expectation created. Promises should be reserved for the top priorities and the people we care about the most.
One promise we should all be willing to make to the people that matter is that I will carefully listen to what you have to say. As Stephen Covey said in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People we should first seek to understand the other person before we ask to be understood.
Our motives are no longer to show how smart we are, win the argument or avoid pain. We sincerely want to understand what the other person is thinking and feeling to the point we acknowledge their value as a person.
Listening involves time and a willingness to be patient until we have embraced all that the other person wanted to share. Think of at least one person in your life today that you really care about and make a promise that I will lay down my agenda for the benefit of someone else.
Are you listening?
I Incorporated
Filed under: Family Ministry, Leadership Callling, Personal Development
Many of us have some type of leadership responsibility at work. We are involved in setting goals, identifying priorities, problem solving and even casting vision. Over the years we develop a skill set that enables us to do all of these things and more.
There is a lot of culture shift taking place in the corporate world from the old days of working with one company your entire career to now almost viewing yourself as a free agent always looking for best situation.
There are many good aspects to this new reality and some that are not. This shift in expectations should never excuse us from coming to work every day and performing with excellence regardless of how long we stay in one place.
The important truth for all of us to realize is that we are The Leader and The C.E.O. of our own life. We have a responsibility to lead ourselves before we can effectively add value to other people.
We need to take this same skill set that has served us well at work and start applying the same disciplines at home.
What are the priorities and goals that you have for your life that are based on your core values?
Are they written down and do you evaluate your progress just like you would on any project at work?
Do you have a vision for where you want your personal life to be in one, two, and even five years down the road?
Someone has well said, you will be the same person five years from now that you are today except for two things, the books you read and the people you know. That is great advice for any new C.E.O. including you.
Just Don’t Do It
Filed under: Goal Setting, Leadership Callling, Life Balance, Personal Development, Physical Fitness
Just Do It is a phrase that has come to represent the cultural mentality of an entire generation of Americans. The sheer discipline that is represented in those three words has pushed many of us to do things that otherwise we would have walked away from and left undone.
In my life the major point of application is in the area of physical fitness. When it is cold and dark outside most of us do not want to jump out of bed and go for a nice run when the temperature is in the twenties and the wind is blowing. In some small but very effective way, thinking about Just Do It can make the difference between turning over and getting up.
An even bigger problem for most of us is the daily discipline of learning how to say No. Everyday all of us will have more to do than we can possibly get done. It happens at work, at home, with friends and hobbies.
The real secret to success in life is in knowing on a daily basis what to say No to and walk away. The real tragedy of life is when we look back and realize even though we have been incredibly busy we have done so many things that were really not important at all.
I don’t know about you but the Just Do It mentality has pushed me beyond my limits too many times. I do not want to waste my time, energy, passion and relationships on things that do not add value to others.
I encourage you to just pick one thing a day for a week that you can say No to so that you can have the time to find your bigger Yes.
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.
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.
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.
Growth Barriers
There are many things that can keep a church from growing and reaching its potential. The most obvious is for whatever reason God is not able to bless the work and all you are left with is human effort and nothing supernatural can happen.
The list of other real issues includes lack of resources in the areas of staffing, programming and facilities that will prevent you from reaching the next level. Oh by the way, every significant increase of 500 people creates an entirely new list of different challenges that must be addressed in all of these areas.
Sometimes the problem is that a church gets out of balance in any one of these areas to the detriment of all the others. The most obvious is over building your site and incurring too much debt that strangles everything else you are trying to accomplish.
The single most significant issue beyond the blessings of God is the constantly changing role of the pastor and the people. In most small churches the pastor does the ministry and the people run the church. For any church to reach its potential the pastor must do the leading and the people must be equipped to do the ministry.
In my experience far too many times when this ongoing transition breaks down the primary blame is placed on the people and their unwillingness to follow. The hard cold truth is the reason they are not following is there is not a leader in place that has the character and integrity to say clearly come follow me as I follow Christ.
Customer Service
Every growing business needs to generate new clients and increase market share. That is why so much money is spent on marketing to try to reach additional customers and open the front door to additional revenue.
However, I have come to believe that closing the back door and increasing retention of existing customers is the most important factor in market share. In one area marketing, we are trying to attract and add new units while customer service is seeking to retain and multiply the impact of people who are already on board.
I would move significant budget dollars away from marketing until I had a world class customer service reputation. I would have real people on the phone that will stop at nothing within reason to satisfy the problems that I am having with your products or services.
The incredible bounce factor out of outstanding customer service is not only do I retain a significant percentage of existing clients; they become the most effective sales force for my organization by talking within their network of influence to generate the new customers I need to continue to grow.
The next time someone is trying to convince you to automate your customer service or outsource it to someone who answers the phone in India forget about it. Move the personal touch to the top of your marketing plan to support your existing customers and they more than any direct retail marketing plan will help you grow your company.
The Juice is Gone
I freely acknowledge that this post is not going to be for everyone. However, if you are a growing Christian and working in the corporate world it may be exactly what you need to hear.
As we mature in our relationship with Christ we start to see things the way He does and not the way the world does. Most people at work are motivated by power, pleasure, position and pride.
Even for us as Christians we get caught up in what kind of car we drive, the clothes we wear and the houses we live in. Our success status can even be defined by where we are in the leadership ladder at church.
When we grow to the point of real spiritual brokenness we move beyond success to significance. This means that we realize that the only lasting thing that really matters at work are the people and not the profits or performance reviews.
For the first time in our lives all the things that used to be important no longer motivate us in light of eternity. We often ask ourselves a thousand years from now will this really matter. Now we have moved from Success to Significance to Surrender. The old juice is gone.
Now your career has become your calling. No, you do not need to quit your job and go to seminary because you are headed for Africa. You need to live your new Christian life right where you are with reckless abandon for the glory of God.