Category: Leading at Work

Leaders Communicate

The title of today’s post may seem obvious: Leaders communicate. After all, it’s impossible to lead anyone unless we communicate expectations, goals, and an understanding of what it would look like to “win” or succeed. The truth is communicating effectively isn’t easy. That’s why it’s an essential part of leadership. I once heard John Maxwell say that the difference between educators and communicators is that educators make simple things complex, while communicators make complicated things simple. With apologies to educators I have experienced the truth of Maxwell’s statement all too often in my many years of formal education. While not all communicators are leaders, unless we communicate effectively we will never be great leaders. That means we must make complicated matters as simple as possible.

I’m not saying we must “dumb things down,” making matters simplistic. I’m saying we must make matters as clear and simple as possible. Let me give you an example of what I mean through the use of a single word: utilize. Back in 1984 when I bought my first “portable” computer (It weighed 27 pounds!), a Kaypro IV+88, the word processing program had a feature, which would automatically make a document more “scholarly.” When you applied the feature it always changed the word “use” into “utilize.” There were dozens of other words this feature changed (transformed?), but have always remembered the use/utilize pair. To this day any time I hear someone say “utilize” I automatically think, “You mean ‘use.'” (There’s nothing wrong with the word utilize, but in my mind I always think of it as attempting to make something more complicated than it needs to be, so why utilize it?) What’s my point? My point is why say, “Unless we utilize our cognitive skills in order to overcome the plethora of provocations from our antagonists our endeavor will experience its demise,” when you could say, “Unless we use our minds, our competitors are going to destroy us.”? Or even, “Unless we think we’re going to lose!”

During my last year of seminary in one of my final theology classes, the professor told us that during our three years at Princeton we had learned a whole new vocabulary, one that we could use (utilize?) to ensure that no one in the churches we served would ever understand a thing we said. After all, we had paid for and studied to attain a Master of Divinity degree from one of the most prestigious seminaries in the world. Then he said, “I have always believed that if one is always speaking over everyone’s head when he or she communicates, it isn’t necessarily a sign of intelligence. You may just be a poor marksman.”

I have always remembered that statement. Our goal as leaders is to make sure that our listeners, learners, or followers are clear about what we have said. We ought not to care about how intelligent they think we are, because if they can’t understand what we’re saying it shows we’re not as smart as we think we are. When we communicate to others, the best way for them to follow us is for us to make it clear where we’re going! Our effectiveness as leaders rests in large part on our effectiveness as communicators. In order for everyone to head in the same direction, everyone needs to know that direction. As Michael Lukaszewski points out in his new book Streamline in order for everyone to be on the same page, there needs to be an actual page that communicates clearly what is expected.

Another important thing I’ve learned about communicating over the years is the less time I have to say something, the longer it takes me to prepare to say it. Anyone can be fairly clear given half an hour to say something. But if you have to say the same thing in fifteen minutes or five, it becomes much more difficult. Clarity is vital in communication and leadership, and yet we have often been led to believe that people will listen to us simply because we are leaders. Leaders can never take it for granted that others are following us. We must never assume that just because we hold a particular position that makes us leaders. We can’t assume that just because we are speaking our listeners are understanding. Particularly in American culture leadership must be earned. If we can make complicated matters as simple as possible when we communicate people will be more inclined to follow our leadership. That is as it ought to be. After all, if our business or church or organization has a mission to carry out and a vision worth pursuing, we must communicate both as clearly and effectively as possible. Otherwise, people will have to figure it out for themselves, which leads to division as they come up with their own interpretation of the mission and vision, or they will go somewhere else where the mission and vision are clear.

Here’s to leading better by communicating effectively–today!

Leaders Go First!

I once listened to a leadership podcast by Andy Stanley titled “Leaders Go First!” In the talk Andy pointed out that the leader isn’t always the smartest person in the room, or the most creative one. Often the leader is just the one who goes first. He offered the illustration of a group of children riding bicycles “off road.” The group comes to the crest of a hill, a very steep hill. Everyone looks at each other wondering, “Is it safe? Can we make it to the bottom of the hill without getting hurt? Which route would be the best?” As all these questions and more bounce through everyone’s minds, one member of the group let’s out a whoop and heads down the hill. After a ride that may have been exhilarating, terrifying or both, the rider looks back to the rest of the group from the bottom of the hill and pumps both fists in the air. That rider has just become the leader of the group! The next time a danger, challenge, or opportunity comes to the group, they will look to their leader for permission, for direction, for whether to attempt to overcome the danger, or to take on the challenge.

I’ve found Stanley’s assessment to be true time and time again in my life. I remember a time nearly four decades ago when I worked a part-time job as a carpenter. I had started working evenings and Saturdays with Nancy’s cousin Frank, who already held a full-time job as the foreman of his dad’s construction crew. They built new homes and did remodeling Monday to Friday. Frank also worked in the evenings and on Saturdays during the summer months to make extra money. He had taken me on as a third member of his “crew.” I was in my second summer of working with Frank and John. I had also started working full-time with Frank’s dad that summer during my break from college, so I had gained sufficient skills for the task that was before us on that particular Saturday morning: removing an old roof down to the rafters, replacing the rotted sheeting boards with plywood, covering it with felt (tar paper), and then laying new shingles.

The house was small, and the task of removing one half of the old roof and getting it to the point of being water tight, meaning to the point that it had plywood and felt covering it would likely only take a few hours. The challenge was the weather. As we got up on the roof that morning with mattocks in hand (The plan was simply to drive our mattocks through the old, rotted shingles and sheeting in order to remove them as quickly as possible, and then replace them with the plywood, felt and shingles.), the sky looked ominous. It was about nine in the morning. The weather forecast called for afternoon rain, but the morning would have only “scattered showers.” We knew we couldn’t get the whole roof done that Saturday. We weren’t sure we could even finish half of it completely. The goal was to get half of the roof “felted under,” meaning water tight. This would ensure that when it did rain, the house would not be damaged until we could complete the job.

The three of us stood looking up at the sky and considering what to do. The clouds to the west were gray and threatening. If felt like rain. At the same time, we knew that to do nothing would put us behind schedule, and we only worked this job on Saturdays and evenings. Frank had other work lined up for us, so delays meant frustrated potential customers, and smaller paychecks for us. The possibility existed that the rain would come before the roof was felted under, or it could miss us completely.  The roof was already leaking. That’s why the homeowner had called Frank in the first place. He had water marks on his ceilings, which meant the rain was coming through the roof and pooling in places on the ceiling. Frank had determined the sheeting was rotten by inspecting the roof from the outside–by walking on it, and from the inside–through a visual inspection from the attic. What should we do?

I drove the mattock through a section of the roof. It pulled away easily. It wasn’t going to take long to remove the old stuff. AND I had just become the leader of the group for that day! The three of us worked quickly, exposing one half of the roof to the elements. John started handing us plywood, and cutting the end pieces to fit. Frank and I nailed furiously. As we completed the plywood it started to rain softly. We quickly laid the felt, making sure it was nailed securely, and lapping the top piece over the peak of the roof to ensure that no rain could enter. We got off the roof, gathered our tools into the truck and jumped in the cab. A few minutes later we were sitting through a downpour. It rained harder and harder, but the half of the roof where we had just worked was more secure from the elements than the other half. John, who always called me “Sonny” said, “Well, Sonny. Looks like you were lucky.” Frank saw it differently. He was never one for giving compliments, but I noticed that he started relying on my opinion more when we needed to make decisions. He was still the boss, but my leadership had risen in his eyes. He started giving me more opportunities to make decisions, to lead.

It takes courage to go first. Courage is the quality of a leader that causes him or her to go first. There’s a difference between courage and recklessness. That day on the roof I took a calculated risk. I had faith in our crew. I knew we could get the roof to a point of being water tight in a couple of hours if we worked as hard as we could, and I knew we were especially motivated that morning. I knew the roof was already leaking, so even if we only got the plywood on the roof it would turn nearly as much water as the roof was currently. I also knew I would work in the rain until the roof was watertight if need be and so would Frank and John. Exercising leadership in that moment wasn’t a big risk, but going first showed confidence in myself and the team.

The next time you have a challenge before you, do you want to be the leader? Do you want to have the responsibility of stepping into the unknown and taking the risk no one else is ready to take? Remember, the difference between courage and recklessness. Courage moves people and groups to accomplish more than they would ever be able to do without it. Recklessness is likely to get someone hurt, or to cause unnecessary damage to people or property. Taking a courageous first step can sometimes lead to you or someone getting hurt, too. After all, leadership does come with those kinds of costs. The difference is when leaders exercise courage they are seeking to take the group to a new level whether of experience, expertise or accomplishment, while the reckless person is just looking for the next thrill.

Going first becomes easier over time. Through knowledge and experience we come to know the difference between courage and recklessness. We come to understand that we will nearly always regret NOT going first when opportunities come, more than we’ll regret the consequences of going first. Leaders are much more “afraid” of missing opportunities than of failing. After all when we fail, we can make adjustments, which lead to success. But when we miss an opportunity, it is often gone forever.

Here’s to leading better by going first–today!

Lifelong Learning and Leadership

Lifelong learning is to leadership what food is to our bodies. Unless we continue to learn every day, eventually our leadership becomes stale. Over time we lose our ability to lead effectively, and we certainly won’t be able to lead into the future. That’s because with the passage of time everything changes, and if we aren’t learning we won’t be changing, which means we won’t be able to lead.

I’m a Christian and the pastor of a local church that has been growing fairly rapidly for our area of the country for the past several years. We have grown from a church of less than 400 worshipers per weekend a few years ago, to one with nearly 800 today. Last fall I gathered our staff together and told them something I had heard John Maxwell say about leadership many years before: The people who got you where you are, aren’t likely going to get you where you’re going. I told everyone that if we were going to be able to continue to lead effectively into the foreseeable future in a church family that continues to grow we would need to be different leaders tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year than we were that day. In other words, we needed to keep learning so we would become different leaders ourselves.

Having served as a pastor for more than three decades now, I have learned a great deal about leadership in the church. One of the things I have learned is the best possible scenario when it comes to building a staff is to find the right people, invest your life into them, and encourage them to keep learning and growing all their lives. As they do that they will add value to your local church, and one of two things will happen for them: they will continue to grow as leaders and find fulfillment in your church, or they will continue to grow as leaders and be called to serve God’s Kingdom somewhere else. Either way it’s a win, because God’s Kingdom is served. My goal is for folks to stay at New Life for as long as they continue to be challenged in their ministries, to learn and grow, and to contribute to the equipping of God’s people for the work of ministry. Personally, I always hope that is a very long time. That’s because ministry is a more relational task than some occupations or callings. If staff come and go at a rapid rate they don’t have the opportunity to build relationships with other leaders, or with the folks of the church, and that negatively impacts the church’s health and growth.

If you’re a follower of Jesus and you’re thinking, “That doesn’t sound very spiritual,” I understand. I also believe that kind of thinking is what has often caused church leaders to rely on prayer–which we must–without expending the time necessary to learn and grow in leadership, and to do everything possible to cultivate effective leadership in our churches. While prayer is a spiritual activity that is crucial to our personal growth and development as well as to our growth and development as local churches, it is no less spiritual to develop our personal abilities and our spiritual gifts and to use them passionately in serving God’s Kingdom.

If you’re a business leader and you’re thinking this doesn’t having application to your business, I would challenge you to consider that your social awareness ability to build teams, both components of EI (emotional intelligence) are vital to the long-term health and growth of your business. It is always in a business owner’s or manager’s best interest to encourage and challenge lifelong learning in your workers. If they get so well equipped that they’re promoted or go elsewhere to pursue employment that will still be to your long-term benefit, because while they’re with you they will raise the effectiveness of your business, and the overall positivity of your business culture.

There is no down side to lifelong learning in leadership, particularly if everyone in the company, the church, or the organization is committed to it, because as President John F. Kennedy reminded us long ago: a rising tide raises all the ships. I challenge and encourage you, whatever your role in life right now, but particularly if you are the lead or senior pastor of a church, or the owner or manager of a company to make a commitment to learning every day. Incorporate it into your calendar and do it. Everyone will benefit from that commitment–everyone!

Here’s to leading better by learning something new–today!

Leading When You Don’t Feel Like It!

One of the biggest challenges to leading others is that sometimes you just don’t feel like leading. Whether it’s a moment when those you’re leading are being difficult, or you’d rather be having fun, or you have to make a tough decision, or any of a hundred other matters that you just don’t feel like going through, leading often doesn’t feel good.

Here’s the key: if we only lead when we feel like leading, we aren’t leaders! Leadership requires that we do the right thing regardless of how it feels at the moment. Mark Lutz, our Discipleship Pastor at New Life, talks about fifteen minute decisions versus fifteen year decisions. A fifteen minute decision is made based on how you’re feeling at the moment. You have a deadline coming up, but the phone rings and a friend asks, “Would you like to go to the movie tonight?” (Or the ball game, or for a bike ride, or anything that sounds like fun to you.) How do you respond? If you respond by how you feel, or how it would feel to spend the evening with your friend, which is a fifteen minute response, you may well have a fun evening, while pushing off the deadline. Maybe you can still make the deadline, or maybe you miss it. Either way your leadership takes a back seat to your feelings, and you take a step backward in your leadership, especially the effectiveness of your leadership fifteen years from now.

On the other hand, if your friend calls and you’re caught up on your leadership tasks, meaning you have some margin in your schedule, investing an evening with the friend will feel good AND it will add value to your life. Investing time and energy in developing meaningful friendships is a fifteen year decision, because fifteen years down the road you’re going to need some good friends. So, it isn’t always a black and white matter when it comes to what you do with your time at any given moment. The point is when the opportunity comes to avoid leadership by doing something that’s more fun, or that will make you feel better in the moment, how you determine what to do needs to be based on the fifteen year view, rather than the fifteen minute view.

I’ll be following up on this topic tomorrow as we talk about how important it is to schedule our time as leaders, so we know whether an “opportunity’ is actually an opportunity or a time waster that’s really a fifteen minute decision. For today let’s consider one specific time when it will always feel better in the next fifteen minutes not to do what we know we need to do as leaders: when we have to make a tough decision or face a task that we absolutely know we are going to dislike in the short-term. Some have referred to this as “eating the frog.” In other words, if you have to make a difficult decision, or you have to do something that you don’t want to do in the short-term, because it won’t feel good in the moment, that is your “frog.” So, when is the best time to eat a frog? NOW. The reason it’s now, is because it’s never going to feel good to eat the frog, and the longer we put it off, the more time we waste in thinking about having to do it. Great leaders learn to eat the frog first thing in the morning, that way the rest of the day is free to pursue the easier matters on the agenda. Once again, the morning is the best time to eat the frog if we must eat it in order to be an effective leader. Sometimes we end up eating frogs that weren’t ours to eat in the first place. Maybe we ought to have delegated the task to someone else, for whom it would have been enjoyable. Maybe it was a frog no one needed to eat in the first place.

Leadership always involves making choices, and the choices we must make when we don’t feel like eating the frog center around knowing whether it’s our frog to eat in the first place, and if it is eating it as soon as possible. That way we’ll feel better the rest of the day. I have found time and time again that the things I dread doing, are the things that make me feel the best AFTER I’ve done them. That’s why it’s so important not to lead based on our feelings, but based on prioritizing our calendars and doing the next most important thing on the agenda, whether it tastes like frog or not!

Here’s to leading better by eating your biggest frog–today! (Trust me, you’ll feel a lot better AFTER you’ve eaten it!)

Timing…

Many years ago I heard John Maxwell talk about timing as a key in whether our leadership succeeds or fails. He spoke about how the timing of a particular idea or action makes all the difference. He said that the wrong idea at the wrong time brings disaster. The wrong idea at the right time is a mistake. The right idea at the wrong time leads to non-acceptances, but the right idea at the right time leads to success. I have always remembered those four possibilities:  wrong idea-wrong time; wrong idea-right time; right idea-wrong time; and right idea-wrong time, and have lived through their reality again and again.

Thankfully, I have avoided making a ton of wrong idea-wrong time decisions over the years, but a couple come to mind, and Maxwell was 100% correct. One time I introduced contemporary worship at both of the worship services in a church that had been worshipping in a traditional style for nearly 200 years. One week we had two traditional services. The next week we had two contemporary services. It was the wrong idea at the wrong time. Talk about a disaster. I lived to regroup and move forward, but not without losing a tremendous amount of leadership credibility for a period of time. Had that been one of my first leadership decisions in that church it could have been my last. Wrong decision +Wrong time = Disaster!

I have made many wrong decisions at the right time over the years at home, at church, and in other organizations with whom I have volunteered or worked. By that I mean I had been in the leadership situation for long enough and had made enough right decisions at the right time to have developed leadership capital, which John Maxwell refers to as having “change in your pocket.” That meant the wrong decision was at the right time, because I used up some of the “change,” and still had plenty left.so did not end my leadership tenure. An example of a wrong idea at the right time in my home, was the time I decided we ought to buy a time-share vacation plan a few years after we got married. It was the wrong decision for Nancy and me, but it was at the right time, because we hadn’t yet started our family, and Nancy and I were both working. That meant we had the disposable income to pay for the time share. After a few years we realized that we were not going to be able to afford to use the time share, so we sold it for less than we paid for it.  Wrong decision + Right time = Mistake.

I have made so many right decisions at the wrong time over the years, that I could write a book about it. Since I am extremely extroverted, intuitive and spontaneous, I tend to adopt and implement new ideas quickly. I am often right about the need to adopt the new ideas. The problem is I don’t always think through the process necessary to implement the idea, or the consequences of adopting the new idea on the overall system involved, whether our family, the church I serve, or a volunteer organization of which I’m a part. For example, I have often heard about a new program for children, youth, evangelism or you name it, and I can see right away that it is going to be helpful and impact people for God’s glory. But sometimes I haven’t thought about the financial impact, or the number of volunteers needed to implement it, or its long-term sustainability. If I had a dollar for every time I have rolled out a new idea, which was a GOOD, new idea to a leadership team, or a church board, or my family and heard, “Are you crazy?” Or at least, “There’s no way! I would be a much wealthier man. Right idea + Wrong time = Non-Acceptance.

Finally, I have experienced the joy of coming up with the right idea at the right time and experienced success often enough to have been given the opportunity to continue to lead when I have made the other three types of decisions! The thing I would say that has happened over the years, as I have matured is that I have come to realize the importance of not only having the right idea, but also the right timing to implement it more and more. I have also learned that it is so much easier to come up with the right idea and the right timing collaboratively than it is on my own. One of the greatest joys of my life at work right now is working with the “Lead Team” at New Life. The Lead Team consists of four of us who are on staff at New Life. We meet every two weeks to consider what God is leading us to do in the big picture of New Life. We evaluate what we’re already doing, and consider what we need to do that we’re not doing effectively or at all right now. The biggest blessing of being part of the team is that together we come up with much better ideas AND better timing for implementation that I was ever able to do on my own. For example, New Life has been growing at a rather rapid rate for the past several years, so last year the Lead Team talked and prayed about adding a fourth worship service at some point. Various ideas were set forward, but we eventually decided to add the service on the first weekend in 2016. This gave us time to let the church family know, to promote it through our Christmas Eve worship services which are always heavily attended. We even had the time to order better chairs for the worship center. The result? Within a few weeks we were seeing an additional 150 people per week in overall worship attendance. Right idea + Right time = Success!

I hope as you consider your “great” ideas, that even when they truly are GREAT ideas, whether at home, work, in the church or in a community group of which you are a part, that you will also consider the timing. Consider when is the best time to present the idea. Consider the response folks are likely to have to it. Anticipate the objections and be ready to respond to them. Consider the timing. Is it too soon or too late to implement your idea. Sometimes we miss windows of opportunity and they don’t reopen. At other times, the window hasn’t opened yet, and it’s a bit messy to break the window in order to get it open!

Remember, that just because you’re a leader doesn’t mean that your ideas are automatically right, or that that timing is. If you have the opportunity to run the idea past a group of trusted folks whether family members, co-workers, or others whom you trust, the end result will often be better. I’m not saying never to champion an idea that no one else sees being right, but you. I’m just saying be really sure that you’re right and then do everything you can to help others see not only that the idea is right, but that now is also the time. Because Right Idea + Right Time = SUCCESS!

Here’s to leading better by implementing the right ideas at the right time – today! (or tomorrow if the timing will be better!)

Truth and Love

For all of my adult life I have pursued a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That has meant reading the Bible and considering its message as the basis for truth. Many in our day don’t believe truth exists, at least not absolute truth. The idea that absolute truth doesn’t exist is foolish, considering that the statement: There is no absolute truth is a claim of absolute truth! Of course absolute truth exists. The Law of Gravity, for example, always works. All truth claims are absolute. If I say my name is Chris Marshall either I am or I am not Chris Marshall. The statement is absolutely true or absolutely false. While we may debate about who I am, the absolute truth is I am someone, and I either am or I am not Chris Marshall.

Folks who claim no absolute truth  exists say more about their desires than about truth. Jesus Christ made many claims that I wish were not true, because my life would be easier if He hadn’t made them or if they weren’t true. For example, He claimed to be “…the way, the truth and the life..” and that “…no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (See John 14:6 in the Bible.) While it would be far easier for me and for all of us, if “all paths lead to the top of the mountain,” that is it would be easier if whatever anyone believes when it comes to philosophy and religion were true. But either what Jesus said is true or false. We can’t simply say, because I don’t want something to be true no absolute truth exists. That’s not a statement of truth. It’s wishful thinking. What we must say is, “I don’t think ‘X’ is true, but I must investigate to determine whether it is or not.”

The age of reason, the Enlightenment of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, convinced us that truth would lead us to a better world, perhaps a perfect one. In the twentieth and now the twenty-first centuries we’ve realized that such a truth claim was not true. Reason has not won the victory over violence, disease, poverty and the like. Many have abandoned the quest for truth, because it didn’t lead where we were promised it would. The truth is we abandoned the quest for truth when we limited truth to the things that can be seen, heard, tasted, touched or smelled. Science is a wonderful endeavor when used within the limits of science, but as a religion science has failed miserably. Since science can’t investigate an uncaused cause for the creation of the universe, “science” tells us one does not exist. Since science cannot investigate the occurrence of miracles, which by definition are beyond the natural, “science” tells us miracles don’t exist. The truth is “science” doesn’t tell us anything. SCIENTISTS DO! Science is invaluable when used to investigate natural phenomena, but when we use it to investigate the origin of the universe, for example, or the causes of poverty or violence, science always falls short, because these are matters beyond the scope of science.

But not beyond the scope of truth. All truth is not relative.  Absolute truth exists. As we investigate the cause of the universe, or the reasons for poverty and violence we go beyond the scope of science, but a cause exists for the creation of the universe, and causes exist for poverty and violence. These are absolute realities that have absolute causes. We must step into the realms of philosophy and faith when we seek to discover them, but discover them we can. I find it quite interesting that many of the modern atheists are so passionate about their faith. (Yes, atheism is a faith, because it’s basic premise: there is no God cannot be proven scientifically.) To claim there is no God, or no truth, because one doesn’t want there to be is quite a non-scientific approach. As one Christian apologist debating an ardent atheist has put it in summing up the atheist’s claims: There is no God and you hate Him. How does one “hate” a being who doesn’t exist? Reason tells us we cannot hate that which doesn’t exist.

My point is that as leaders, who are also Christians in the twenty-first century, you and I must hold the truth together with love as the Apostle Paul reminded us in Ephesians 4. When we speak the truth, we must speak it in love. People don’t want to hear us, because we believe in Jesus. They won’t hear us for sure when we yell or act belligerently as we offer the truth to people. In my experience as one who knows the truth, and who has been set free by it as Jesus promised I would be, when I speak the truth in love people listen. They may still scoff at my conclusions. They may discount my claims, but most will walk away with a different attitude about me than they do of many with whom they have argued, because they will have experienced the love of Jesus.

I don’t claim to speak the truth in love perfectly. None of us do. But we have the great opportunity as leaders who follow Jesus to show people that  we are not “fools” simply because we believe the truth, or because we believe truth exists. The debate between Christians and those of other religions and no religion is going to increase in our culture, because of the commonly held belief that absolute truth doesn’t exist. We won’t win the debate through reason alone, but we must not abandon reason. We must not abandon good science. We must not rely on anger or derision to put down those with whom we disagree. That is the way of the world. I’m amazed at how often people who have weak points YELL. When we speak the truth, we don’t need to yell. In fact, speaking the truth in love, requires that we remain calm in our passion. That doesn’t mean we speak in monotones or in barely audible voices. It means that our passion exudes love, not anger. It means as we speak the truth, we let the assurance of the truth compel rather than the decibel level of our words.

While I wrote this post for all of you, I have written it as a reminder most of all to myself. It’s always easier to yell, especially for me. I was brought up that way. It’s always easier to speak the truth without love, or to love without considering the truth. We have neither of those luxuries in a world that’s moving farther and farther away from both truth and love in the name of “tolerance” and “acceptance”. (I put those words in quotes, because of the way our culture has refined them both over the past decade or so. Tolerance means acceptance in our culture, but tolerance is NOT acceptance, it is a willingness to put up with another’s viewpoint. It is speaking the truth in love, rather than dumbing down the truth, or reacting out of hate. Acceptance is not agreement, but rather demonstrating love and good will to those around us, even when we disagree.)

Leadership is sorely tested in this day in which everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. When we cannot appeal to truth alone as a virtue on which to base our lives, because many around us disagree on whether truth exists, we must continue to learn and live the truth in love, because that marriage of truth and love is compelling. It will be even more so as people become more and more disagreeable and intolerant of those who contend that truth exists and exists absolutely. We will be challenged as we live the truth in love. Remember, the only one who ever did that perfectly–Jesus–was executed by those He came to save. Jesus reminded us that if the world rejected Him, it will reject us. Don’t surprised when you’re rejected, but be sure when it happens it is for speaking the truth in love. The Good News of Jesus has always been offensive to those living in darkness, living outside of the truth, but it’s the only hope of the world. We must continue to speak it and live it in love as He commanded. While it will become increasingly difficult to do so, it is the only solution to a world disconnected from God’s truth and love. As we live the truth in love we shine light, God’s light, on the darkness, and that IS our calling from Him.

Here’s to leading better by speaking the truth in love-today!

The Importance of Rest

A tired leader is an ineffective leader. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but over time when we fail to take time for rest our leadership suffers. We live in a culture that has long considered working to exhaustion, sucking it up when others won’t, and having a “git ‘er done” mentality badges of honor. I have too for much of my life. I’ve counted it as evidence that I’m a true leader when I’ve worked more hours than most of the people around me. When folks mentioned working a double shift at their factory jobs, I’ve thought, “I work 14-16 hours in a day at least once a week and have never been paid a penny of overtime, since my work as a pastor is a salaried position.”

Looking back over my life, I remember periods in my younger days when I worked more than 80 hours a week as a carpenter and as a pastor on a regular basis. I DID get a lot accomplished, AND during those times I also made some of the worst decisions of my life. Were the two connected? Definitely. Our judgment gets impaired when we lack rest. Study after study has shown that sleep deprivation, and “running on empty” contribute to on the job accidents for those who work in blue collar situations, and poor decisions regardless of what type of work we do. Nevertheless, there are those particularly in my generation (Baby Boomers) who still push and push at work considering rest a luxury that comes with retirement.

While generational studies show that Gen Xers’ and Millennials tend not to be as driven as groups as Baby Boomers, the tendency to undervalue rest and overvalue drivenness in the work place and in life is still strong. Several years ago, as I was considering “Life Management,” the overall practice of caring for the important matters of life that contribute to being healthy and growing people, I came up with seven components and the first was REST. I realized that in the very order of creation in Genesis 1, God established days as starting at night or evening. In the record of creation at the end of each day, the account reads, “There was EVENING and MORNING…” Why? Why do the days start in the evening and not in the morning?  We consider days to start when we get up and get going. We talk about “FIRST thing in the morning…” As I reflected on it, this thought came to me: What if evening comes first, because God expects us to REST before we work? What if we get up in the middle of the day, to show that God has been working all night and we join Him in His work, rather than asking Him to join us in ours?

That kind of thinking has revolutionized my approach to rest. I realized what the Bible makes clear from cover to cover: I work first and foremost to fulfill God’s plan for my life, not to demonstrate that I am a leader, or that I’m significant, or that I’m more effective than others, or for any other reason.  When I recognize my role as God’s co-worker, who works to carry out His plan for me, then I get my value more from who I am than what I do. I work just as hard as I ever have, but I’ve started to value rest. In fact, as I write these words I’m on vacation. I’ve come to realize that I need to sleep 7-8 hours each night, take an hour each day to invest time with God, a day each week away from work (what the Bible calls Sabbath) and then I need to take regular times away from work (what we call vacation, and what I’ve come to consider rest and renewal time). When I do that, my energy level for the hours I do work is higher. I focus better, and I accomplish as much in fewer hours as I did when I was always working to exhaustion. I also prioritize better. I don’t do so many things that don’t need to be done in the first place, nearly as much.

If you’re thinking, “That’s okay for an old guy, but I have to get as much done as I can while I can,” remember: God created a rhythm of rest and work in the fabric of creation for our benefit. He designed us and He knows what WORKS best for us. We work best with rest. If you want to lead effectively, and particularly if you are a leader at work, investing time to rest by sleeping enough, turning to God for a daily time with Him, stopping our work once a week and regularly throughout the year to rest, reflect, and be renewed will result in honoring God AND being more productive.

I challenge you to try it for a month if you’re one of those work ’til you drop people. It will take you a month to start to experience the benefits. If you’re on the fence after a month give it one more month. At worst, you’ll lose a few hours of work each week, and you can get back to your driven life when you want. At best, you’ll discover that you are a more effective person, worker, spouse, parent, and leader than you have been to this point. You’ll be in a position to emphasize what’s really important in your life, and in all likelihood you’ll be physically healthier too!

One final note about rest: rest is more than not working. Watching television for three hours is not resting. Playing video games all evening is not resting. Mowing your grass is not resting. Rest is sleeping, or reflecting on your life, or taking a walk with your spouse or child, and talking about what’s important to them and how they’re doing right now. It’s praying or journaling. It may even be writing a post in your blog that causes you to look back on your life and consider what’s really important. No one lying on their death bed says, “I wish I would’ve shown up at the office an extra five hours each week,” but plenty wish they had paused their work life more frequently to invest more time with loved ones, to develop their relationship with God and even in taking the time to consider what was truly important.

Here’s to leading better when it comes to leading ourselves in the area of rest–today!

The Value of Integrity

The other day I received a phone call from someone I hadn’t heard from in years. Because I was in a meeting at the time I wasn’t able to take the call, but he left a voicemail. The message was brief, and concluded with this statement, “I needed to talk with you, because you’re the only one I trust.” Wow! I haven’t had daily contact with this man for more than a decade and yet, in a time of need he called me. I was honored and humbled. I mentioned the message to Nancy and she said, “There’s no time limit on integrity. It doesn’t matter whether it’s been a couple of days or a number of years, right?”

Right. Integrity talks many years to establish. The word has a number of definitions, but in practical terms being a man or woman of integrity means that we are what we seem to be. We’re consistent. We’re trustable. The words integrity and integer are related. There’s a completeness in integrity that shows others we can be trusted when a time of need comes into their lives. While none of us is 100% whole, while those of us with the highest integrity still fall far short of perfection, the consistency in our lives establishes us as leaders to others. While it takes years to develop integrity, it is so easy to forfeit. We can lose our integrity in an instant through a momentary lapse in judgment. Then it takes years to rebuild, and for some the momentary lapse may never be forgotten. That’s why it is so important to make our decisions based on the long-term, rather than the moment.

We live in a world that seems not to care nearly as much about integrity as in bygone eras. The truth is integrity will always be valued, because when we are hurting, or suffering loss, or need wisdom, we turn to someone who has integrity if we know one. In those times we know they will listen, they will give wise advice and won’t just tell us what we want to hear. They will put our interests before their own.

The only person who had 100% integrity was Jesus Christ. It’s interesting that everyone sought Him out at one time or another to ask for help. Even Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to Jesus to ask about spiritual matters. Zacchaeus, a tax-collector, and man hated by most of the Jews, came to Jesus when he wanted to be restored as a man of integrity. A Roman centurion trusted Jesus to heal a servant, because the centurion understood Jesus’ was a man under authority and a man of great integrity.

I encourage you to build your integrity day-by-day. No one becomes a man or woman of integrity overnight. By speaking the truth in love day-by-day, by showing up when you say you will, by putting others’ needs before you own–in short by living in wholeness as Jesus would define it– we become people of integrity. The world is desperate for men and women of integrity whether in our homes, workplaces, churches or wherever, because the trials of life DO come, and in those moments, we need someone we know we can trust.

I was so honored to be that person for someone this week. I challenge and encourage you to become more and more that person with each passing day. When the phone rings, or the doorbell, or someone walks up to you at school or work and says, “I knew I could trust you. Would you be able to help me…..” it will be worth the sacrifices of time, effort, energy and prayer in your life to become a man or woman of integrity. I know it was worth it to me to be there when someone really needed a person to trust.

Here’s to leading better–today!

I’m In Charge Here!

[Note: When I write posts about leading at work, I’ll also be categorizing them as leading through the church, since I work primarily as a leader in a church.]

One of the most helpful truths I ever learned about leading at work came from John Maxwell, one of America’s gurus of leadership.  Maxwell pointed out that the true leader of any organization never has to say, “I’m in charge here.” The statement tells us something important about the person making it: he or she wants to be in charge, may even have the title of being in charge–president, pastor, director, etc… but when it comes to actual leadership the person is probably only a “positional” leader. Positional leadership, as the name suggests, has a position or title, but gains respect and a followership only because of the position. For example, when a new pastor comes to a church or a new director comes to head a department of a company she is NOT in charge the first day. She may have the title or position of leadership, but gains only the respect that comes with the title.

Maxwell contends that over time, and it needs to be over a relatively short period of time, the leader needs to move from the positional level, to the relational leadership level, and on to the productive level of leadership, or the position will be short-lived. Relational leadership comes from being liked, because of time taken to establish a relationship beyond that required to fulfill the position. Take a new pastor in a church, for example.  If he makes a point of getting to know people by name, uses personal illustrations that give his hearers an opportunity to get to know who he is, and interacts with them in the community, he will soon move to the relational level of leadership. People will know that the leader’s desire is not just to wear a position or title, but to relate with them at a personal level.

The productive level of leadership comes when the leader shows her followers that she has come to add value to them. She “produces” something that is needed. If she is the director of the department at work, she finds ways to help those with whom she works accomplish more. She finds ways to add to the bottom line, whether it’s the financial bottom line, or the attitudinal bottom line among the workers. Both those who work for her and those for whom she works gain value because of her leadership. At this level, the leader may start to be in charge, but she won’t need to tell you she is.

The next level of leadership is the reproductive level. At this level, the leader hasn’t only taken the effort to relate with others, and to produce results that matter in the church or company, he has led others to the point that they are also producing results in the lives of others. At this level of leadership the leader is leading from one person away. For example, when I started in the ministry more than thirty years ago, I served primarily as a youth pastor. After serving for a couple of years, I had equipped adults to lead the young people in our youth ministry. These adults experienced the joy of leading the young people, and I experienced the joy of watching them experience that joy. While it can be hard at first not to be the one on the “front line” any longer, the benefits of reproductive leadership are obvious. The most important benefit is we can lead so many more people through others than we can lead ourselves. At this point, a leader is “in charge,” but doesn’t need to tell anyone.

Maxwell offers one additional level of leadership, which he calls the “personhood” level. This is the level where a person has been faithful in his or her work or ministry for so long that just hearing the name causes folks to say, “Yes, THAT is a leader.” For example, Mother Teresa attained the personhood level of leadership, as has Billy Graham. Anyone who reaches this level of leadership is definitely in charge. Everyone knows it, but he or she would never need to say it.

As with every aspect of leadership, we must start where we are and take one step at a time toward the next level. There’s nothing wrong with being a positional leader, but as I’ve heard Maxwell say, if that’s the only level you attain, you won’t be a leader for long. Always be honest in your evaluation of where you are, and take the next step to becoming the leader you can be. Remember, the goal is not to “be in charge,” but to add value to those around us so that everyone benefits. As we do that we’ll move along the five levels of leadership and as we add more and more value to others, they will be more than glad to call us their leader and to recognize that we are truly a leader in their lives.

Here’s to leading better–today!