Month: June 2016

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!

Leading Through Trust

On Tuesday evening while Nancy and I were at the Pittsburgh Pirates game, Manager Clint Hurdle put Tony Watson in to pitch in the 7th inning. If you are any kind of a Pirate fan, you know that has been something quite typical over the past several years. In either the 7th or 8th innings Hurdle has relied on Watson to come into games and hold leads. Watson has done that extremely well–until the last several games. In fact, over his previous three appearances Watson had been hit hard, given up a number of runs and lost a couple of the games.

So why put Watson into the game on Tuesday night with a slim two-run lead? Because Clint Hurdle trusts Tony Watson. Because good leaders base their trust on experience not feelings. Watson has proven his effectiveness over the past several years, and the past several outings are most likely an anomaly. The only way for Hurdle to know whether that was the case was to put his trust in Watson and give him the opportunity pitch again. Had Watson blown another lead, which led to another Pirates’ loss, the trust may have seemed misplaced. Thankfully, (speaking as an avid Pirates fan!) Watson came through and pitched a “clean” inning, giving up a single hit and no runs.

One of the important characteristics of leaders is they trust people. While we live in a world where it seems increasingly difficult to trust others, my experience has been when you put your trust in people, they generally give their best to show themselves worthy of that trust. I need to be clear that trusting someone doesn’t mean being gullible. It wasn’t gullibility that led Clint Hurdle to trust Tony Watson on Tuesday night, but several years of demonstrated competency. I remember the words of former President Reagan when he was asked whether we ought to trust other governments, particularly when it came to nuclear arms. He said, “Trust and verify.”

Great leaders in life practice trust with verification, not gullibility or wishful thinking. As you consider whether to trust a co-worker, an acquaintance at church, someone who serves on a community board with you or anyone in your spheres of influence, it’s always helpful to base your trust on what you know of the person’s track record. Has he or she been trustable in your experience in the past? If you don’t know the person well are you willing to demonstrate trust and then verify that it is well placed? In other words, are you willing to entrust the person with responsibility or with sensitive information and then respond based on how he handles the trust. It is never good leadership to trust blindly regardless of performance or faithfulness in a relationship. Good leadership trusts and responds according to the response of the other person.

People have asked me why I am so trusting, and why I assume people will do what they say they will do, despite the reality that sometimes people aren’t trustable. My short response is that I have found most people, probably 95%, have responded positively to my entrusting them with responsibility, sensitive information, or friendship. I’m not going to let the small percentage who have not been trustable turn me into a cynical or suspicious person. Life is far too short to always expect the worst of people.

I’ll admit when I saw Tony Watson warming up before the 7th inning the other night, I turned to Nancy and asked, “Why is Clint Hurdle putting Watson in the game?” My memory was too short, clouded by the past few days, rather than remembering the past several years. I once heard Clint Hurdle say, “You all have an opinion about what I should do in any situation, and you’re entitled to it. In that moment my opinion is the one that matters, and I make the best choice I can based on the best information I have available to me at the time.” As it turned out, Hurdle was right to trust Tony Watson, and after the 7th inning my trust was reinforced as well. I hope the next time you have the opportunity to trust or mistrust someone, you will make your decision based on the best information you have available at the time, because about 95% of the time the person will be worthy of your 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!

Leading by Serving

Today is my 59th birthday. I love baseball, so someone gave me two tickets for Nancy and I to go to the Pittsburgh Pirates game this evening to celebrate. We planned to go to the Spaghetti Warehouse for an early dinner, then take in the ballgame afterward. That sounded like a fantastic night to me, but then this morning it got even better–the Pirates announced that because their game with the New York Mets had been rained out last night, they were going to make it up as part of a “true” doubleheader. That meant they would play the first game at 4:05 and the second game would start 30 minutes after the completion of the first. Anyone with a ticket for tonight’s game would be granted admission to BOTH games for the same price. Wow! Talk about a perfect way to celebrate your birthday. I was going to have to readjust a couple of things in my day in order to make it work, and of course we’d be eating ball park hot dogs and popcorn or some other combination of really “awesome” food instead of the Spaghetti Warehouse’s cuisine, but what could be better than watching 18 innings of baseball?

Then I thought: Wait a minute.  Nancy doesn’t love baseball to start with, and now I’m going to be taking her away from her work day early in order to watch 18 innings of baseball. While that sounded great to me, I knew it wasn’t going to be anything approaching great to her. First, she would have to reorganize her whole day, and she’s a personality that likes routine and consistency. We were already going to be leaving a little early just to go to the regularly scheduled game. We would also be missing out on having dinner together, since it wouldn’t make sense to go to the Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner at 2:30 in the afternoon. Finally, 18 innings of baseball is a LOT of baseball.

When I thought about it from her perspective I realized that while it IS my birthday, I would be asking a lot of her. So, as a leader at home I decided the best course of action would be our original one: Spaghetti Warehouse late afternoon, Pirate game early evening, and then home. That way we’ll both fulfill our work commitments, we’ll get time together with just the two of us for dinner, and I’ll still get to see 10 or 11 innings of baseball! Jesus told us that the greatest among us are those who serve the most. We hear a great deal about “servant leadership” in the church and in the work place these days. The truth is servant leadership is needed everywhere, and especially in our homes. If I am going to be the best husband I can be for Nancy, thinking of what she needs and wants first is a great way of demonstrating servant leadership.

The Apostle Paul called husbands to love our wives as Jesus loved the church and gave Himself up for her. While foregoing a double header in order to put Nancy’s desires before mine is a small sacrifice, the reality is most of our sacrifices as servant leaders are small. They’re minute compared with what Jesus did for us! But by making consistent small sacrifices for our spouses servant leadership becomes a way of life for us. At the end of the day leadership is a way of life, not a single major event. The more we live as servant leaders in the small opportunities of daily life, the more we equip ourselves to lead across all the arenas of our lives.

Here’s to leading better–today!