Month: October 2016

Leadership Pipeline – 2

Yesterday was the second day of our Leadership Pipeline experience in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a long day of talks similar to TED talks on various aspects of what it means to develop a leadership pipeline. While the focus was explicitly Christian, the principles presented cross the lines of churches, business and other organizations. As one of the presenters said, “Leadership is leadership.” This has been demonstrated to be true by a secular author named Dave Ulrich in his book, Leadership Code. Ulrich contends that up to 70% of leadership is transferable across disciplines.

That mean’s an upper level manager at Target would find that 70% of his tor her leadership skills would transfer to a non-profit or to another business environment. The key is we must develop the 70% in order to have it transfer if we ever move from one environment to another. After all, as John Maxwell has pointed out for decades, no one is born a leader. While the capacity for leadership differs within each of us, we must each develop the skills of leadership in order to be the most effective leader we can be.

While the Pipeline Conference is intended to help organizations develop convictions, cultures, and constructs conducive to developing leaders from across the organization, the emphasis made on developing one’s own leadership skills is crucial. After all, whether we’re the CEO of the company, or a mid-level manager, our leadership will determine much of the success of those who report to us over time. We can facilitate the flow of the pipeline or clog it. While no one would intentionally be a pipeline “clogger,” it takes intentionality to ensure that we are developing as leaders day-by-day, rather than drifting along, or assuming that we have arrived. Leadership is a life-long journey, and while we will become more and more effective as we develop our skills and gain experience, there is always more to learn.

When was the last time you stopped to consider what role you are playing in the development of your organization’s leadership pipeline? If it’s been a while why not take some time right now to think about it. The key question to ask is, “Am I facilitating the flow of the pipeline, or contributing to clogs in it?” Based on how you respond to that question, you’ll know whether you need to continue on your current course or make some intentional corrections. We all need to be challenged to reflect on where we are in our leadership, because the busyness of our lives, can often lead us to by pass such opportunities.

If it’s been a while since you’ve read a leadership book, or listened to a leadership podcast, or attended a leadership conference, why not schedule it on your calendar, because we know that what gets scheduled is the most likely thing to get done, right? We all need to be held accountable for our growth and development, because we can’t always trust our own motivation, or inclinations to move us forward.

Here’s to leading better by examining our own role in developing the flow of our leadership pipelines–today!

Leadership Pipeline

Yesterday and Today, five of our staff are attending a “Leadership Pipeline” conference in Nashville Tennessee with Lifeway Leadership. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, a leadership pipeline is the process you use for developing people in your organization, and specifically over time to develop the leaders in your organization for greater responsibility. Yesterday included a focus on three core aspects of an organization’s worldview, which included convictions, culture and constructs.

The convictions are the values on which the organization are based. The culture is the specific environment or atmosphere in which the organization lives and operates. The constructs are the processes, policies and procedures which structure the organization. The Leadership Pipeline is a construct for leadership development. The overall premise of Lifeway when it comes to the Leadership Pipeline is: Every person needs a pathway and every organization needs a leadership pipeline. The idea is that each of us needs a pathway to our own personal leadership development, while each organization needs a pipeline that helps develop its leaders.

I appreciated the distinction between a focus on the individual as a person and the organization as a whole when it comes to leadership develop. After all, I’ve focused since the beginning of this blog on the need for us to examine our lives, and to take steps to grow and develop as leaders. Have you considered what type of pathway, if any, you provide in your organization for the people to follow in their own leadership development? What about for your own leadership development. Lifeway pointed out that in their research 92% of churches believe that leadership development is important but less than 1 in 4 actually provide a leadership pathway and pipeline.

As I reflected on that statistic, I realized that I have always had a leadership pathway for myself, at least since I’ve been an adult, but while New Life focuses on spiritual development, the specific focus on leadership development has not been as explicit as it could be. In particular, the construct for our leadership pathway and leadership pipeline have not been clearly stated or expressed on paper. As someone has noted a vision without application is a hallucination. Yesterday’s conference reminded me that our team has some work to do when it comes both to defining our leadership pathway and leadership pipeline and then communicating it clearly to others (including putting it on paper.)

Let me ask again: Do you have a clearly stated leadership pathway for yourself and your organization, and do you have a clear leadership pipeline? If not, when are you going to sit down with key leaders and consider the implications of that? Every organization owes it to its workers or adherents to help them develop their capacities and skills as leaders, as well as to provide effective leaders for today and the future. Lifeway’s conference leaders give credit to Ram Charan, a businessman, for originating the concept of the Leadership Pipeline. He has written a technical book on the process. Lifeway’s conference is intended to make the concept more accessible, particularly for those in churches and other non-profits, but the concepts apply to most organizations.

Here’s to being better letters by considering, developing and implementing a leadership pathway and leadership pipeline for your organization–in a clearly defined future, because it will take longer than today!

Saying Yes and Saying No – Part 3

Today we turn to the importance of saying no in order to become the best leaders we can be. While every yes we say creates a no, we must also at times start with no. What I mean by that is one of the simplest paths to greater productivity in our lives is to say no to things we ought not be doing in the first place. For example, several years ago, we developed a series on spiritual disciplines called Working Out! The series made the analogy that developing the disciplines of prayer, Bible study, fasting, giving and fellowship require the same type of discipline as gaining physical strength and fitness.

One of the results of that series for me was I evaluated the amount of time I spent playing video games. I have never been much of a video game player, but one of my habits was to play a game of solitaire or spider solitaire as a “reward” for accomplishing a task. When I finished writing a message, I would play a game. The problem for me was I am rather competitive and I don’t like to lose, so I would sometimes play until I won, which might take half an hour. That meant I would play a video game ten minutes or a half an hour or sometimes an hour on a daily basis. As I thought about the concept of working out, I realized: If I just stopped playing solitaire I would have more time to pray, read my Bible and do other productive things with that time. So, I said no to solitaire. If that means freeing up only ten minutes a day over two and a half years thats more than 1500 hours I’ve freed up for other things.

Wow! No is a powerful word isn’t it? When we say no to doing the things we ought not to be doing in the first place, we free up our lives for so many more yes’s. No is a word that applies in areas other than time usage. For example, back in August I said no to drinking caffeine for about the seventh time in the last five years. I tend not to do many things half-heartedly, so I drank a couple cups of coffee a day, a glass or two of iced tea, and generally a Dr. Pepper each day. I didn’t really notice it having much of an effect on me. But when I wouldn’t drink caffeine for half a day, I got a headache. If I went cold turkey from caffeine for a couple of days the headache would become intense.

I’ve been through this process a number of times as I’ve said, but in August, when I determined it was time to get serious about everything, I started with eliminating caffeine. I went through the major headaches for a couple of days, and felt lethargic. I travelled to Cambodia a couple weeks after starting the decaffeination process, which wasn’t the best thing to do, since the eleven hour time change really messed with my sleep patterns, but now that I’m about two months into it, I feel much better physically. I will say nearly every time I drink a glass of water instead of a Dr. Pepper I think about how much better a Dr. Pepper would taste. The double benefit of saying no to Dr. Pepper is eliminating a lot of high fructose corn syrup which is not at all good for us.

So, what is it that you have said no to in your life in order to be healthier, or in order to demonstrate a commitment to being a more effective leader in the various areas of your life? What do you need to say no to now or in the coming weeks in order to do so? You know I’m going to ask questions nearly every day, because the unexamined life isn’t worth living, so we must examine our lives. What one thing if you said no to in your life, would bring a positive change in your life? It could be a big thing or a small thing. I heard a lady coming out of the convenience store the other day say to her mother, “Hey, I need a couple more bucks. I didn’t realize your cigarettes were going to cost $7.00. If I smoked I’d have to get a second job.” I thought to myself, “$7.00? If you smoke 1 pack a day that’s more than $2,500 a year.” I a person said no to smoking he or she could take a 10 day mission trip to Cambodia every year. (I know most people don’t think that way, but what would you do with $2,500 a year if you are a smoker and you said no to  one pack a day?)

Why not take ten minutes right now to consider what you need to say no to in order to be or become a more effective leader than you are right now? While “Just say No!” may not have been an effective means of eliminating drug use among young Americans, it can be and is an effective means of eliminating time and money wasters, and bad habits that affect our health and well-being. While you may not think you have the discipline to follow through with your no, think of all the yes’s your no will bring and focus on them. If you follow Jesus call on Him to strengthen you by the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill your commitment to whatever you no may be. I know it isn’t easy to stick with our no’s. Trust me, I’m not on the seventh time of saying no to caffeine in the past several years, because I’m always successful at following my own advice, but the freedom I’m experiencing from headaches, and from depending on an external source for extra energy makes it easier to keep saying no all the time.

Here’s to leading better by saying no to one thing that’s getting in the way of being the best leader you can be–today!

Saying Yes and Saying No – Part 2

As I send at the end of yesterday’s post, today we’re going to look at the yes’s we need to say in our lives. While each yes we say will bring with it a corresponding no or no’s, we’re going to emphasize the necessary yes’s right now. What is the most important yes you need to make in your life right now? What is the one thing you need to do that will increase your effectiveness as a leader, or your value as an employer or employee, or your faithfulness as a spouse, parent or child? I know that’s a big question, but sometimes we need to ask ourselves big questions.

As I’ve reflected on that question over the past several couple of months now, the single most important yes I have needed to say, and I need to say it over and over again is yes to having God be first in my life. You may not believe in God. You may not believe that Jesus Christ is God, but I do. He said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the things you need will be added to you.” (See Matthew 6:33) I have known that statement since I was a child. I have believed that statement is true since I was a child. Yet, when I wake up in the morning I don’t always say yes to it. I don’t always live as if seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness is the first priority of my life.

I need to say yes to that reality, because when I do, I know what else to say yes and no to in my life. Each of us needs a frame of reference, a worldview, a culture out of which we live and move and have our being. We have many from which to choose, but I have chosen to say yes to a biblical worldview. In that worldview God is always the first yes. From that yes, I may move forward in every area of my life: the spiritual, physical, emotional, and so on. When I say yes to God I orient my calendar and checkbook accordingly. In other words, I schedule my time and spend my money with the realization that it isn’t my time and my money. It all belongs to God.

You may not believe that. I do. Therefore, my yes’s must all stem from that reality. What is your worldview? What frame of reference is your “stake in the ground,” from which you cannot be moved? Do you have one? Saying yes starts with responding to those key questions, because until we know who we are, and I would add “whose” we are, we will have a challenging time saying yes to what matters. We won’t know what matters until we have said our primal yes to whomever or whatever it is that matters most in our lives. I would contend we are all ultimately better off when God is our first yes. That is my frame of reference.

Whatever your frame of reference, in order to get the most out of life as you understand it, saying your yes’s in a way that is consistent will bring the most satisfaction, or ought to do so. The reason I say it ought to do so, is internal consistency or congruence is the best position from which to live our lives. The challenge is the biblical worldview contends it is the superior worldview and we won’t find ultimate identity, destiny or purpose in our lives until we recognize that God has created us and revealed our identity, destiny and purpose through His Son, Jesus Christ. You don’t have to believe that, but I pray you will if you don’t.

I don’t pray it because I get a reward if you do, but because you do. You will have the potential to live your yes’s in a way that matters for today and for eternity. Let me conclude this post by saying each of us will decide on our “stake in the ground.” It may be following Jesus and therefore seeking first God’s Kingdom and righteousness. It may be following a religion to bring order and purpose. It may be pursuing fame and fortune, or it may be just going with the flow.

My guess is if your purpose is to go with the flow, you won’t have just stumbled across my blog and won’t be joining us on a regular basis. If your purpose is to pursue fame and fortune, you will find much here of value when it comes to the leadership skills and pursuits that will help you attain your goals. If you are following a religious path to order and bring purpose to your life, you will find much of value here, too. But if you are open to the truth that there is one God, who created all that exists, and that He has a Son, named Jesus, who lived, died, rose again and returned to heaven from which He sent His Spirit to empower our lives on a daily basis, your yes’s will gain their greatest power.

I believe everyone ought to be challenged by choice. While I believe Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord of all, and that truth doesn’t require you or me to believe it in order for it to be true, until we believe in Him we will pursue another yes in our lives. In any case, saying yes moves us from where we are to a different place over time. The “big” yes in our lives will determine all our other yes’s, which is why I’ve invested so much time on it today. Tomorrow, we’ll consider why no is also a critical word and action for our leadership.

Here’s to leading better by anchoring ourselves in one, ultimate yes, in order to give meaning and purpose to our lives and leadership–today!

Saying Yes and Saying No – Part 1

Next weekend we are going to be launching the Yes! Initiative at New Life, the church I serve as lead pastor. The initiative will be a three year process  to increase our understanding of generosity and to commit to giving the funds necessary to construct a Children’s Nurture and Discipleship building at New Life. To coincide with that launch we’re launching a five-week message series titled: Just Say Yes! I’ve already invested much time and prayer into planning and preparing for the process and the message series. As I’ve been preparing, I’ve also been working through Michael Hyatt’s Free to Focus. Something he said in the series struck me as simple yet profound: The two most important words for increasing productivity are yes and no.

Yes and no. So many times, we focus on saying yes. Indeed, in order for us to start any new endeavor in our lives we must say yes. After all, until we make a commitment to get from where we are to where we want to be, which will mean saying yes, we will never get there. At the same time, I am realizing with Hyatt’s help that we will also need to say no. Every time we say yes to one thing we are saying no to something else. For example, if Nancy and I want to give money to the Yes! Initiative (and we do), then we will say yes to allocating funds from our income and or savings to do so. In the moment we say yes to that, we will be saying no to using those funds for any other purpose.

The importance of understanding that every yes also means at least one no cannot be overstated if we are going to be the most effective leaders possible. All too often, folks tell us we need to be positive; we need to say yes to being and doing more in our lives, if we want to be all we can be. I tend to agree with such thinking. It sounds right and it feels good. Yet we must challenge such thinking, because it can trap us into making one or more new commitments in our lives when we have neither the margin of time or money to fulfill them.

Let’s use a simple example: you want to become more physically fit. (Doesn’t nearly everyone?) What yes or yes’s will you need to say in order to do so? You may need to say yes to a new eating plan. You will probably need to say yes to a new or adjusted exercise plan. That will be a great start, but where will you get the time for your exercise plan, and what no’s will your new eating plan require? After all, we may exercise for an hour every day, but if we consume a half dozen glazed donuts afterward, we have just said no to becoming more physically fit.

When we start to think in terms of saying yes to one opportunity meaning saying no to others, we will gain a fuller understanding of how to move forward in every area of our lives and leadership. In order to start, though, we need to do what we’ve talked about from day one of this blog: examine our lives. We need to ask ourselves what do I really want to accomplish? Hopefully, we’ve already developed a life plan; we’ve already been working on life management, and we’ve already created some margin in our lives when it comes to time and money. If you haven’t done any of those things, then you can review the blog history and you’ll find posts about each of these important steps in examining our lives and leadership and then planning to become who we aspire to be.

Wherever you are right now in your life planning, life management and margin understanding the implications of saying yes and no, and particularly that anytime we say yes we are also saying no will be a giant step forward in accomplishing your goals and plans. I wanted to introduce this important idea today, and then tomorrow and the next day consider the yes’s and no’s of our lives separately, although we’ll understand that this is an artificial separation, since every time we say yes, we’re also saying no. Why not take ten minutes right now to consider the most recent yes’s and no’s you’ve said in your life and whether you considered the no’s that came with the yes’s and the yes’s that came with the no’s. (If that’s confusing, suffice it to say that every time you said yes recently you were also saying no to something, and every time you said no to one thing you were saying yes to something else.)

Here’s to leading better by understanding the implications of saying yes and no for our leadership–today!

Who Are You Mentoring?

One of the most important matters for a leader to undertake is mentoring. So who are you mentoring? Is there someone(s) you are investing in on a regular basis, sharing your wisdom and expertise, so when your run as a leader is over your leadership influence will continue? If you’re a young leader, you may not think you need to consider mentoring, because you have plenty of time. That kind of thinking is short-sighted at best, and will ensure your influence does not continue beyond your lifetime. It’s never too early to start mentoring. After all, regardless of our age, we don’t know how long we have left to lead, and mentor others, right? None of us is given a guarantee when it comes to longevity.

Over the years I have spoken with many people about the need for all of us to have an accountability partner and to mentor others. Depending on our age, we may also need to have a mentor ourselves. That way someone is investing in us, someone is holding us accountable for our leadership and growth and we are investing in someone in the next generation. Leadership is a team effort, and that not only applies to the importance of leading through teams, but the importance of investing in future generations of leaders, and investing in our own sustainability as leaders.

I realize that last paragraph covered a lot of territory, but unless we are intentional about our own growth and accountability, we may not be leaders long enough to become effective mentors for others. Each of us must invest in our own life and well-being intentionally or risk forfeiting our leadership too soon. When we are investing in our own lives and leadership, we are excellent candidates to invest in the lives of other potential leaders. After all, a good example is a great place to start when it comes to mentoring. Young leaders need role models at least as much as they need someone to give them good information. Good information is available from a plethora of sources, but faithful role models aren’t as easy to find.

You may have heard the old saw: good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions. I bring it up here, because when I say young leaders need good role models, I don’t mean perfect role models. Sometimes what we bring to the table as mentors is “experience.” We have made bad decisions, and when we mentor others we can steer them away from those, if they’ll listen. In my experience, sometimes a young leader hears our stories about what we did wrong, nods his head in agreement, and then goes out and does the very same thing we told him sidetracked us. The role of a mentor is not to dictate another’s behavior, but to inform it.

How do you choose a person to mentor? You may already have someone in mind, but have been reticent to volunteer, because it may not seem humble to do so. The person you’re considering may be in need of a mentor, and may be afraid to ask. You’re stepping forward and volunteering to mentor in that situation, may be the very thing the young leader was desiring. Or not. The person may say, “No thanks.” That’s the danger every leader has when offering to help or lead another. We need to be okay with that. Our having a desire to mentor another doesn’t always mean the other wants to be mentored. If you have considered who you would be equipped to mentor, prayed about it, and then make the ask, whether the response is a yes or a no, you have done your part.

At the same time, a young leader may come to you and ask you to be his or her mentor. In those situations, you need to consider the investment it will take in terms of your time, effort and energy before saying yes. Just as a prospective mentor may say no to us, we need to be able to say no at times. I would say the times we need to say no is when the prospective mentor is asking us more out of a personal relationship than out of a “match” when it comes to what he or she needs in a mentor. Being a mentor means different things to different people, but a mentor ought at least to have experience and expertise in the area of the prospective mentor’s chosen vocation. We also need to consider how many people we can mentor effectively given our current life season and situation.

Once you have found the younger leader to mentor, be sure to establish some ground rules around such matters as how often, what time of day and where you’ll be meeting. Flexibility may be required depending on your schedules, but the more regular and routine the relationship becomes, the more likely it is to be consistent and mutually beneficial. Remember that mentoring is more than being a friend. Be clear about that. While you may become friends, the goal is to build into the person’s life, to make them more effective leaders than they are today. Sometimes that means critiquing what they are doing. Be clear that you will never do that with the intent to hurt feelings, but sometimes that may occur.

I have mentored many young leaders over the years, and am about to enter a new mentoring relationship this week. I have found the experiences to be mutually beneficial. I must continue to learn and grow myself if I am to offer benefit to the one(s) I’m mentoring. You will experience the same thing as you invest intentionally in younger leaders if you haven’t done so before. Remember that one of the greatest blessings of being a leader is to equip the next generation of leaders to follow after you’re leadership has ended. We are all stewards of our gifts, skills, time and leadership. I hope you’ll make the commitment to mentor a younger leader if you haven’t yet done so, and that you’ll continue to be a mentor if you already are one.

Here’s to leading better by entering a mentoring relationship–today (or in the near future)!

Remember Your Roots

Yesterday, I took time to travel to my hometown of Gipsy, PA with Barry, our executive pastor. As we drove through Hillsdale, Cherry Tree, Burnside, and then Gipsy, visiting Pioneer Lake, the Burnside Campground, the Burnside Cemetery where my parents are buried, and then Alan and Shryl, a couple in Gipsy who I have known virtually all of my life, I was reminded it’s important to reflect on our roots from time to time. While not many folks live in Gipsy these days (not that many people ever lived in Gipsy) it was great to connect with Alan and Shryl and to reminisce over some of the great times we had when I was a child. Seeing Pioneer Lake reminded me of so many good times while water skiing, swimming, camping, and being with my immediate and extended family and friends.

It’s so easy to get so caught up in “now” that we don’t stop to reflect on what brought us to where we are, or to consider where we’re going. I once heard Fred Craddock say, “A person who can remember back no further than his birth is an orphan.” The statement means through our families of origin with have collective memories from our parents and grandparents of events that took place before we were born. While no one ought to become rooted in the past, obsessing over events that did or didn’t happen when we were young, taking the time to consider who we are as a result of our ancestors is a good use of time. While not all of the memories will be good ones, even negative events can be used to focus our current actions on activities that will ensure those type of events don’t happen again.

For example, while I was at Pioneer Lake I was reminded that many of my positive memories of my dad are from those days. He was a great boat driver, and when I was in my late teens I was an excellent water skier. He would often turn the boat in circles in attempts to make me fall. It was a fun game for the two of us, and when he couldn’t “win” by making me fall, he would simply cut the boat in the opposite direction, which meant the rope would go slack, and I would sink into the water. We enjoyed that time a great deal. I can still see my dad smiling and laughing as he “won.”

At the same time, I remember moments when the boat engine wouldn’t start and dad would be so angry that I wanted to leave. On one particular occasion when Kenn, my youngest brother, had invited a school teacher over to see him water ski, the boat engine failed to cooperate and my dad went berserk. I felt so bad for Kenn, but also for me. As I thought of that memory, it reminded me of how important it is not to let anger rule my life when things don’t go the way I want them to go.

Life is full of good and bad memories. As we take time to reflect on both, and learn from both, we become more effective leaders here and now. I hope you take time once in a while to reflect on your roots, where you grew up, the people who impacted your life, the role models at school, church, in community groups and in your family who have helped you become the person and leader you are. As I spoke with Alan and Shryl I realized how much of a positive impact they have had in my life, particularly Shryl. When I was seventeen and had preached at a morning worship service at church, she came up to me and said, “I think you missed your calling,” because at the time I wasn’t planning to go into the ministry. She reminded Barry of that yesterday, and I smiled and said, “I didn’t miss it, just took a couple of detours before I found it. That was an important moment.

I don’t often go to the cemetery, because my belief system reminds me my parents aren’t there, just their physical remains. Even so, as Barry and I looked at their graves, the dates of their births and deaths, and the names of my brothers and me on the back of their tombstone, I was reminded of the brevity of this life, and how important it is to make the most of the time between the starting and ending dates. Even more, I am reminded that this entire life is a dot compared with the long line of eternity that goes on after this life ends. By taking fifteen minutes to stand in that cemetery, I was reminded how important it is to live our lives for eternal gain, and not just for this life.

I encourage you to take a trip “back” to your roots in the near future, whether that means an actual road trip, or just a trip in your mind. Remember who and where you were, and the people and events who shaped you to become who you are. As you reflect on your roots, I’m sure you’ll come across some memories that will help you to live more effectively as a person and a leader now.

Here’s to becoming a better leader by reflecting on your roots–today!

Half Measures…

Every Tuesday afternoon I lead a Bible Study at a half-way house for men who are in recovery for alcohol and other drug addiction. Over the years, I have learned some of the recovery language, and one of my favorite expressions is “Half measures have availed me nothing.” The reason I find that expression so helpful is I have often majored in half measures. I have attempted to do something, but without giving it my best, without being all in as the saying goes. When we offer half measures as leaders even when we “win” we lose.

I say that because when we “win” while offering half measures, the win is hollow. Perhaps we’ve reached our production quota, or the message when well, or others are happy with our performance. The problem is we know deep inside, or maybe quite close to the surface that we could have done better, and would have done better if we had given our whole self into the effort. It’s so easy to default to half measures in life, because we have so much to do that we can’t do everything well. We can’t give full measures to everything, right?

It all depends on what everything includes. If you and I attempt to do everything, then we will certainly default to half measures, because we will become overwhelmed quite quickly. That’s why we must examine our lives and ask ourselves what is important, truly important. If we compile a list of most important activities in life it cannot contain 100 items. After all, while there may be 100 items that are important, they can’t all be most important. When we attempt to do everything we will certainly fail, and feel miserable in the process, if we are leaders. Leaders have a drive to succeed.

The challenge is when we don’t attempt to do everything we can also feel like failures, right? We think if we’re leaders, truly leaders, we will be able to do more than everyone else. But the opposite is the truth. If we are truly leaders, we will learn the handful of things that are most important and pursue them with an all in attitude. Then when we succeed, we will know that it is sustainable success.

What about all the things we can’t do, when we narrow our focus? So, we get over half measuring everything, because we’re doing a handful of things with excellence, but what about everything we’re no longer doing? Truth be told, we ought not to have been doing most of it in the first place. The other activities that are important to the success of the team, or business, or family or organization must be delegated to others on the team. Leaders sometimes have problems with letting go of activities, because we’re afraid someone else won’t do it as well as we would. (Other leaders, insecure ones, won’t let go of activities, because they’re afraid someone else will do them as well or better than we would. That’s a post for another day.)

The key is when I focus on the handful of highest leverage activities, I can give full measures to them, and I won’t be in the position of half measuring everything and feeling like a failure. Please, understand the handful of high leverage activities will include personal care, what I call Life Management, and what Michael Hyatt calls the five “R’s” (I’ve written about both in previous posts.) For example, each of us needs a certain level of exercise or physical activity to remain healthy. That takes time, but such time used is not “spent” it’s “invested.” Make sure when you sit down to consider the handful of activities to which you must give full measure effort, you include the personal as well as the professional area of your life.

Remember, if you’re consistently finding yourself half measuring your life, you can be sure in the end it will avail you nothing. Take some time today to consider what you need to emphasize and what you need to eliminate and delegate in order to become the best leader you can be.

Here’s to leading better by giving full measure to a handful of emphases–today!

Leadership and Self-Deception

While on the flight home from Cambodia about a month ago, I read a book titled Leadership and Self-Deception by the Abridger Institute. The book has been transformative in my life. The basic premise of the book is that we are all self-deceived far more often than we think and when we are we will never function effectively as leaders. The book calls being self-deceived being “in the box.” When we’re in the box, we tend to exchange the corporate results of our organization, church, business or family for the single result of self-justification. Put simply: when I am self-deceived my major objective is to justify my thinking and behavior to make me right and everyone else wrong.

Until I read the book, I didn’t realize how easy it is to betray ourselves and thus fall into self-deception. The book is presented in the format of many of Patrick Lencione’s books, with a “fable” being the basis of the book. In Leadership and Self-Deception the fable is about a man who recently took a job at a new company, and is required to go through training with “Bud.” Bud is a master of presenting the concept of self-deception, because he was once a self-deceived leader himself, and as with all of us, is still working at staying “out of the box.”

For our purposes, let’s use one of the examples Bud offered in the book to see how easy it is to betray ourselves and then to move into self-deception. Bud offered the example of a time when he and his wife had an infant. In the middle of the night, Bud woke up to the cries of the baby. His feeling was, “I ought to go take care of the baby.” But instead of acting on the feeling, Bud betrayed the feeling and waited. For what? We all know, right? He waited for his wife to wake up and take care of the baby. As he lay there pretending to be asleep and not acting on his impulse to care for his son, Bud started moving to self-betrayal. Here’s how it worked: Bud thought something like this, “I’ve been working really hard, and I have an important meeting tomorrow. I need my rest. My wife doesn’t have anything that urgent to do. In fact, she’s actually rather lazy. She’s not that great a wife, and I am a great husband and father, because I work so hard to provide for us.”

Do you see what Bud did? He inflated his own goodness and magnified his wife’s flaws. He even invented a few flaws. That’s what we do when we’re in the box. We inflate our own value and devalue others. Bud’s definition of being in the box is when we treat others as objects and not as people. The book offers explanations of how we get in the box, how we get out of the box and how we stay out of the box. While it’s a fairly quick read, I’ve gone through it twice, because it’s principles are immediately applicable. Any time I start to justify myself when I’m thinking about someone else, I ask whether I’m self-justifying in order to make myself seem better than I am. If so, I realize I’m either in the box or moving there.

After that it’s a simple–not necessarily easy–but simple process of thinking through the steps necessary to treat the person as a person and to stop the self-justifying behavior. That does two important things: 1) it gets me focusing on the true results I’m working toward instead of working toward self-justification; and 2) it gets me thinking about the person in question as a person and not as an object. I find myself checking my motivations more often than in the past, and when I’m moving toward or am already in the box, I can get out much more quickly. Indeed, I was often in the box toward folks without recognizing it all.

One more important truth from the book is that we can be out of the box toward some people and in the box toward others. It isn’t an all or nothing matter. We must relate to every person as individual people. We either value them as a people or we devalue them as objects. I would encourage you to pick up a copy of Leadership and Self-Deception or listen to it on Audible. It’s worth far more than the purchase price. If you operate from a Christian worldview as I do, you will notice that the book is not from a Christian frame of reference. What I’ve noticed is I’ve inserted the concepts of sin and grace into my application of the principles and have found the book’s theses even more helpful.

Here’s to leading better by getting out of the box–today!

Self-Leadership–Part 6: Managing Energy Through Reflection

As we start a new week, we’re finishing the series on self-leadership, as we turn to the fifth of Michael Hyatt’s five “R’s” of managing our energy. They are: Rest, Refreshment, Recreation, Relationship and Reflection. If you missed the previous five posts, you may want to read them to get the background for these posts on self-leadership as well as to understand Hyatt’s basic premise that we can’t manage time, because it’s a fixed resource, while our energy is manageable and will determine the level of our productivity over time.

Reflection is a powerful component of self-leadership. After all, the unexamined life is not worth living, as our friend Socrates reminded us millennia ago. Reflection may include many aspects. It may simply be stopping to look back over the previous week or month, and asking ourselves whether we led to the best of our ability, whether we managed our energy well, and thus were more productive than in previous weeks or months. We may ask ourselves whether we were faithful to our personal and corporate visions. Many reflection questions may be asked, and when we’re honest in our responses, we can make adjustments so we will be more effective in the present and into the future.

Another component of reflection is meditation and or prayer. While many definitions exist for both words, as I’m using them, meditation is reflecting on Scripture, or other biblical truth in order to seat those truths in our minds and wills. Prayer is communicating with God, and an important aspect of that communication is listening as well as talking. While some of you may not believe in God, or at least not the God of the Bible who reveals Himself most clearly through Jesus Christ, taking the time to meditate and pray is a significant part of reflection for those of us who are people of faith. I encourage you to consider this aspect in your self-leadership, because it is difficult to lead if we don’t have an anchor for our lives.

As leaders, we need to reflect on every aspect of our lives, the first four “R’s” offer us opportunities for reflection. Are we getting enough rest to be as effective as we can be? When it comes to refreshment, are we eating and drinking the right things? Do our bodies demonstrate that? Are we exercising and playing in appropriate amounts, neither too little nor too much? How are our significant relationships doing? Are we investing enough time in making sure they are healthy and growing? Again, the answers to these questions will help us to see where we need to make adjustments in our lives. Unless we stop to reflect, we will not be able to lead effectively and we certainly won’t be as productive as we can be over the long haul.

Self-leadership helps us understand what we need to be and do in order to be the public leaders we are called and created to be. Taking the time to care for ourselves is vital. When I was in Boy Scouts and took the lifesaving merit badge I learned the first rule of lifesaving: Save yourself first. If we aren’t healthy and growing ourselves, we won’t be able to lead others.

Here’s to leading better by taking time to reflect–today!