Month: November 2016

As we continue this week’s focus on finishing strong, today we pick up the topic of finishing strong at year’s end. In another day we enter December, the final month of 2016. The end of the year is a great time to take a longer view look at how you have been doing in your life overall and in your leadership in particular. How have you been and done in 2016? Has this been a great year, a good year, a bad year, or a terrible year? Whatever your response, why have you labeled it the way you have? What does your response have to do with your overall goal and plan for finishing strong?

That’s a lot of questions, let’s pause a moment to respond, in general to them. If this has been a great year, what has made it so? In the same way if you answered it was a good year, a bad year or a terrible year why did you give that answer? Wherever we are on the continuum from great to terrible for 2016, what has that done to ensure you will finish well one day? Even if 2016 has been a terrible year, there are different kinds of terrible, right? It could have been terrible from a physical health standpoint. It could have been terrible from a relational standpoint, or a leadership standpoint. The reason or reasons we give for labeling the year as great, good, bad or terrible has a lot to do with whether we are moving toward finishing strong.

For example, let’s say it was a terrible year from the standpoint of your health. In the midst of health problems we sometimes find it easier to follow God than when all is flowing smoothly. On the other hand, if it’s been a terrible year, because you have had a number of relational blow ups that’s different. Or if you lost your job. In those cases it will be more difficult to keep your focus on God. You may even blame God for the problems you face in that case. If you’re not a person of faith, that will make it even more challenging to move forward toward finishing strong, if any of the obstacles mentioned turns your year terrible.

At the same time, whatever our year has been like, taking the time to sit down, reflect on it, and consider what we can learn from the ups and downs of the year, is a step toward finishing strong. After all, as we always say around here, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” When we stop to reflect on where we’ve been, and the results we’ve gained from how we’ve done what we’ve done, we can also make mid-course corrections so the year ahead will be more effective, and will move us toward our goal of finishing strong.

I know folks who take several days at the end of each year to evaluate every area of their lives, then to make corrections and plan for the next year. I’m not saying that you or I have to do that in order to finish strong, but I do recommend taking at least a day to sit down, evaluate the year we’ve just lived, and then assess what went right and wrong in order to move into 2017 with our eyes wide open. Then set some annual goals, and keep your eye on that overarching goal of finishing strong.

A lot of these posts emphasize the importance of self-analysis. That’s because nothing is more important in moving us forward as leaders than having a sane estimate of our own value, and moving forward based on what ever that estimate shows us. For example, if I know I do my best work in the morning and that I make bad decisions after 9:00 pm, it would make sense for me to be in bed by 9:00 am. so I can get up 5:00 fully rested and ready to attack the day, the week, the month–you get the idea.

Here’s to leading better as we move to the end of 2016, by taking the time to consider where we’ve been and where we’re going-today, or sometime in the next couple of weeks!

As we continue our focus on finishing strong, today’s installment is “Finishing Strong Today!” What I mean by that is while it’s vital to have a goal and a plan for finishing strong over the long haul, it’s also important to finish strong each day. After all, if we finish strong every day when our last day comes, we will have finished strong.

Yesterday was a project day for me. While many folks in western Pennsylvania were in the woods hunting a white-tailed buck, I was in my basement doing some wiring, some painting, and some planning for Friday’s project, which is building an entertainment center with Kenn, my younger brother. I also made a trip to Mars Lumber, where I bought some wood for the “barn doors” for the entertainment center, and my friend, K. C. Matus brought me the remaining lumber for the project, which he had purchased and cut to size for me, since he is a wood worker by trade. I decided to farm out that part of the job, because I want the project to be as close to perfect as possible, and I knew if I hired K.C. for the job it would be.

What does that have to do with finishing strong today? Quite a lot actually. I woke up with a plan for the day, and a to-do list that was as long as my arm. I know better than to make such a long to-do list, because even if I got 2/3 of it done, which would have been quite an accomplishment, it could have still felt like “failure.” Making sure I was aware of that, I tackled the list, and completed it. It took me from my six o’clock start with prayer and exercise, until 11:15 pm when I put the finishing touches on this blog post, but the list was complete. That’s finishing strong today. (Or yesterday as the case may be, but finishing strong yesterday, holds promise for finishing strong again today.)

Today is actually going to be a “normal” work day for me, so finishing strong will be different. I’ll only put three items on my to-do list, but they’ll be significant ones, and when I accomplish them, I will count that as finishing strong for the day. Am I sure I’ll do it? No, at any moment a phone call could interrupt the whole process, and the list will go out the window. That’s the life of a pastor, but it’s also the life of many leaders. We plan our work, but we can’t always work our plan. In those cases finishing strong means choosing the best tasks to do or relationships to build among many different choices.

Part of finishing strong each day is not necessarily doing many things, but doing the right and most important ones. Of course that’s  judgment call, but much of leading is making judgment calls. So what’s your plan for finishing strong today? Do you have one? If you don’t why not take ten minutes right now and ask yourself, “What would it look like to finish strong today?” Then pursue that. Taking the time daily to consider what a strong day would look like for that day and then pursue it is a sure way to finish strong most days.

I hope if you  haven’t already planned for a great finish for today, that you’ll take a little time to do it, and then live a great day and finish strong.

Here’s to leading better by finishing strong–today!

As we conclude our focus on thanksgiving, today we turn to An Attitude of Gratitude. As leaders, and really as people, each of us needs to develop a grateful attitude, because it leads to so much more positivity in our lives, and in our leadership. We’ve focused on the being thankful for the opportunity to lead, being thankful for those we lead and being thankful in all circumstances. The reason for this weeklong focus is unless we learn to be grateful as leaders, we’ll never be as effective as we can be, because gratitude enhances every person’s effectiveness.

Let me explain. If we’re not thankful that we are leaders, we’ll either assume we’re owed our positions, take our roles for granted, or perhaps assume we aren’t really capable to be leaders. When we’re grateful for our roles, we won’t let pride get in the way of our leadership. Nor will we take anything for granted, because gratitude is the opposite of taking things for granted. The additional benefit of being grateful when we’re leaders is while we won’t be overconfident, neither will we assume we don’t deserve to be leaders. Gratitude is the great motivator, and the great humbler of us all. The assumption when we’re grateful is there is someone to whom we owe thanks for who we are and what we have.

If we’re people of faith, we’ll assume that someone is God. If we’re not, we’ll credit parents, teachers, mentors, and others with our development as leaders. I give credit to God and so many others who have paved the way for may being an effective leader. If you take a moment right now to reflect on your development as a leader, to whom do you owe a debt of gratitude? Taking the time to reflect on this question, will give you a reason to be grateful.

Developing an attitude of gratitude for those who follow us assures that we will hold greater compassion for them, as well as letting them know when we are grateful for what they have done. We can’t assume they’ll know we’re grateful. We must say, “Thank you,” and show our gratitude in tangible ways. I recently made lunch for the staff at New Life, because I wanted them to know how grateful I am to serve with them, and for all they do. They were grateful themselves, because they know this is a particularly full time in our life together. That I invested the time in them, and served them in this way, meant a lot to them. When was the last time you either said, “Thank you,” or did something to show your gratitude to those you lead?

Having an attitude of gratitude means waking up each day and saying, “Thank you,” for another day. It means stopping to notice and appreciate the small blessings that happen daily. It also means finding a way to say, “Thank you,” when things don’t go well. After all, as we noted on Wednesday when we talked about being thankful in all circumstances, it doesn’t mean we’re thankful for everything that happens, but being thankful no matter what.

As you and I remember to be thankful, and have or develop an attitude of gratitude, we will become more effective as leaders, and those we lead will become grateful to serve with us. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved, and it starts with saying, “Thank you,” no matter what.

Here’s to leading better by developing and living an attitude of gratitude–today and every day to come!

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you! God’s richest blessings as you pause to reflect on all of your blessings in life. Why not take some time today, perhaps right now, to stop to say, “Thank You,” for every blessing you have in your life?

I am grateful to God for His great love shown in Jesus and His great presence through the Holy Spirit. I am grateful for Nancy, who has been beside me through wonderful and terrible circumstances for more than four decades. (We’ve been married for 37+ years, and we dated and were engaged for 4 years before that!) I’m grateful for Abby and Emmy our daughters, and for the opportunity to have reared them in the Lord’s ways. While they aren’t walking the path we mapped out for them, which is challenging for us, we love them all the more. I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve the people of New Life Christian Ministries as their lead pastor. God is doing so many amazing things through New Life, and I’m grateful to God that He has provided this opportunity for me to serve Him, through serving so many wonderful people.

I’m grateful to you who read my blog and even more so if you gain something for you leadership effectiveness through it.

Here’s to leading better, by pausing to say, “Thank You!”–today!

This Thursday we celebrate the national holiday of Thanksgiving. This week’s posts will focus on various aspects of Thanksgiving. Today let’s turn to being thankful for being leaders. Depending on your worldview, every good and perfect gift is from God. That’s my worldview. I view leadership as a gift from God. The Apostle Paul spoke of the spiritual gift of leadership in Romans 12, and we certainly find leaders who were gifted by God to do amazing things from cover to cover in the Bible. If your worldview is similar to mine, then we have a great deal for which to be thankful to God when it comes to being leaders.

That we are leaders is reason for giving thanks. Leadership is a blessing and a responsibility, a sacred trust to be used to advance the cause of our business, our church or whatever organization we lead. While your worldview may see none of that, even a purely evolutionary worldview would acknowledge that leadership is an opportunity to have greater impact on the environment. While such a worldview doesn’t really promote the idea of gratitude other than as a motivator to live more effectively, even that is worth celebrating. I’m not being facetious when I say being in a leadership role is a reason for giving thanks.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to thank the New Life Christian Ministries family for the privilege of being their lead pastor. Having served as a pastor for more than thirty-two years, I know the challenges of that leadership role. As with all leadership roles, it is often extremely difficult to serve as a pastor. Having the vast majority of those you lead, being volunteers means motivating them to follow must be much more about the vision of the ministry than anything else. After all, they aren’t receiving a paycheck, so they must be motivated more intrinsically then extrinsically.

Whatever your leadership role, think of the blessings of that role. Think of the reasons for which you give thanks that you are leading. The reasons may be more secular than spiritual, but that’s okay. What are the reasons? When we stop from time-to-time to say, “Thank you!” whether to God, or just for our circumstances, we find ourselves in a better frame of mind for our work. I’ll be talking about an attitude of gratitude on Friday, and that attitude goes a long way to providing greater satisfaction in our lives whether as leaders or as followers.

My goal today is to help us understand that whether we’re leading an organization that is extremely effective and “easy” to lead right now, or we’re going through difficulties that make it challenging to get out of bed each day, leadership is a blessing, and taking the time to say, “Thanks,” to God, or for our situation is helpful. I hope you will take time to sit down (or stand up) and reflect on the blessings of your role as a leader, and take a moment to offer thanks for those blessings. I have and it has already given me a better perspective on the tasks that lie ahead.

Here’s to leading better by taking the time to say, “Thanks” for the opportunity to lead–today!

As we conclude our week of focusing on leadership lessons from the Apostle Paul, today’s post is titled “Save Yourself First!” Paul wrote these words to the Ephesian leaders he was addressing for the last time, ²⁸“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood—over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders. Acts 20:28 (NLT) Note the order–guard yourselves and God’s people. We must guard ourselves before we can guard others. That is an essential leadership principle. If we have not guarded, protected, watched over, even saved ourselves first, we will be of no help to those we lead.

I learned that principle first as a fourteen-year-old boy taking the lifesaving merit badge at Boy Scout camp. The instructor told us, “The first rule of lifesaving is: Save yourself first! The principle is obvious when it comes to lifesaving. After all, if you drown you aren’t of much value to the person you’re attempting to save. The principle as it related to lifesaving meant an order of priority was attached to the methods of rescuing a drowning victim. At that time it was reach, throw, row, go. In other words, you would attempt to reach the victim with a rod or a pole or something that would allow you to remain on solid ground while reaching into the water. Next, you would throw a rope or a lifesaving buoy to the drowning person. The third option would be to row a boat to the person.

The last, and least likely option to use would be to go to the person, to swim out and bring the person to the pool deck or shore. It is the last option, because it’s the most likely one to lead to your own growing. I remember the instructor telling us if the drowning victim were more than half our size, it would be likely the adrenalin of their own circumstance would give the person the strength to grab you and hold you under until both of you drowned. I have always remembered that image. The instructor said, “If that’s your only option wait until the person goes under and is unconscious. Then bring him to shore.”

What does all of that have to do with leadership? Everything. If we don’t take care of ourselves first, guard our own lives personally and professionally, we will be in no condition to lead others. One of the most important aspects of our leadership is self-leadership. We’ve talked about that before, and we’ll talk about it again, because it is that important. While leading a business, a church or some other organization may not seem like rescuing a drowning victim, at times it seems exactly like that. When we have a worker who personal habits, or lack of skills is dragging her team down, or when he has a family situation that is dragging him down, we may well find ourselves in the position of the rescuer.

How we approach those situations will be determined largely by our own personal preparation, and whether we have thought through the implications of guarding ourselves first, and then reaching out to them. More than one leader has found herself in over her head, because she failed to follow the principle of saving herself first. One of the most important aspects of saving ourselves first is simply to prepare before the crisis comes. While we can’t anticipate every eventuality in the lives of our workers or volunteers, many of them are so common we can prepare for them. Anticipating what may happen, gives us the ability to reflect on what we will do when it does happen. Those moments of anticipation allow us to prepare without the panic that can ensue in the midst of a crisis.

So what do you do as a leader to guard yourself, to save yourself first? Do you have a daily regimen of study, prayer or meditation and physical care? Effective life management practices are the front life of guarding our lives. Since August, I have renewed my own daily practices of rest, prayer, physical care, building relationships, study, prioritizing my work habits and practices, and finances (The seven aspects of life management I addressed back in July). The results have been a far greater preparation for the crises of life that do come regularly. Take a moment to reflect on your own life management system. Are you guarding yourself by caring for each of these areas? Which one or ones do you need to address more effectively.

Remember, as leaders guarding our own lives first is not an option. It’s an essential part of being ready to lead effectively in the good times, and particularly in the challenging ones.

Here’s to leading better by guarding ourselves, by saving ourselves first–today!

As we continue our lessons from the Apostle Paul focus, today we turn to speaking the truth. We live in an era where many believe truth is relative. The Apostle Paul had encountered Jesus Christ in a vision and new the truth of who Jesus was. While we may debate whether that encounter really happened, for Paul it changed everything. His prior reality was Jewish teaching was true, and Jesus was a pretender. He was not the Messiah, the long-awaited deliverer of Israel, and the church was not a sect of Judaism, but a heresy that needed to be eliminated. After his meeting with Jesus, Paul became an all-in believer. He devoted the remainder of his life to teaching the truth that salvation comes through no one else, but Jesus Christ.

During his final conversation with the Ephesian church leaders, Paul made this powerful statement:  ²⁶Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, ²⁷for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Acts 20:26-27 (ESV) What Paul was saying was if anyone failed to trust Jesus as Savior and Lord, and ended up eternally dead, he was not responsible, because he had spoken the whole truth to them about God. Speaking the truth as leaders is an absolute essential to our being and becoming great leaders. All meaningful leadership is built on the foundation of truth.

While our focus may not be promoting the cause of Jesus Christ, whatever our area of leadership may be there is a body of truth that is necessary for success. In business, for example, telling the truth may cost a company sales in the short run, but over time, when a customer knows he or she can trust your word, the long-term benefit is tremendous. I am not naive enough to assume that every successful company tells the truth. I am aware enough to know Mark Twain was right when he said, “If you tell the truth you can have a short memory.” In other words, if you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said, because you don’t have to remember the first lie you told, so you can back it up with another lie.

In business, by being straight-forwardly truthful with a customer or a supplier from the beginning, we lay a foundation for the future that allows them to say, “I know I can depend on what I heard. A deadline is just that. If they say it will be ready on Thursday, it will be Thursday or before, or they will let us know why it wasn’t.” Certainly, many companies have prospered in the short-run by cutting corners, and by telling outright lies. Others have prospered over time, but as leaders we all sleep better at night when we know we have said and done our best to be truthful.

It’s interesting that even though we live in a culture that holds less and less esteem for the truth, the truth-tellers, who are humbly so, still hold far greater credibility than those who espouse the idea that truth doesn’t matter. As leaders, nothing is more important to us over time than our character. Integrity, which literally means that our lives are integrated in the sense of consistency with ourselves requires truth as its foundation. Being that I am a pastor, the foundation of truth is even more important in my life, because I hold there is truth and falsehood, that truth results in goodness over time, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, how are you doing at speaking the truth consistently? Even more basic than that, do you hold truth as a value to be lifted up, valued and lived out in your dealings with people? If the leaders don’t value truth and champion it, the organization won’t either. The Apostle Paul looked the Ephesian leaders in their eyes and reminded them he had always spoken the truth. He didn’t “shrink back” from it. That’s a tough position to hold in our world today, but it has never been an easy position to hold. As you consider your responses to these questions, how are you going to make certain you lift truth to its proper place in your leadership? Who will hold you accountable? That last question may be one for another post, but the legacy we leave as leaders will start with what we did and do with the truth.

Here’s to leading better, by speaking the truth–today, and always!

As we continue our focus on Leadership Lessons from the Apostle Paul today we turn to counting the cost. Before we can be or become effective leaders in any field we must count the cost of leadership. In Paul’s case, he was a leader in the nascent church of Jesus Christ, a dangerous role that often cost leaders their lives. Before following Jesus in that era, a person had to ask whether he or she was 100% in, because those in leadership were often arrested and even executed.

Thankfully, most of us will not have to pay that kind of cost for our leadership role, but leaders always pay a cost for being leaders. Sometimes the cost is extra time. Sometimes the cost is extra training. Always the cost is extra responsibility. To be a leader means to take on more than being a line worker, or a volunteer, or a typical employee. If we’re leaders we already know that, but sometimes we forget, and if we haven’t counted the cost on a regular basis we can become upset because we must pay the costs.

When I’m having a bad day, or when I’m feeling sorry for myself because of something that’s happened, because I’m a leader, taking a moment to remind myself that I signed up for this is helpful. After all, along with the costs of being leaders, we also experience benefits. The benefits of leadership are the subject of a post for another day, but I raise them here simply to remind us when the going gets tough, that’s part of who we are–we are the ones who signed up, got drafted, or were called to take on the tough times and situations and to lead the way through them.

So, have you counted the cost recently? Have you sat down and reminded yourself that along with the benefits of being leaders, we will always be expected to show up earlier, stay later, and address matters that others will never even have to consider? Have you remembered that being leaders is a responsibility that goes beyond the role of showing up to fulfill your quota or collect your paycheck? Being leaders is seldom easy, and it’s never without challenges. That’s why counting the cost is so important.

Here’s to being a better leader by counting the cost and living into the benefits–today!