Blog-Generated | Coaching Churches

Core Values For The Church

Posted by on January 6, 2017

If you are going to accomplish anything important in life then you must identify your core values that will determine all of your priorities and goals for your personal life or the organization you lead. If you are a church then here are some values that you might consider.

Authentic—We believe the role of the church is to help represent the biblical truth about God to the world.

Relevant—That truth is to be shared so that people can apply it every day in their real world

Significance—Every person is important and we want them to find value and meaning in life through a relationship with Jesus Christ

Transformation—We want to help everyone grow in that relationship with Christ so they can reach their own unique potential

Community—Connecting with other people in genuine relationships is where personal fulfillment is found

Involvement—Moving beyond ourselves and serving others is what produces lasting contentment

Missional—Every day we can change the world one person at a time through meeting their needs and sharing our story about what Christ has done in our lives

Categories: Pastoral Leadership | Comments Off on Core Values For The Church

6 Roles Of Short Term Wins

Posted by on January 6, 2017

One of the major mistakes we make in major change initiatives is that we oversell the long term goal at the expense of dealing with the short term problems. People do want to know where they are going but they want to know even more what does all this mean for me right now?

Once the new change plan has been implemented it is critical for everyone involved to experience the benefits of short term wins so they can stay motivated for the future and the change that is yet to come. John Kotter list several roles that short term wins play:

Provide evidence that sacrifices are worth it: Wins greatly help justify the short term cost involved.
Reward change agents: After a lot of hard work, positive feedback builds morale and motivation.
Help fine-tune vision and strategies: Short term wins give the guiding coalition concrete data on the viability of their ideas.
Undermine cynics and self-serving resisters: Clear improvements in performance make it difficult for people to block needed change.
Keep bosses on board: Provides those higher in the hierarchy with evidence that the transformation is on track.
Build momentum: Turns neutrals into supporters, reluctant supporters into active helpers.

Therefore it becomes critical in any change planning to build into the strategy several things that can be done within the first six months that may be small in scale but clear wins that everyone can celebrate.

Categories: Leading Change Storytelling | Comments Off on 6 Roles Of Short Term Wins

4 Ways To Improve Your Strategic Thinking

Posted by on January 4, 2017

One of the greatest challenges I face as an executive coach is to help leaders see the difference in operational efficiency and strategic initiatives. Improvement in process and profit margin is extremely important but so is spending time on innovation and creativity. If you are always working on the margins of incremental improvement you will eventually lose your competitive advantage. This HBR post is very helpful:

“If you’ve ever received feedback that you “need to be more strategic,” you know how frustrating it can feel. To add insult to injury, the feedback rarely comes with any concrete guidance on what to do about it. One of my coaching clients, Lisa, a vice president of HR, was in this situation and explains, “I was just told to think bigger picture and to be more strategic.”

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5 Steps To Get Honest Feedback

Posted by on December 26, 2016

One of the things I experience in my executive coaching over and over again is the tremendous negative cost of leaders not having a willingness to tell people the truth. People really do want to know what is expected and where they stand but insecure leaders can’t seem to have the honest conversations. This Forbes post will help you get the feedback you need:

“As an executive coach, some of the saddest moments I witness is when someone gets feedback…too late. “I was shocked” said one leader to me recently. “It felt like a kick in the stomach coming from someone I trusted.” Her voice cracked as she said this to me. It was clear she was trying to contain her emotion.”

Categories: Leadership Development Organizational Culture | Comments Off on 5 Steps To Get Honest Feedback

How To Intentionally Build Great Teams

Posted by on December 21, 2016

I have learned more from Patrick Lencioni on this subject than anyone else. Jim Collins nails the importance of getting the right people on your team but Lencioni takes the next step and talks about how to create the right culture that leverages trust to drive results. Great post to read for helping your teams:

“As Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, once said, “It’s amazing what you can achieve with the right leader and a healthy disregard for the impossible.”

I admire great teams at work. They’re cohesive and individual success is often a result of collaboration. Their leaders put their own interests aside and they have a clear vision.

Knowing the ingredients of what makes a great team is the first step. You’ll have to travel great distances to find a better expert on organizational health than Patrick Lencioni. Luckily, his office is 8 miles away from my house in the bay area.”

Categories: Teamwork | Comments Off on How To Intentionally Build Great Teams

6 Reasons Why Change Initiatives Fail

Posted by on December 15, 2016

Someone has well said that the pain of the present must be greater than the fear of the future for change to actually take place. Even with that level of motivation, many times change initiatives don’t work regardless of how bad the current reality may be. I have made all of these leadership mistakes and this Forbes post was a good reminder:

“In today’s more volatile and unpredictable business environment, change management has to become part of the culture and business plan. Not just something that leaders decide they need to adopt at some point when their business model is threatened or failing. I have led my companies through significant transformations and made many of these mistakes. Don’t do the same thing.”

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Generational Leadership Wars

Posted by on December 14, 2016

I remember speaking at a national conference on the subject of Leadership for 21^st Century. The major point of my presentation was the need to shift from a positional leadership model to a participative one.

The feedback after both of my sessions confirmed everything I have been reading and experiencing on this subject. The consensus is there is very little honest and clear communication taking place between key leaders and their teams on an ongoing basis.

The challenge for most corporations today is that the majority of senior management positions are filled by baby boomer age leaders who know primarily a positional leadership model. They were trained that way academically and that is the only system that has been a part of their entire career.

The new workforce is made up of Generation X and Millennial employees that have an entirely different world view that impacts how they view their career and life in general. They are highly motivated and want to be a part of an interactive team where they can actively participate in the process of leadership.

If we do not provide the critical situational leadership skills that both new generations need then we are creating unnecessarily a leadership cultural war that can destroy morale and diminish productivity. The result of any lack of relevant training is that the older generation think the younger ones are too aggressive and the younger ones are convinced that the old guard will simply not let go and delegate.

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Change Your Calendar, Change Your Life

Posted by on December 9, 2016

There are two indicators that don’t lie about what our true priorities are in life, calendars and checkbooks. We have a tremendous amount of leadership responsibility over both areas. Many times our schedules are driven by others but for most of us we waste a tremendous amount of time doing the wrong things. This post by Shani Harmon was spot on:

“Many people treat their calendar the same way – as a picture of what is often a very sad reality. Days either booked back-to-back with meetings or hacked into pieces by a scattering of appointments throughout. No time reserved for mental breaks, much less uninterrupted stretches for thinking and creating.”

Categories: Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Change Your Calendar, Change Your Life

Faith vs. Trust

Posted by on December 7, 2016

In the Christian life we are taught from the very beginning the importance that faith plays in our lives. Without it we cannot know God on a personal relationship level and we cannot reach our potential in this life without putting it into practice every day.

Faith allows us to not only believe that God exists but that everything He has promised us in His word is true. Beyond that the core issue is that God is able to do what He has said and there is nothing too hard for Him.

If faith answers the question Is God able then trust answers the question Is God good? Trust goes beyond faith and believes that everything He has asked me to do is not only for His glory but also for my good.

When suffering comes faith will help you to believe that God is able to deliver you out of your trials but trust helps you to rest in the fact that if you are not delivered His grace will still be sufficient.

Most Christians are no longer afraid of what God is going to do to them because they have the complete assurance of their salvation. However, the major problem is that we daily walk in the fear of what God might do with us if we fully surrender our lives to Him.

There is no greater deception for the believer than to fear the One who loves you the most. Yes God is able but far more than that He is also good.

Categories: Spiritual Growth | Comments Off on Faith vs. Trust

Are You Personally Called Or Professionally Driven?

Posted by on December 7, 2016

It is very important that we all know the difference between these two power words. If you are not careful and buy into the culture’s definition of success you will be driven to get all the perks of this lifestyle.

Driven people see their career as the primary provider of their physical and emotional needs. It gives them power, possessions, position, pleasure and all the emotional significance they want from all the outward success they achieve.

Called people on the other hand see their career as a means to a much more important end and that is impacting other people. They get up every day on a mission to make a difference and the bottom line for them is not profits but people.

I am convinced that called people in the marketplace can be more successful in every way than their driven counterparts. They have a passion that goes way beyond just showing up for work and hitting the numbers.

All of us have a strong desire to look back at the end of our lives and know that we have made a real difference. That difference will not be who has the most toys but who has helped the most people.

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