Blog-Generated | Coaching Churches

6 Poisons That Hurt Your Team

Posted by on July 30, 2014

We have come a long way from the positional leader walking in the room and telling everyone what to do period. Everyone uses teams to some degree and inevitably there will be conflict. There is clearly healthy conflict and there is the kind that can hurt your team. Brad Lomenick reminds us of some clear things we should avoid as leaders:

“The right kind of tension is important for teams, as well as for individuals. It stretches and shapes and allows for growth. But there are other things that can creep into a team and poison it quickly. Things that sneak up fast and before you know it, start to define the team and take everyone off course.”

Categories: Teamwork | Comments Off on 6 Poisons That Hurt Your Team

Why Leaders Should Apologize And How

Posted by on July 28, 2014

I can remember a time in my life when I thought people who apologized were weak and insecure and now I realize its just the reverse. If your character is strong enough, you can always be ready to admit you were wrong and sincerely mean it. Cary Nieuwhof nails it on why its important and how it should be done:

“You probably have a love/hate relationship with apologies. You appreciate it deeply when others apologize to you. But you find it difficult to apologize to others. And let me guess, when you do apologize, you’re tempted to explain, justify or defend your action.”

Categories: Leadership Development | Comments Off on Why Leaders Should Apologize And How

Restoring The Lost Years

Posted by on July 18, 2014

This post was at first a very painful reminder of all that I have lost. Then as I read it over and over again it was an encouraging reminder of the faithfulness of God throughout all of life and what I still have left. None of us would choose dark days but we now realize the lessons we learned through them come no other way. Great writing by Colin Smith:

“Money can be restored. Property can be restored—broken-down cars, stripped painting, old houses. Relationships can be restored. But one thing that can never be restored is time. Time flies and it does not return. Years pass and we never get them back.”

Categories: Personal Leadership Spiritual Growth | Comments Off on Restoring The Lost Years

When It's Not A Good Time To Lead Change

Posted by on July 11, 2014

I learned a long time ago one critical leadership principle that has lasted all these years. You must find out the right thing that needs to be done and you must do it in the right way. There is one more critical piece to the formula, it must also be done at the right time or everything blows up.

Ron Edmondson nails this one on when not to lead change: “I’ve never been a proponent of the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Sometimes you need a change and nothing is “broke”.

Categories: Leading Change | Comments Off on When It's Not A Good Time To Lead Change

Quit Being A Wimpy Leader

Posted by on July 9, 2014

Of all the qualities great leaders possess courage is potentially one of the most important. Leaders must make hard choices everyday both to lead themselves and others. Its easy to let our competency outpace our character. Brad Lomenick has a great post that will challenge all of us:

“Life and leadership are a lot like baseball. Even the best batters strike out sometimes. But a true athlete, and courageous leaders, can never run away from the pitch.”

Categories: Leadership Development Pastoral Leadership Staff Development | Comments Off on Quit Being A Wimpy Leader

7 Signs You're Insecure Leader

Posted by on June 30, 2014

After about the fourth job change and the same issues kept following me around I finally realized the real problem was me and not them. My character or the lack thereof had to be dealt with and my insecurities were killing me. Carey Nieuwhof has another excellent post:

“When you get to know leaders fairly well on a personal level, you realize that a surprising number admit to being insecure.

In fact, insecurity has been a battle for me over the years. I don’t know whether you ever completely overcome it, but understanding how it works and what to do about it can really help.”

Categories: Core Values Leadership Development Pastoral Leadership | Comments Off on 7 Signs You're Insecure Leader

Merging Leadership And Parenting

Posted by on June 27, 2014

It grieves me when I see great leaders everyday leave their leadership gifts at work and not effectively lead the people at home who matter most. If you max out your leadership gifts with your work team and not with your family shame on you. This is a great post by Mark Merrill:

“When our kids are young, we map out in our minds where we want their lives to go. We want them to be valedictorian and captain of the football team.”

Categories: Parenting | Comments Off on Merging Leadership And Parenting

Why Sleep Impacts Leadership

Posted by on June 23, 2014

We all know the value of margin in our lives. We use the latest and greatest productivity tools to buy back maybe 30 minutes each day of additional time only to waste it watching too much Sports Center. Sleep is really a bid deal and we should value it more according to Michael Hyatt:

“Ive been thinking a lot about sleep recently. Most research shows that we don’t get enough, and our deficit is seriously hurting our productivity, our physical health, even our mental well being.”

Categories: Personal Leadership | Comments Off on Why Sleep Impacts Leadership

Why Leaders Have Few Friends

Posted by on June 21, 2014

We all know the value of relationships in our lives especially the few we can actually call friends. For several key reasons it seems the more leadership responsibility we gain the more friends we lose. I think Carey has some great insight:

“You’ve heard it. Probably said it. It’s lonely at the top. It’s an experience many leaders have felt, including me in seasons. Why is that?

Categories: Leadership Development | Comments Off on Why Leaders Have Few Friends

How To Share Your Faith At Work

Posted by on June 11, 2014

One of the hardest things we do as Christians is share our faith. It becomes extremely challenging at times when we try to do it at work. For that reason alone and because of all our other fears we just by default don’t do it at all. The front lines of the gospel have moved from the churches we attend to the places where we work and this post by Greg Gilbert is incredibly helpful:

“God has entrusted to you the message of reconciliation, the good news that Jesus reconciles rebels to God. That’s as true from 9-5 Monday through Friday as it is for any other hour of your life.”

Categories: Church Scattered Missional Living Spiritual Growth Work Life Integration | Comments Off on How To Share Your Faith At Work