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Becoming A Family With Purpose

Posted by on February 12, 2014

It always bothers me when I see extremely competent leaders at work and then they somehow morph into totally undisciplined leaders at home. We can plan multi-million dollar projects but somehow we can’t find a way or the time for a weekly date night. This is clearly not a matter of competency but priorities. This post by Angie Knutson should help:

“Some family goals are the same every year, such as taking one family vacation just the six of us, but many are different from year to year. We create our lists of goals as a family, and the list includes ideas from both kids and parents. The kiddos often have some of the best input!”

Here are five family goals you can set anytime of the year to become a family of purpose and change your family for the better:

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7 Ways To Fight Fatigue As A Leader

Posted by on February 10, 2014

Margin is defined as the difference between the demands placed upon your life and your capacity to meet them. There has never been a time when we have had less margin in every area of our lives. You must determine what increases your margin and maybe even more importantly what takes it away. This post by Ron Edmondson was very helpful to me:

“I hear someone say every day “I’m so tired”. It’s epidemic it seems. There appears to be a lot of fatigue in our world these days. I know it’s true of those in ministry. Someone asked me how to deal with the issue, besides the simple answer of rest.”

Stop reacting and moving toward burnout. Read More …

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How To Reach Your Leadership Potential

Posted by on February 7, 2014

There is no doubt if you want to reach your potential that you are going to have to be willing to pay the personal price to constantly improve and change. However, your potential is completely connected to the team of people you work with every day and sometimes we forget that. John Maxwell hits the nail on the head again in this post:

“Leaders are never self-made. If you want to go to the highest level, you can only do so with the help of others. The people closest to you determine your success or failure. Among the many decisions leaders make, one of the most important involves choosing the right companions.”

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Leading From The Middle

Posted by on February 5, 2014

This is the position I have found myself in for the last 30 years in leadership. It can be a very hard place to be because you feel the responsibly to make both your team members and the people you report to successful. Many times their goals are not in alignment and you have to make some difficult decisions about what to do next. Brad Lomenick has some helpful insights and draws some unusual conclusions:

“Leading from the middle of the organization is tough.

Lots of responsibility, but limited empowerment. Less money, but more work. More to manage, but less training. And on and on and on. Reality is, most influence within organizations always comes from the middle, and not from the top.”

In reality all of us are in the middle we just may not know it. Read More …

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How Wives Can Injure Husbands Without Knowing

Posted by on February 3, 2014

Regardless of what our culture tries to tell us there are tremendous differences between the emotional needs of men and women. This is especially the case in the context of a marriage relationship and sometimes without even knowing we are deeply hurting our spouses. This a great post by Ron Edmondson and will maybe give some new insights to how men are wired:

“I was talking to a man the other day. He’s injured. Not severely. He will survive. Hopefully. The wounds aren’t deep. Right now. But, he is injured.

It’s an emotional injury. Sometimes those are the worst kind of hurts.”

I am sure the husbands version is coming but for the ladies these are powerful words. Read More …

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What To Do When Opportunity Knocks

Posted by on January 31, 2014

It does not happen that often in the normal routine lives that we live but occasionally a new opportunity finds us and forces us to have to deal with some serious questions. Should I take that promotion with the move or change the company I work for or should I finally start that new business. John Maxwell has some great principles that will help us all:

“How do you respond when a great opportunity presents itself? I’m a firm believer in finding and embracing new opportunities. But I don’t chase an opportunity without evaluating it according to some specific criteria.

How do I evaluate an opportunity? I run it through a series of tests. Only after it passes them do I take steps toward the goal.”

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7 Warning Signs A Leader Is About To Crash

Posted by on January 29, 2014

For the most part I have been successful at almost everything I have done as an adult. When I hit a major wall in 2007 I was failing at almost everything I tried to do. This experience revealed some things to me about myself that I needed to know and they were not very pretty. I now watch for the early warning signs that Ron Edmondson talks about in this post. If you don’t know them you are an accident waiting to happen:

“I’ve been there. I’ve faced burnout and frustration in my work. Thankfully, I’ve never “bottomed out”, but I’ve felt near the bottom in my spirit. More than that, I’ve walked through these times with dozens of other leaders.

I’ve learned there are some common indicators that a leader is heading towards burnout. The sooner we can recognize them, the sooner we know to reach out for help.”

Categories: Leadership Development Margin | Comments Off on 7 Warning Signs A Leader Is About To Crash

When To Say No To Good Things

Posted by on January 27, 2014

Most people reach a point in their life when then have the discipline and core values to walk away from bad habits that they know will hurt them or their family. However, I find the majority of people have an extremely difficult time walking away from the good so they can prioritize the best. Until you clearly know what the Yes’s are in your life you will not be able to see the No’s . Mark Merrill has some excellent insights in this post:

“Every couple handles commitment differently. First, there is the couple that is prone to overcommitting. Both are constantly in a mindset of, “We are the only two people in the world who can do this. We don’t have a choice!”

Great post Read More …

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When Team's Get Stuck

Posted by on January 24, 2014

One thing is for certain, at some point in time both leaders as individuals and their teams are going to lose momentum and stop being productive. The critical next step is to be able to diagnose the correct reason or you will react and only make things worse. This post by Mark Miller gives several key reasons and offers some good advise:

“Have you ever been on a team that was stuck? I have – it’s no fun. However, it can happen, whether you’re playing on a recreation league softball team, serving a non-profit organization, or working on a team at the office. Today’s question is: How do you get your team unstuck?”

The questions is not if my team will get stuck but what should I do when it happens. Read More …

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When Your Kids Don't Want To Be With You

Posted by on January 22, 2014

No, this is not about the greatest news you have ever heard and they have all quote left the nest. Sorry, the real news is that parenting never ends and to me that is an incredibly good thing. Too many times we place our own emotional needs on top of our children and thats not good for anyone. Great post by Mark Merrill:

“I’ve always liked to hold hands with my daughters and still do. As they were growing up, I held their hand as we drove in the car, walked through the mall, and walked up to school.

But I remember learning a lesson when my oldest daughter, Megan, pulled away from holding my hand as I walked her into school. One day we clenched each other’s hand, the next, my hand was without hers. What had changed?”

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