Category Archive: Core Values

One Day At Time

Posted by on March 25, 2009

The Christian life at times can be extremely complicated.  We all suffer from the consequences of our bad decisions but sometimes we suffer not because we have done something wrong but as a testimony to the world that God’s grace is indeed sufficient.

I have learned the hard way over the years that the only way to work your way out of one of these black holes of the soul is to discipline yourself to live one day at a time.  When you do not know why things have happened and how it is all going to work out it comes down to what can I do right now.

The first practical step in this process is to experience forgiveness for the past.  We must first receive it for what we have done wrong and then give it to others who have hurt us and caused pain.  We should learn from the past but we cannot live in it.

The second step is to have faith for the future.  God is able and He is good so you can rest in the fact that He will meet our needs.  All worry and fear will do is to rob us of the spiritual energy we need to live today.

The last and probably most important truth is to embrace His promise of grace for today.   Every new day comes with the necessary spiritual power to deal with whatever happens within that twenty-four hour period of time.

If we do not waste that power on unforgiveness for the past or fear of the future then we will be able to live today with eternal perspective.   That perspective is that no matter what happens to me in this life that may hurt deeply at the time we win in the end.

 

 

Categories: Core Values Personal Leadership Spiritual Growth | Comments Off on One Day At Time

Called vs. Driven

Posted by on March 12, 2009

It is very important that we all know the difference between these two power words.  If you are not careful and buy into the media’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.

 

Categories: Career Development Core Values Personal Leadership Servant Leader Spiritual Growth Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Called vs. Driven

Character Matters

Posted by on March 10, 2009

I have hired a lot of people over the years from working in the corporate world to being involved with several different large churches.  I ultimately take all of the factors involved and put them into one of two categories, character or competency.

Competency is the possession of the skill set, experience or aptitude to do a particular job with excellence.  This can be accessed through a variety of performance evaluation tools and talking with references.

Character is the sum total of the moral and ethical qualities of an individual that is based on their core beliefs about life.  This takes quite a bit longer to evaluate and many times references will give you only one side of the story.

I make sure I am able to spend a lot of informal time with the person so that I can eventually move beyond the interview script and hear their heart.  I also never hire a key person without meeting their spouse.

The priority of evaluating this part of the person must take first place over all other qualifications.  As a matter of fact, character has moved to the top of the list in the corporate world.

The first test in hiring anyone at General Electric under the leadership of Jack Welch was the character quality of integrity.  He wrote, “people with integrity tell the truth and they keep their word.  They take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes, and fix them.”

Someone has well said, your ability may help get you to the top but it will be your character that will keep you there. 

 

Categories: Core Values Staff Development | Comments Off on Character Matters

Core Values

Posted by on March 6, 2009

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: Core Values Personal Leadership | Comments Off on Core Values

Personal Mission Statement

Posted by on February 16, 2009

All of us have become proficient at doing all the major components of the business plan at work.  We know how to define goals, create plans, execute priorities and evaluate success.

However, very few of us use these same disciplines to help lead our personal lives.  Research shows that approximately 95% of us have never written out our personal goals in life, but of the 5% who have, 95% have achieved them.

Steven Covey popularized the phrase Personal Mission Statement in his bestselling book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  He makes the point that ultimately all professional success flows out of our ability to lead ourselves first.

Every day we must say no to something because there is simply too much to do when you include the personal, family, career and civic responsibilities of our lives.  If we do not take the time to define what we want our legacy to be for the people and things we care about the most they will by default usually end up on the no list.

What the annual plan does for your corporate productivity and performance your personal mission statement will do for the rest of your life.  It will help define the core values for you personally and your family and set realistic goals with strategies that will help you to write your own script for the totality of your entire life.

It should never be acceptable to succeed in one area of our lives only to fail in all the others.  Take the time to write down what is personally and professionally  important to you in this life because in the end that is all that will really matter.

Categories: Career Development Core Values Pastoral Leadership Personal Leadership Servant Leader Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Personal Mission Statement

Significance

Posted by on January 23, 2009

We all need to ask ourselves what we really want out of life.  For many it is success and all the outward benefits and rewards that come from achievement in the corporate culture of our day.

I will never forget an interview that I saw with Tom Brady after he had won his last Super Bowl.  After he talked about all the fame and fortune he had achieved, he then made the following statement, “there has to be more to life than this.”

There is and it is called significance which is all about adding value to other people.  I have talked with a lot of people near the very end of their lives.

The common denominator for all of  these conversations is that when it is all said and done all that really matters is have we made a difference in the lives of other people.

Today if we are not careful we are in danger of reducing all of our important relationships down to a few words on voice mail, or a picture attachment to an email. 

Can someone be professionally successful and realize personal significance at the same time?  Absolutely.

Everyone who has accomplished both has come to the critical understanding that professional success is only the means to the end of having personal significance through helping other people.

Categories: Core Values Personal Leadership Spiritual Growth Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Significance

Reaching Your Potential

Posted by on January 21, 2009

From a personal standpoint one of the things I love doing is hiking.  A hiker is somewhere between a camper and an adventure racer.

One of the great advantages of living in the Atlanta area for ten years is the close proximity to the Appalachian trail in the north Georgia mountains.

My favorite hiking story is about a great one day hike in the Alps.  If you start early in the morning you can reach the summit and get back to the car before dark.

About half way up the mountain is this incredibly beautiful rest house where everyone eats a great lunch.  The owner of the rest house has noticed an interesting pattern over the years.  When everyone reaches the rest house they are all excited about reaching their goal of the summit.

They warm themselves by the fire and about half way through lunch somebody inevitably speaks out what many people are thinking.  Ii think I will just stay here while you finish the climb and you can pick me up on the way back down.  At that moment everyone must the make decision to stay or go.

For all those who stay the first few hours are incredible.  They sit by the fire and tell mountain climbing stories about other great mountain climbers from the past.  They may even reminisce about some of their great climbing experiences in the past.

By early afternoon the mood dramatically changes in the room and everyone becomes silent.  One by one they make their way over to this huge window in the back of the lodge and they stand there and stare at the summit.

For you see it is at this painful moment that they realize they have settled for second best in their lives.

Someone has well said, “The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.”

 

Categories: Core Values Personal Leadership | Comments Off on Reaching Your Potential

Family Matters

Posted by on January 19, 2009

I have never known a successful leader who did not know how to establish goals, develop plans, execute priorities and finally evaluate success in their career.  The old saying about goals is true, if you cannot measure them, then they really don’t matter.

However, tragically for most people that is exactly what happens to them in their personal lives.  They say this part is ultimately the most important but they never take the time to write down what they want their legacy to be for the people that matter the most.

Because the personal does not get the priority of the professional the family usually ends up with the leftovers.  Leftover time, passion, affection and energy.

I have know people who can make million dollar decisions at work without blinking but by the time they get home they do not have enough emotional energy  to decide if they want hamburgers or soup for dinner.  They have been nice to other people all day, co-workers, suppliers and customers only to come home and be so fried they have to retreat to the T.V. because they have nothing left for spouse or children.

Someone has well said that the person who cannot see the ultimate always becomes a slave to the immediate.  Meaningful relationships with family and bottom line professional results are not mutually exclusive but you must be willing to pay personal leadership price to have both.

 

Categories: Core Values Marriage Pastoral Leadership Personal Leadership Servant Leader Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Family Matters

Character

Posted by on January 15, 2009

Simply put everything you eventually accomplish in life will be based upon you personal leadership DNA.  What you do is based upon who you are.

Someone has well said:  ability may get you to the top but it takes character to keep you there.  If you do not believe that then just ask the former governor of New York.

I had to learn the importance of this lesson very early in my career.  I changed jobs four times in five years right out of college because I did not realize that the major problem was not the company I was working for or the supervisor that I had, the problem was me.

All I did was move from company to company and take all of my unresolved character problems with me expecting different results.  I learned the hard way that if you are consistently failing where you are there is no real reason to believe that you will be successful somewhere else.

However, if you learn how to be successful where you are regardless of your circumstances and become an A Player then there is every reason to believe that you can be successful anywhere.

 

 

 

Categories: Core Values Personal Leadership | Comments Off on Character

The Power of Vision

Posted by on December 3, 2008

My home town for all practical purposes is Tuscumbia, Alabama.  Our number one and only claim to fame is we are the birthplace of Helen Keller.  On CNN web site recently there was a story about researchers who had uncovered this rare photograph of a young Helen Keller with her teacher Anne Sullivan, nearly 120 years after it was taken on Cape Cod.

Helen was born blind and had to overcome many difficult obstacles in her life.  In spite of all the hardship she lived and very meaningful and rewarding life that impacted a lot of other people in a very positive way.

Helen was once asked, can you think of anything worse than being born blind?  Her immediate answer was, to have sight and yet lack vision for your life.  The overwhelming majority of people you know have physical sight but do they clearly see all the things that are really important in life.

What vision do you have for your life?  Please tell me it is more than going to work, coming home and watching T.V. and then going to bed.  There are so many important things to be done and hurting people that need to be touched.

Can you see them?

 

 

Categories: Career Development Core Values Leading Change Pastoral Leadership | Comments Off on The Power of Vision