Work Life Integration | Coaching Churches

Category Archive: Work Life Integration

7 Things Christians Should Give Up To Reach Unchurched People

Posted by on October 19, 2019

There are so many things pulling Christians and churches away from their core message and mission. When Christians chose government over gospel we have lost our voice to speak truth into a culture that desperately needs Jesus Christ. This post by Carey Nieuwhof gives great examples of this critical problem:

“So you want your church to reach unchurched people. That’s wonderful because that’s basically the mission of the church: to share the love of Christ with the world in hopes that everyone will come into a relationship with Jesus.

The challenge is that unchurched people aren’t exactly flocking to most churches, and many Christians seem stumped as to why that is. There are many reasons, but a surprising number center around one thing: Christians who treat the church as if it’s their private club.

The gravitational pull of human nature is toward self, not toward others, and churches behave the same way. You will focus almost exclusively on your needs and wants unless you decide not to.”

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How To Discern God’s Will In Your Workplace

Posted by on January 16, 2019

The front lines of the gospel ministry have moved from the churches we attend to the places where we work and the neighborhoods where we live. Our work is an incredibly important platform for God, as we daily combine the secular and the sacred to show people the reality of Christ in our lives. This post by Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra is a great reminder:

In 2004, businessman Terry Looper—founder and CEO of the $6 billion Texon energy company—was partway through negotiating a sale when he realized he’d forgotten to pray about it.

“I hadn’t even tried to get neutral,” he said. “Getting neutral” is his term for pushing down any greed or selfish ambition, quieting his heart, and listening for the Holy Spirit’s leading. Looper makes decisions by spending time in prayer and Bible reading, consulting with colleagues and family, watching for circumstances, and asking God for “peace in my gut.”

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Busyness Is Our Worst Addiction

Posted by on December 6, 2018

Every day we all ask ourselves How am I doing? Where you go to answer that question is critically important. We all need security and significance but if you have replaced real accomplishments in your life with just more activity, especially at work, then you are headed for a bad place. This Forbes post is worth the read:

“When you think of addiction, you probably think of drugs and alcohol. However, you can be addicted to anything. Addiction is being compulsively or physiologically dependent on something habit-forming. Do you know what most of us are addicted to? Being busy. Busy is habit-forming. People pride themselves on being busy, but busyness is an addiction that needs to be cured.”

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7 Reasons To Own Less

Posted by on September 5, 2018

I encounter a lot of stress not only in my own life but especially with the executives I coach through my company. One of the self inflicted wounds in this overload world we live in is caused by the demands our stuff places on us just to maintain what we already have. I did not have the wisdom or courage to do anything about this on my own but with down sizing our home, I am now a true believer. This Forbes post is worth the read:

“Ten years ago, I decided to embrace minimalist living. I was spending too much of my life caring for possessions and I was wasting too much money managing and accumulating things I didn’t need. Those possessions were not bringing me joy or lasting happiness. They were keeping me from the very things that did.”

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How To Help Your Spouse Cope With Work Stress

Posted by on August 20, 2018

The hardest part of the day for most of us is when we get home and finally look forward to not having to be the person who is on in the room. The challenge: that is the exact same expectation everyone else has who walked through the same door. This HBR post was very helpful for me:

“Home is a sanctuary from work stress, right? Not always. Even if you are able to leave your projects and worries at the office, your spouse may have difficulty doing so — and that stress can rub off on you. How can you help your partner cope? What’s the best thing to say when your partner starts complaining — and what should you not say? Is there a way to help them see things differently? And how can you set boundaries so that home can be a haven again?”

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What Busy Leaders Really Need From Their Spouses

Posted by on August 8, 2018

My passion is to help develop leaders so they can fully integrate their personal and professional lives. This is not about balance but the willingness to be a great leader in every area of your life. If you don’t develop the ability to lead yourself first and then at home you can forget reaching your potential at work. This post by Andrea Williams was excellent:

“With divorce rates hovering between 40 and 50 percent, experts spend countless hours discussing the reasons why so many Americans can’t make their marriages work. Arguments over money, sex, and kids are perennial fire starters. But there’s another issue that is critically important—especially for husbands and wives with demanding careers.”

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5 Ways To Avoid Burnout At Work

Posted by on August 6, 2018

The constant stress that we all deal with everyday in many ways is caused because of the almost constant connectivity we have with data. Yes, a major part comes from work but also from the media and many social platforms we chose to engage with the rest of the day. The solution is a combination of emotional intelligence and leadership development. This Forbes post is helpful:

“Everything’s going great at work. You’re operating on all cylinders, moving quickly. You’re saying yes to everything, taking on all the projects, and it seems like nothing can stop you.

Until one day, it hits you like a ton of bricks. Exhaustion and stress prevail, and you’re completely fried. You are officially burned out.”

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Take A Break: Save Your Job, Marriage, Life

Posted by on July 27, 2018

I am doing some deep research in hopes of writing a book on work life integration. It is clearly a top of mind for all executive leaders and this post Rodger Dean Duncan had some great insights:

“It was Warren Buffett who said “the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they’re too heavy to be broken.” The sentiment perfectly describes the creep in both the amount of time people work and the locations where work is done. It’s an insidious pattern that fools people into believing that more hours worked automatically translates into more productivity.

Aaron Edelheit refuses to buy that myth. In The Hard Break: The Case for the 24/6 Lifestyle he makes a strong case for taking a weekly hard break or Sabbath. He’s not talking about just lounging all day. He advocates “doing something different that will allow you to test your brain and to potentially achieve some higher insight or understanding.”

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Rethinking Work-Life Balance: Whose Time Is It?

Posted by on July 18, 2018

Almost all executive coaches have some type of inbound form to identify areas that clients want to address during the coaching relationship. Without fail in the last 11 plus years, everyone’s form I have read has some form of work-life balance identified. Everyone is struggling with the problem and we don’t know how to fix it. This post by Tom Brand was helpful:

“Digital technologies are changing how we work as much as when we work. For many of us, the idea of the strict 9-to-5 workday is dead. Yet many companies and managers continue to operate under this outdated business model that requires employees to be on-site from morning to evening, five days a week.”

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Why Emotional Courage Is So Essential To Great Leadership

Posted by on July 9, 2018

I hear all the time in working with clients the concern that we are taking too much work home. I rarely hear from leaders the acknowledgement that we also bring home to work everyday. The emotional awareness we have personally is a combination of both worlds. How we feel about that is important but what we believe is critical. This Forbes post is helpful:

“In my work as a career and leadership coach with mid- to senior-level leaders each year, I’ve seen that the vast majority of the “leadership” or “career” challenges that my clients are facing are actually not career-related or professional in nature at all.”

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