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Category Archive: Church Scattered

How To Create Moral Margin In Your Life

Posted by on April 4, 2014

One of the greatest books I have ever read is Margin by Richard Swenson. I knew my life was over scheduled and needed dramatic help but I could not understand the underlying causes. I now know that if you lack margin in any important area of your life you will eventually crash, its just a matter of time. Mark Merrill has a very helpful post:

“Normally, when leaders talk about margin, they are referring to the gap between a loaded and overloaded schedule, between being busy and overly busy. To create that margin, it’s often suggested that we have “white space” on our calendar, times when we don’t schedule things so that we can accommodate contingencies and unanticipated situations.”

Categories: Core Values Margin | Comments Off on How To Create Moral Margin In Your Life

You've Offended Someone, Now What?

Posted by on March 28, 2014

There is at least one absolute reality in life and that is I am going to say something that clearly offends someone. It’s clearly most painful when it happens at home but its difficult in every other relationship as well. The hard part is sometimes I don’t even know I crossed the line and other times I just don’t care. Mark Merrill has some wise insight in this post:

“Let’s face it, most of us don’t want to hear that we’ve done something wrong. We don’t want to admit that we’ve hurt someone with our words or actions. But when we speak 16,000 or more words a day, we’re bound to offend people more easily than we’d like to admit.”

Categories: Marriage Personal Leadership | Comments Off on You've Offended Someone, Now What?

3 Forces That Shape Character

Posted by on March 21, 2014

According to Jim Collins character is the number one priority in anyone becoming a successful leader. Its trumps competency hands down and it is something you must work on for continued growth and effectiveness. Michael Hyatt as usual has some timely tips:

“Charisma may be useful in attracting a following, but it is largely useless when it comes to achieving a long-term, positive impact on the people and organizations we lead. For this, we need character.”

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How Do You Know When You Are Successful

Posted by on March 19, 2014

How tragic it would be for anyone at the end of their life to realize they had done many things well but they were the wrong things that did not matter. If you don’t have the courage to take the time to define what success really means for you then someone else will gladly do it for you. John Maxwell has some great thoughts on helping you answer this critical question:

“When will you be successful? If you’re like most people, what comes to mind is someday—somewhere off in the future, when you’ll suddenly wake up and think, “I made it! I’m a success!” That’s how most unsuccessful people see success: as something to strive for and hope to reach “someday.”

Categories: Core Values Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on How Do You Know When You Are Successful

Without A Plan You're Growing Nowhere

Posted by on March 14, 2014

This subject is a real passion of mine. It never ceases to amaze me that we have very detailed plans at work and then have no real plan at all for the people that matter the most. This must start with leading ourselves and then others. John Maxwell is a great leader and this post will clearly help you:

“Personal growth doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not an automatic process. If you want to guarantee growth, then you need a plan—something strategic, specific, and scheduled. A plan for growth requires you to…

Take the necessary time to make this happen. Michael Hyatt has some excellent resources on his website. Read More…

Categories: Life Plan Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Without A Plan You're Growing Nowhere

The Leaders Need For Humility

Posted by on February 26, 2014

The days of strong driven positional leadership are just about over. Yes, there are still times leaders need to be directive but Jim Collins proved that one of the major character qualities of all great leaders is humility. John Maxwell has a great post that will be helpful for your reading:

“When people talk about leadership, they don’t use the word “humility” very often. More likely, they describe a leader as strong or focused or ambitious. They would probably say the leader is confident or assertive. “Humble” may not ever come up, and if it does, it might not be used as a compliment.”

Humble people by nature assume responsibility for failure and give credit to others for success. Read More …

Categories: Pastoral Leadership Servant Leader | Comments Off on The Leaders Need For Humility

Connecting The Clock And The Compass In Life

Posted by on February 17, 2014

The battle between the urgent and the important has never been more difficult to manage. We are either prioritizing our schedule or scheduling our priorities and we better know the difference. John Maxwell in this excellent post tries to marry the two concepts into a workable plan:

“Time waits for no man.” You’ve probably heard that saying. And it’s true; time marches on, and it’s up to us to keep up with it. We need to be conscious of the clock, or we’ll never make any progress toward our goals. But I believe there’s more to success than reaching goals. True success comes from significance: doing things that matter…things that last after we’re gone.

Categories: Life Plan Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Connecting The Clock And The Compass In Life

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.”

Categories: Personal Leadership | Comments Off on How To Reach Your Leadership Potential