Category Archive: Church Scattered

Peter Principle

Posted by on October 10, 2010

Every leadership expert that I have read in the last five years understands that the most important asset for any organization is the people who are on your team.  If you have not transitioned from the industrial age to the information age in how you are leading your people you will not be able to compete in the new global economy.

Good to Great makes the point about getting the right people on your bus and making sure you get the wrong ones off.  There is also a priority on verifying that everyone is in the right seat on the bus.

This is where the Peter Principle can create blind spots within your organization.   Just because someone has been a very effective employee in the past does not mean they can continue to be effective in the future.

The natural tendency is when someone does a good job they eventually assume even greater responsibility.  They were the best customer service representative you had when your company started and there were less than one hundred accounts.

When the company reaches three hundred accounts then other customer service representatives are brought on board and now your best practices representative just became a manager of other people.  After all they deserve the job because they have tenure, expertise and loyalty to organization.

There is only one major problem; they are not gifted or passionate about managing a customer service department that one day will grow to over one hundred employees.   These once great team members who are no longer effective have been promoted beyond their capabilities and that is why they are failing.

Never assume that because someone is great in one discipline they can naturally transition to leading others in the same area.  If you do not watch this one very carefully you run the risk of a dysfunctional customer service department and tragically loosing a once great employee in the process.

 

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Courage

Posted by on September 29, 2010

One of the most important character qualities of effective leaders is courage.  It is the ability to act in the midst of adversity and seemingly difficult circumstances.

Courage flows out of our core values as individuals because they give us clarity when we are in the midst of conflict and confusing situations.  When you believe you are doing the right thing for the right reason then you can make good decisions.

It takes courage to pay the price to change the culture of any organization because you know there will be resistance.  However, when you know it is the best interest of the people involved you can act with conviction because you know they will be benefited when the transition is complete.

It takes courage to admit you were wrong and did not make the right decision.  When people know you are keeping it real it will not cause them to respect you less but just the opposite they will trust you more as leader.

It takes courage to terminate an underperforming employee that is liked by everyone and who does not want to go.  You must believe that it will benefit your team and that it is ultimately for their good to get them to a place where they can be successful.

It takes courage to walk away from all the good things that you could be doing to concentrate only on the best things.  Leaders with courage can say no with emphasis although all the rest of the world is saying yes.

 

Categories: Church Scattered Core Values | Comments Off on Courage

Final Performance Review

Posted by on June 14, 2010

 

We have all had good and bad experiences with this wonderful but sometimes problematic annual rite of passage in corporate America.  It is always helpful to know what is expected of you and to hear from your superiors how they think you are doing.

As Christians we must never forget that ultimately our real employer is our heavenly Father. Because of the price He paid for our redemption we should have a passion to live our lives in reckless abandonment to His will.

His expectations are very clear as we are going about our everyday lives we are to be spreading the aroma of His grace to all of the people we come in contact with in every situation.  Our lives should be living epistles to be known and read by all at home, at work and in the normal patterns of life.

As we unconditionally minister grace to other people we are earning the trust and opportunity to share with them the reason of the hope that lies within us.  Our conviction is that stuff and success don’t really matter in the end but what we have done to move others toward knowing Christ does.

Jesus said it so clearly that it cannot be missed as the Father has sent Him into world He now sends us. We are to be storytellers of His personal grace and compassion in our lives and hope givers for all the broken people who live in utter despair.

During my final performance review I only want to hear one comment, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

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Light The Fuse

Posted by on June 10, 2010

 

Lighting the fuse is an appropriate analogy for any leader who is about to initiate a significant change process. If you make a mistake during this critical process the whole situation can figuratively blow up in your face leaving your people and your organization in worse condition than before you started.

 It is never enough to just do the right thing, you must do the right thing, the right way, and especially at the right time.  There are at least four major reasons for initiating the change process:

  1.  Need Must Be Met—this would appear to be the easiest of all the reasons after all there is someone or something that is not right and we can make it better.  However, rarely does everyone in your group see this need in the same way and many may not be directly motivated by this cause at all.  Be careful of needs that only touch a limited constituency. 
  2. Opportunity Should Be Taken—this one requires everyone to look out into the future and see a new reality that is better than the one they are in today.  This requires maximum amount of visionary leadership to paint a picture that people can embrace to the point they are willing to move forward.
  3. Problem Can Be Solved—here again one person’s problem is merely another person’s distraction.  Compelling reasons must be given that this situation not only if affecting people in a negative way but if it is not resolved it will only become worse.
  4. Crisis Threatens Our Future—now you have an issue that can be communicated in such a clear and dramatic way because if it is not dealt with the future of this group of people or organizations is in peril.  Never take a problem and try to turn it into a crisis for impact sake because people will see through the clever marketing and lose confidence in the leader.

The bottom line for any leader is that you have a very limited amount of leadership capital with your people so spend it wisely.  Most people will only be motivated to change when the pain of the present is clearly worse than their fear of the future.  Be careful not to judge them for that because to some degree we are all the same way.

Categories: Career Development Leading Change | Comments Off on Light The Fuse

Great Commission Companies

Posted by on June 8, 2010

I would highly recommend this book for any Christian that is serious about fulfilling their calling by leveraging their career to impact the world for eternity.  The authors are Steve Rundle and Tom Steffen who pack a lot of great information about the biblical justification for their approach and several actual examples that fit their definition of success.

The core conviction they have is that every Christian is already in full time ministry and the spreading of the gospel should not be delegated exclusively to a small team of ordained missionaries.  They also believe that there should be no dichotomy between the sacred and the secular when it comes to using our career as a platform to accomplish ministry.

This is not some clandestine strategy to use business platforms as a way of getting into closed countries but rather a convictional approach to start legitimate businesses that make a profit and then help their local communities.  It is also a very holistic approach to missions that avoids both extremes of a social gospel on one end of the spectrum and counting decisions on the other.

This approach avoids all the negative aspects of redemption and lift that eventually removes new believers from their immediate community where they can be the most effective in reaching new people.  There is an acknowledgement that some companies may make profits to provide the necessary funding for other front line ministries.

They believe that “by establishing authentic businesses that employ local workers among the least-reached peoples of the world, they contribute to the economic health of the immediate community and also provide avenues for both physical and spiritual ministry.”  This really is about making a profit so that you can really make a difference.

Categories: Career Development Church Scattered Contextualization Missional Living | Comments Off on Great Commission Companies

The Danger Of Debt

Posted by on April 5, 2010

There is wide agreement among most evangelicals that acquiring debt as a principle is not sinful but the accumulation of it can be devastating.  The borrower is indeed servant to the lender and when we use debt instead of living within our means then we have crossed a line that can lead to broken homes and failed businesses. 

As someone who has counseled many couples with marriage problems a clear majority of the time financial problems are near top of the list.  When couples do not take the time to develop budgets that reflect their mutual priorities in life then they eventually grow emotionally distant because they are trying to find happiness in things rather than relationships.

In a very real sense when we consistently have a lifestyle that is supported by debt rather than income we are living a lie.  Whether it’s the clothes we wear, the car we drive or the home we live in, the bottom line is we are trying to meet a real need in the wrong way.

The only way we can maintain our integrity as a believer is to make sure when we have to acquire debt that we clearly have the means to pay it back within a reasonable time period.  When we fail to pay our bills on time and in full we damage our testimony as a Christian and lost people see absolutely no difference in our values than the rest of the world.

God tells us clearly in His word that if we cannot be trusted with material things then we surely cannot be trusted with the deeper and more important spiritual truths in life.  He promised to meet our basic needs but we must all come to the place of answering the question: How much is enough?

The ability to gain wealth according to scripture comes from God.  He expects us to use that ability wisely and yes meet our needs but more than that have plenty left over to share with those who do not have enough food or water to make it another day.

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Sorry For Wrong Reason

Posted by on March 15, 2010

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have been sorry in my life.  As I look back on all the mistakes I have made and the consequences I have suffered a clear pattern has developed.

Most of the time when I have been sorry it has been for the wrong reason.  I was sorry that I had been caught saying or doing the wrong thing and I knew that there was a price to be paid.

My sorrow was that I was not going to get to do what I wanted and it was nothing more than a form of self pity disguised as real quilt.  I was sorry because of the personal embarrassment factor and how people would think negatively of me as a person.

I also say I am sorry many times just to end an unpleasant conversation so that I do not have to deal with my own personal responsibility.  It can be a quick fix but never a permanent solution.

Sometimes I went a step further and really felt sorry for the damage I had done to other people.  Because of my actions they had to suffer and no one should ever feel good about that.

I will never forget the first time I really understood II Corinthians 7: 9, “Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance.  For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.”

God is not very impressed with our prayers that merely tell him what He already knows about our mistakes.  What He is looking for is a genuine spiritual grief at what we have done because we have believed a lie by not trusting Him.

Sorrow is never real until we change what we believed in our minds to what God has already said in His word.  There really is a change of mind that always produces a change of direction.  Sorry, anything less is a disgrace to grace.

 

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When To Light The Fuse For Change

Posted by on March 8, 2010

Most leaders understand there are powerful forces in place to maintain the status quo both on a personal level and with an organizational culture as well.  Therefore choosing the timing of when to start a change process that you want to be successful is critical.  

If you don’t have any of the following priorities in place then do not light the fuse because it will blow up in your face:

1.      Problem to be solved—at the very basic level of motivation for any change is the reality  that something  is clearly wrong and you know it needs to be fixed.  I am overweight and if I do not start an exercise program and change my diet I am going to be in serious trouble.

2.      Opportunity to be taken—sometimes doors seem to open that we were not expecting and the benefits gained far outweigh the risks involved.  A good friend offers to pay my membership in the health club for a year if I will commit to go.

3.      Crisis to be avoided—in this situation you recognize the perfect storm is brewing and if you don’t act immediately the consequences of my inaction could be catastrophic.  I have now had a heart attack and my doctor says without major change I will have another one and it will probably be fatal.

4.      Need to be met—this moves the motivation point high up on the scale because there are hurting people involved and the change process will directly benefit them.  If I am not willing to act based on what I need surely because of the people I love the most I will do whatever is necessary to be there for them.

5.      Calling to be followed—as a Christian I am called to represent Christ to the world in all that I do with my life.  If I do not take care of the body He has given me to be used in His service then I can lose my testimony and damage my effectiveness in helping other people.

These priorities also apply in our professional lives as we seek to lead the change process in the context of a company culture that tends to react after it is too late rather than respond to what should be obvious.  Leaders must be willing to cast a clear vision that the benefits of leaving the current reality behind far outweigh any pain involved in moving to a new and better place for all involved.

 

 

 

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Calendars and Checkbooks

Posted by on March 1, 2010

We all want to accomplish the things that are really important in life and learn the discipline to walk away from everything else.  Most of us have not taken the time to write down specific goals in a life plan that involves everything personal, family, faith, friends and our professional lives.

So how do we know if we are just filling our schedules with things to do without any serious evaluation or if those are the things that should even be done at all?  We don’t want to get to the end of our lives and look back realizing that a lot of our time was totally wasted on things that don’t really matter.

A great place to start is to evaluate how we are spending our time and our money.  Calendars can tell us a lot about our core values and priorities because they reflect the choices we are making.  No doubt some of our time is not our own to schedule but how we are spending a large percentage of it reflects what is really a priority and what is not.

Are you making time for the people and relationships that you care about the most or are they getting the leftovers at best?  If you really  want to know take the time to track how you are spending your time for at least a month.  You will be amazed how much of it is scheduled based on what appears to be urgent at the time but in the end is not really important at all.

The next big indicator of what is a priority in our lives is to look at how we are spending our finances.  If we are living beyond our means and accumulating unnecessary debt then we have a major character problem that must be addressed.

More stress is brought into marriage by this one area than almost anything else.  The only solution is again to write down a budget that includes all of your expenses and then have the discipline to post all your transactions and make necessary adjustments to live within your income.

You may think this sounds like way too much work to me and I am already busy enough.  Trust me you are already using calendars and checkbooks anyway but you may not be gaining any of the benefits of leading your life instead of just letting it happen.

Categories: Core Values Marriage Personal Leadership Work Life Integration | Comments Off on Calendars and Checkbooks

Time vs. Timing

Posted by on February 12, 2010

When we all think about the concept of time we tend to focus on the immediate and what needs to be done right now.  Timing on the other hand takes the long look and always wants to ask the question why am I really doing this?

That pause to look beyond what I need or want to happen now can keep us from making some major mistakes in our lives that haunt us for years.

1.       Time focus hurts relationships:  All of us have been hurt or offended by what someone else has said or done at home and at work.  If we react in the moment many times we will say the wrong thing only to wish later we could take it back.  It is never enough just to be right we must say the right thing the right way and especially at the right time.  If your son just failed a major test it is probably not the right time for you to start that you are not going to be able to get into college speech again.

2.      Time focus diminishes faith:  When Joseph was in prison for something he did not do I am sure he wanted out now and many hours were spent questioning God’s judgment.  Joseph was concerned about immediately changing his circumstances while God was concerned about building a nation to lead in His plan of worldwide redemption for the whole human race. 

3.      Time focus rewards urgency:  Just because something hits our inbox or demands that we deal with an immediate crisis at work does not mean that it is really important.  Driven people are extremely busy doing everything they can as fast as they can without ever asking the question should this be done at all?  Time focus is all about efficiency of schedule while timing is primarily concerned about effectiveness of resuts. 

 

As people of faith we must be patient and remember that even sometimes to our dismay God is never early but always to our benefit He is never late.  He will be true to His word and in every situation of life even when we want to give up His grace will be sufficient for the need and it will always come in His perfect timing.

 

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