Category Archive: Church Scattered

The Five Practices Of Leadership

Posted by on June 2, 2009

 

I am constantly reading new materials on leadership and occasionally I review great books from the past.  One of the all time classics is The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.

This very exhaustive book centers around these five simple but very powerful practices:

 Model The Way-Find your voice by clarifying your personal values and set the example by aligning actions with shared values.

 Inspire a Shard Vision-Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities and enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.

Challenge The Process-Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow, and improve and experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes.

Enable Others to Act-Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust.  Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion.

 Encourage The Heart-Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence and celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.        

   

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Leading By Storytelling

Posted by on June 1, 2009

Every leader is constantly trying to find new and creative ways to communicate the culture of their organization both internally and externally.  I have found not better way than storytelling.

The simplest definition of storytelling is when you can link existing personnel, ongoing programming and outstanding performance then you have a story to tell.  This will allow you to reinforce core values and celebrate success by acknowledging over and above situations that give credit to your people and remind everyone of what is really important.

In essence if you have no stories to tell then you are not performing in critical areas.  The good news in most organizations there are character driven people that are doing an outstanding job.  The bad news is their stories are not being told.

I have never seen this work informally by just asking people for outstanding results during a meeting or telling a few stories during annual meeting.  This will probably require formalizing this entire process to create a system where stories can be routinely asked for and submitted to someone who can evaluate them and then find appropriate platform for communication.

This must not feel like a monthly performance review system where everyone is checked against their numbers.  It needs to be like what happened great in your area this month that would encourage everyone in the organization to know.

The formula is simple existing personnel + ongoing programming + outstanding performance = Success.  The only missing piece is telling the story.

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The Importance of Knowing Life Purpose

Posted by on May 29, 2009

In a day when our calendars are beyond full and yet our lives seem to be empty something has gone wrong.  We in many cases have assumed because we are busy the things we are doing must be important.

We clearly have shifted the focus from being as a person to doing and what we are able to accomplish.  Technology has helped us in many cases simply to do the wrong things faster.

The great paradoxes of our time have been summed up well by the Dalai Lama:

“We have more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees, but less sense…more knowledge but less judgment.

More experts, but more problems.

More medicines, but less healthiness.

We have been all the way to the moon and back but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We build more computers to hold more information that produce more copies than ever before, but have less communication.

We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of fast foods but weak digestion.

It is a time when there is much in the window but nothing in the room.”

For many of us we have been living the script for our lives that were given to us by someone else; parents, peers, friends or the culture we live in.  The time has come for us to have the courage to say no and the passion to write our own.

 

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Making Destructive Comments

Posted by on May 28, 2009

One of the hallmarks of leadership in the 21st century is participative team building and problem solving.  We have moved from the old top down decision making model to one that allows and encourages everyone’s involvement in the process.

If you are a good leader then you will make sure that everyone has an opportunity to give their opinion and respectfully discuss and even debate the issues so that the best possible solution can be reached.  For some people this type of give and take environment comes easy and for others it is very hard to open up and participate.

As a team leader one thing I watch very carefully is when someone starts to take on another team member personally rather than dealing with their ideas.  This can be very subtle in the beginning but eventually something is said that really stings.

There is a big difference between I do not agree with what you are saying and here is the reason compared to you are wrong and just don’t get it.  Certain people with strong personalities will go after another person when they feel threatened because they know they can intimidate them to back off.

During the meeting when I see this happening I will usually make a point to come back to the person who was attacked and draw them out again.  After the meeting, I will go to the person making the destructive comments and make sure they understand that type of behavior will not be tolerated.

After clearly communicating with someone privately and they continue to demonstrate this type of behavior then they will lose their seat at the table and everyone will know why.

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Team Operating Principles

Posted by on May 27, 2009

The first thing I look for in putting together any team is the right chemistry for the particular task at hand.  If the team is responsible for completing a construction project I need expertise and great project managers.  When the assignment is to create a new vision statement I want very creative people that are willing to think outside the box.

One of the best books on team building is The Performance Factor by Pat MacMillan.  He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Team Resources Inc. an international consulting firm specializing in organizational and team development.

Regardless of the team dynamics and the task assignments there should be some guiding principles that give direction to all teams.  The following list from MacMillan is the best one I have found and creates an environment of mutual respect that drives participation and performance:

1.       We are open and honest with one another.

2.      We treat each other with dignity and respect.

3.      We listen to and respect each other’s ideas and opinions.

4.      We hold confidences.

5.      We honor our commitments.

6.      We support and invest in each other’s development.

7.      We routinely critique our processes.

8.      We have fun.

If the team leader can model and get everyone to buy into these principles then the potential for a great outcome has dramatically increased.  When teams often break down it has very little to do with the task at hand but with the way members communicate and relate to each other.

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Weisure Lifestyle

Posted by on May 26, 2009

Welcome to the latest new term to describe the tension that exist between life and work balance.  According to Dalton Conley a New York University sociologist, “increasingly it’s not clear what constitutes work and what constitutes fun time.”  You can read the entire article on CNN.com/living.

More and more people are using their smart phones and other technology to keep up with their 24-7 lifestyle that keeps them in almost constant contact with others.  At one minute we may be quote at work and receive a text message about last night’s game and then later while at quote home get an important email on major project.

It’s one thing to watch a fellow employee scroll through email during a meeting you are attending but now to see the same thing happening during the evening meal is a little harder to swallow.

Apple is probably not going to come up with an app that will schedule time everyday to unplug from all the information that is available to spend time with people who really matter in your life.  We are going to have to discipline ourselves to set some boundaries so that we can have the time we need to wind down and even quietly think without interruption.

Technology can be an incredibly good thing if we use it as a tool to improve our lives.  If we let it though it can easily change from a means to the end into the end itself and when it does that we all lose.

 

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Twitter Power

Posted by on May 25, 2009

I just read this book by Joel Comm on how to dominate your market one tweet at a time.  I am really just beginning to understand all the dynamics of social media so I am trying to read all I can.

All social media seems to be trying to either build community on the one hand or build market share on the other.  When I see that was a good hamburger tweet or please follow me so I can reach 1,000 followers tweets both seem to add little value.

Occasionally I come across people that really seem to want to help other people by supplying helpful information and encourage them in some personal way.  When I find this I think it is extremely positive.

This is a very good book for someone who not only wants to know the basics of microblogging but how can this very powerful tool be used to its maximum potential.  Social media in its simplest form is content that has been created by its audience. 

In one sense twitter is very restrictive with its 140 characters max on each tweet.  However, that small message can reach thousands of people in a matter of seconds and then be resent to thousands of other people all over the world.

My first month on twitter has been a very good experience even as I continue to learn something new every day.  It forces me to think about major subjects in very succinct and relevant ways and that has to be a good thing for anyone who wants to communicate information that other people really want and need.

 

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My Boss Does Not Get It

Posted by on May 22, 2009

I spoke this week at an annual conference for the utility industry on the subject of change.  The major takeaway was that when this recession cycle is over we are never going back to the way things used to be.

The world has permanently changed the way we live and especially the way we work.  The power of technology and the globalization of world economies are driving change in an unprecedented way.

At the end of both my presentations we had a question and answer session.  The dominant question from everyone was what do you do when you know change needs to occur but your boss either does not see the need or simply will not give up on the status quo?

The first thing you must do is to continue to respectfully continue to tell the truth.  The moment you give up and become a yes man you have stopped doing your job.

The second thing you must do is check your motives. At the end of the day if I have tried to be helpful and share my perspective in the right way then I can go home knowing I did it right.

The third thing is to realize that it is not in your job description to change your boss any more than it is to change your mate at home.  When we hit the wall is when we assume responsibility that was not given to us and become frustrated when the people above us don’t seem to get it.

After several months of respectfully communicating what you see from your perspective and nothing seems to be changing and you get the impression that they don’t want to hear it anymore.  The you must realize that in the end you will either change the corporate culture you are working in or if you stay too long it will change you.

When I have reached this point the change that needs to occur is not in my boss but where I am working.  I will not settle for a paycheck becasue the world is in a mess and I want to make a difference.

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Creating Margin

Posted by on May 21, 2009

A simple definition of margin is the space between our load and our limits.  It is the opposite of overload because you will have something in reserve for a time when you will need it.

Richard Swenson wrote an incredible book entitled Margin to help us learn how to restore emotional, physical, financial and time reserves to our overscheduled lives.  Of all these important areas he believes everything must start with our emotional energy.

Every day we only have so much emotional energy to give to our family, work, friends and other people.  Most of these people are making withdrawals from our emotional bank accounts and if we are not careful we become overdrawn with nothing left to give.

We must start each day knowing our emotional balance and then set limits on those people and things that will tend to drain us to the point of experiencing the pain of being overwhelmed.  He lists several things that can restore your emotional energy:

1.       Cultivate Social Supports

2.      Reconcile Relationships

3.      Serve One Another

4.      Rest

5.      Laugh

6.      Offer Thanks

7.      Grant Grace

8.      Be Rich in Faith

9.      Hold Fast Hope

10.  Envision a Better Future

 

Some of the emotional drainers in life cannot be avoided but when you build in things that make deposits then you can routinely within your day monitor your balance and make the necessary adjustments to maintain margin.

We must find ways in this wired world we live in to have peace of mind so that we have something left to give to the people that matter the most.

 

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The Five Phases of Project Planning

Posted by on May 20, 2009

One of the most recognized experts in the field of productivity is David Allen.  He is the author of many books but probably is best known for Getting Things Done.

The reason I like his approach is that in our day of many complicated business planning models and powerful software applications to back them up he just keeps it simple.  When a project is very large and complicated with many moving parts bring on Project Manager with all the charts and spreadsheets.

However, most of the things that we need to get done must start with the core principles of basic planning.  If what we are doing cannot be defined in these simple steps then maybe it does not need to be done at all.

For every task that would be large enough to fit into the project category there are five key phases:

1.       Defining purpose and principles

2.      Outcome visioning

3.      Brainstorming

4.      Organizing

5.      Identifying next actions

 

We must take the time to clearly define What we are doing and Why.  Then we need to see that the end result will be better than our current reality.  Once the vision is set then we need a comprehensive plan on How to get there and Who is responsible for every major action item.  Finally and probably most important what are the specific goals that need to be accomplished by the next meeting.

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