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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 …

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Everyday Serving In The Workplace

Posted by on December 30, 2013

I will never forget the day when I realized that my work was just as much a part of my worship as anything I did on Sunday morning. It was a platform that God wanted to use to help other people connect with Him. The goal was no longer to make a profit but to make a difference. This post by Eric Geiger helps understand this concept:

“A common misconception among Christians is that their work is not spiritual, that a regular 9-to-5 day cannot be sacred. If they’re going to do anything spiritual or ministry-oriented, it’ll have to happen around these occupied time slots. But this implies that everybody needs to be a full-time pastor of some kind if they’re going to be “spiritual” for the better part of the day and week. The misconception that normal work is not spiritual is both inaccurate and damaging.”

Break Yourself To Improve Yourself

Posted by on October 3, 2013

The post by Joseph Lalonde deals with the need for brokenness and humility in our lives if we are ever going to reach our potential. It is painful at times but very necessary.

“There’s an age old saying that goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. For the most part, I agree with this saying. There’s nothing wrong with letting things stay at the status quo, as long as you’re good not seeing change.

However, for those that want to improve themselves, they know things need to change. And sometimes you need to break yourself to improve yourself.”

3 Ways To Create A Legacy

Posted by on September 13, 2013

I have attended a lot of funerals over the years and the one common denominator is in every service someone is trying to communicate the legacy of the person who has died. There are some patterns I have noticed when people have lived their lives in such a way that truly leaves a mark on the world.

Begin With End In Mind-All of the people that really made a difference took the long look about life and determined what they wanted the top priorities to be in their lives when it was over. When a person values friendships then you can see a pattern from there earliest years all throughout their lives where other people came first. If you want to be known for something later then you need to live it now.

Leave Something Better Than Found It- This is the type of person that is always trying to help others be successful and is not consumed about themselves. If they are a leader in the corporate world they are not looking out for number one they want the department or the corporation to be better when they leave than when they came. The true test of someone’s leadership is not when he or she is there but what happens when they are gone.

Gave Away More Than They Took– In the end people are either more consumers or contributors. They see other people as a means to their end or they see other people as the target of their generous spirit. These are the people that are always adding value to whatever they do from community involvement, relationships, work and faith. They simply love to give more than they take and people are moved by their humility and servant heart.

It is never to late to work on your legacy. The really important thing is taking the time to decide what you want it to be and then when the time comes other people will gladly step up and write your eulogy for you.

What practical steps are you taking to build your legacy?

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6 Ways To Make Emotional Deposits

Posted by on September 3, 2013

We are all familiar with the metaphor of making emotional deposits and taking withdrawals from another person both personally and professionally. When you end up taking more than you give to another person you end up with a negative balance and believe me there are serious fees and late charges involved.

Stephen Covey in his great book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People gives us six ways that we can make sure we are making deposits on a consistent basis with another person:

Understanding the Individual—really seeking to understand another person is probably one of the most important deposits you can make, and it is the key to every other deposit. You simply don’t know what constitutes a deposit to another person until you understand that individual.
Attending to the Little Things—the little kindnesses and courtesies are so important. Small discourtesies, little unkindness’s, little forms of disrespect make large withdrawals. In relationships, the little things are the big things.
Keeping Commitments—keeping a commitment or a promise is a major deposit; breaking one is a major withdrawal. In fact, there’s probably not a more massive withdrawal than to make a promise that’s important to someone and then not to come through.
Clarifying Expectations—the cause of almost all relationship difficulties is rooted in conflicting or ambiguous expectations around roles and goals. That’s why it’s so important whenever you come into a new situation to get all the expectations out on the table.
Showing Personal Integrity—personal integrity generates trust and is the basis of many different kinds of deposits. One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present because that builds trust with those who are.
Apologizing Sincerely When You Make a Withdrawal—when we make withdrawals from the Emotional Bank Account, we need to apologize and we need to do in sincerely. Great deposits come in the sincere words we share with the people we have hurt.

What are some ways that have worked for you to make emotional deposits?

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Final Performance Review

Posted by on June 14, 2013

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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Situational Leadership

Posted by on October 21, 2010

The one word that best describes the leadership model of the last century is positional. Most of the major decisions were made at the top and the role of the team was to merely execute the plan.

When you move to the new models of leadership today the one word that best describes these styles is participative. This simply means the team is involved in helping form the priorities and strategies in addition to execution.

When hiring a leader for the old model you found the best person that fit the job description. Then the team would adjust to the style of the new leader.

Today situation leadership is the key model in these highly participative team dynamics. It is now the responsibility of the leader to shift his or her style to the needs of each team member and the chemistry of the team as a whole.

The needs of the team members and the team as a whole will shift based on their competency and commitment levels. These levels will always change depending upon the task or project at hand and that is the whole point of validating the need for situational leadership.

If a person has very low competency based on lack of experience then a more hands on directive approach is needed. On the other hand if there is high commitment and high competency then the leader should shift to delegation.

The poor communication that is produced by misalignment between leaders and followers is the major factor in decreased productivity within our organizations.

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Final Performance Review

Posted by on June 14, 2010

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

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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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Organizational Culture Change

Posted by on September 4, 2009

According to John Kotter there are many reasons change initiatives fail especially in large organizations. The number one reason is there is not a clear sense of urgency for change that makes everyone willing to pay the short term price of pain due to change to gain the long term benefit of progress.

Many times the communications part of the process breaks down and the implementers do not get enough information to really buy in. The importance of creating short term wins for establishing credibility for the entire process cannot be overstated.

When the new of change becomes the norm there are several key factors that let you know it is now firmly in the D.N.A. of your organizational culture:

1. More change, not less: The guiding coalition uses the credibility afforded by short-term wins to tackle additional and bigger change projects.

2. More help: Additional people are brought in, promoted, and developed to help with all the changes.

3. Leadership from senior management: Senior people focus on maintaining clarity of shared purpose for the overall effort and keeping urgency levels up.

4. Project management and leadership from below: Lower ranks in the hierarchy both provide leadership and specific projects and manage those projects.

5. Reduction of unnecessary interdependencies: To make change easier in both the short and long term, managers identify unnecessary interdependencies and eliminate them.

When everyone in the organization starts to articulate the new vision in their own words as if it were their idea then you know they own the process. It is time to start looking for what needs to be changed next, the process never stops.

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