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Category Archive: Leadership Development

3 Critical Personnel Qualifications

Posted by on October 24, 2016

When hiring any new employee you can ultimately place all of the criteria you are evaluating into the two major categories of character and competency. In the old days of the Industrial Age model of hiring the priority was given to job competency over personal character.

The process was started with a specific job description and then you would try to find a person with an educational and experience background that matched that job assignment. Their character was a factor but just not the main one.

In the new Information Age character has now clearly moved to the top of the list. Today you find the right person that will be a good fit for your team and over time you know they will find their right seat on the bus.

Jack Welch had three major things he was looking for at General Electric with all new executives. Two of these criteria related to character and only one to competency.

The first test was integrity because he wanted to know they would keep their word and tell the truth.

The second test was for intelligence because it takes smart people to compete in today’s complex global economy.

The third test was for personal maturity which means they can handle the stress and setbacks with equal parts of joy and humility.

The major reason for this significant shift in hiring priorities is that people now have to know how to work well in a highly participative environment. In this culture the mutual goals of the group are the target and not just personal success.

Everyone must have the mindset that what matters is that we succeed regardless of who gets the credit. Competency will always play a part in the hiring decision but today personal character clearly separates the winners from the losers.

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Developing Intentional Relationships With Non-Christians

Posted by on October 22, 2016

For years we have all been told that we are to be witnesses for Christ so that people can come to know Him. The major problem is that the prevailing strategy that has been used for years has never worked for the overwhelming majority of Christians.

The problem is not that this command is somehow out of date to the point that it should no longer be taken seriously. The critical failure is how we as leaders have modeled this ministry and trained our people to carry out this most important assignment for the church.

In the worst of situations we have trained our people to memorize a lot of facts and then after meeting a total stranger try to share all of the facts with them so they can make the most important decision of their lives all in thirty minutes.

I will acknowledge that in some cases there are divine appointments that God has prepared someone’s heart for just such a meeting. However, that does not mean that we should take this aggressive an approach with everyone we meet.

In the normal course of everyday we all tell stories about things that have happened in our lives. The subject matter can be anything from our last vacation, great new restaurants, job stress and personal family problems.

The reason why all of this works so easily is that it is in the normal course of our everyday lives within relationships that already exist to some degree. This is the biblical model of as you are going about your life share with other people the incredible and wonderful things that He has done in your life.

When evangelism moves from direct confrontation to casual conversations more people are going to respond to the good news of the gospel.

Categories: Church Scattered Contextualization Missional Living Pastoral Leadership Spiritual Growth | Comments Off on Developing Intentional Relationships With Non-Christians

Glocal Missions Strategy

Posted by on October 21, 2016

During the last century there were very clear distinctions between the concept of evangelism and missions. In the simplest of terms evangelism was reaching people for the local church and missions was reaching people for the kingdom.

Within the context of missions there was a local, national and an international segmentation. This implied the potential for several different strategies to be effective in all of these areas. It was understood that to reach people in an international context that significant cultural barriers had to be addressed for the gospel to be effective.

Today the cultural distance between the people who are in the church in America and the people who are not is significant enough to require a cross cultural missiological approach to reach them. They hold an entirely different world view and they are simply not going to come to our buildings regardless of how cutting edge our marketing may be.

For churches to be effective today in reaching the unchurched in America we are going to have to become missionaries in our own local context. We will have to find ways to take the gospel to where the people live, work and play and do it in a culturally relevant way.

That is why we need to stop thinking in terms of the old models of segmentation. The world has literally moved to America and through the use of technology and the new global economy everything has changed.

The church must become glocal in its thinking, which means one missiological mindset that produces multiple strategies depending upon who we are trying to reach in our area.

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4 Simple Ways To Manage Your Inbox

Posted by on October 21, 2016

Everyone knows that getting the important things done each and every day and walking away from everything else is the secret to success. We all have to process tremendous amounts of information all the time and there are so many things we simply cannot fit into an already loaded schedule.

Sometimes we take relatively simple concepts and make them too complicated. This is my conviction about the subject of personal productivity. When something hits my “inbox”, regardless of its source: email, cell phone, mail, interruptions, there are only four possible things I am going to do.

DELETE—If it is not important, I immediately kill it as fast as possible.

DELAY—If if is not urgent that it be done now, I file it for later.

DELEGATE—If it is something someone else can do as well or better than I can, they own it.

DO—If the first three options do not work, then it has to fit into my daily plan.

I will admit this is a very simple process with the exception of one phrase: IS IT IMPORTANT?

Technology and productivity may increase your efficiency but they cannot tell you if what you are doing should be done at all. Only your character and core values personally and professionally can do that.

Categories: Leadership Development Productivity | Comments Off on 4 Simple Ways To Manage Your Inbox

Short Term Thinking Leads Long Term Failure

Posted by on October 19, 2016

In sharp contrast to the breakthrough impact of the companies that practiced the flywheel effect all of the organizations that could not transition from Good to Great were caught in The Doom Loop. Instead of the consistent daily movement of the flywheel they went for the big impact event that would give the immediate impression of progress only later to regress into failure.

They were not willing to use the deliberate process of figuring out what needed to be done and then simply doing it. “The comparison companies frequently launched new programs-often with great fanfare and hoopla aimed at motivating the troops-only to see the programs fail to produce sustained results.”

They wanted the big event or the grand program or the new celebrity CEO that would allow them to skip the daily discipline of the flywheel and move immediately to breakthrough. The repeated pattern of this cycle consistently produced disappointing results and then reaction without understanding starts the loop all over again.

Peter Drucker commented on these companies, “The drive for mergers and acquisitions comes less from sound reasoning and more from the fact that doing deals is a much more exciting way to spend your day than doing actual work.”

The Doom Loop is a classic example of an organization continuing to do the same wrong things over and over again and yet somehow expecting different results. At the core of this problem is a leadership team that is more concerned with short term personal success than what is best for the long term benefit of everyone involved?

In the end this is not a strategy problem but a character one.

Categories: Leadership Development Strategic Planning Strategy | Comments Off on Short Term Thinking Leads Long Term Failure

The 5 Elements Of A Strong Leadership Pipeline

Posted by on October 17, 2016

The greatest waste of leadership capacity for any organization is the underutilization and lack of development of key people within their own company. The key reason in my mind is that these executives are overvaluing delivering results at the expense of not developing the next generation of leaders. This HBR post drives this issue to the top of the list:

“It’s not that development itself isn’t important. In a Deloitte study of 7,000 organizations this year, 89% of executives rated “strengthening the leadership pipeline” an urgent issue. That’s up from 86% last year, and the trend makes sense. Organizations are continuously promoting people into management, and those new leaders struggle with the transition.”

Critical Qualifications For Effective Leaders

Posted by on October 14, 2016

In my opinion the best organizational leadership book that has been written is Good to Great by Jim Collins. It proves beyond any doubt some things we have always know about effective leadership but he discovers some key principles that fly in the face of everything we have been taught in the past.

One thing that is really not new but clearly prioritized in his book is the importance of character in the life of any leader. Character ensures that the motives of the leader are always focused on what is best for the people they are leading and not for themselves.

The most significant myth that this book destroys about great leaders is that they all must be very outgoing cheerleader type personalities and that they have to lead with an authoritarian dictatorial style to be effective.

According to Collins, “Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated. In contrast, two thirds of the comparison companies had leaders with gargantuan personal egos that contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company.”

This personality type should never be mistaken for laid back soft leaders who don’t have the strength to make the hard calls. As a matter of fact they combine humility with an incredible strong will to make sure the right things are getting done. If they have to they would fire their mother if that is what was necessary for the long term benefit of the organization.

They also give credit to others when things are going well and when they are not they assume personal responsibility. This combination of personal humility and professional will make for the type of leader anyone would want to follow.

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5 Things Strong Leaders Can Handle

Posted by on October 12, 2016

Leaders used to draw a lot of significance from being the smartest person in the room with all the answers. That position allowed them to be more directive in their leadership style because everyone else was there to simply carry out the plan. Now with such a high value being placed on collaboration, these key things posted by Forbes must be a part of a leaders approach:

“Here are five things strong managers — confident people who are not afraid to hire competent and honest team members like you — can handle easily. They aren’t afraid to have human conversations at work. They aren’t afraid to be taught by somebody who works for them.”

Great Leaders Take Responsibility And Give Credit

Posted by on October 7, 2016

I have always been an Alabama football fan since the days of Coach Bryant. One of the things I always appreciated about him was when we lost a game he always took the responsibility in the press conference and never cast blame toward the players or officials.

According to Jim Collins in his best seller Good to Great all great leaders do the very same thing. His team noticed this pattern in all of the very successful leaders and they called it the window and the mirror effect.

All great leaders would look out the window and give credit to other people and not themselves when things were going well. At the same time, they would look in the mirror to assume responsibility for failure and never blame bad luck or someone else when things went poorly.

The comparison companies did just the opposite. These leaders would look out the window to blame someone or something when they experienced negative results. When they did get it right they would look admiringly in the mirror and take all the credit with great fanfare.

We all need to apply this lesson on a personal level. It is always easy to justify our bad behavior when we can use what someone else said or did to hurt us as an excuse. Assuming personal responsibility for our attitudes, words and actions is the first major step in becoming a leader who is driven by character and not by the fading recognition of the crowd.

Categories: Leadership Development Organizational Culture Servant Leader | Comments Off on Great Leaders Take Responsibility And Give Credit

The 5 Phases of Project Planning

Posted by on October 5, 2016

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. I personally use Nozbe the software developed with his planning strategy as a framework.

The reason I like his approach is that in our day of many complicated business planning models 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:

Defining purpose and principles
Outcome visioning
Brainstorming
Organizing
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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