Coaching Churches

I recently became certified to become a trainer of The Leadership Challenge materials by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.  Although this book was written several years ago, its timeless leadership principles are just as relevant today as ever.

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.

I find this an excellent framework for all the leadership coaching and training that I do and I highly recommend that you implement these practices this new year.

All of us have worked at some point in time for someone who at worst just could not get it done or at best was personality challenged.   We come into our jobs with the hope that we can be a part of the solution and yet there are times when we don’t see the progress we had hoped for.

I changed jobs three times in the first five years out of college because I thought the problem was external.  If I could just get with the right company with a great boss then I would be successful.  To my shock I realized that the real problems were internal and I was simply carrying all of my personal issues from one company to the next expecting different results.

These are some of the things I have learned over the years about problems with the boss:

1.  Check Your Motives—make sure that your real agenda is to do what is best for the organization and not for yourself.  When you make it a priority to help make your boss successful then it becomes a win-win for everyone.
2. Keep It Real—when things are not changing at the pace you had hoped you have a choice to make.  You can get your feelings hurt and start telling people what they want to hear and emotionally quit or you can have the character to tell the truth with a respectful attitude.
3. Watch Your Tongue—if you allow your concerns to become public in an inappropriate way then you just became part of the problem and not part of the solution.  You should never say anything negative about another person to someone else because it will only spread disunity and destroy team moral.
4. Do Your Job—when we get in the negative cycle not only are we causing problems for other people we are not focused on getting our own jobs done with excellence.  We must show up every day with a clean heart and high level of commitment to be and do our best.

I can promise you it is not in your job description to change your boss or even your organization for that matter.  What is there is a clear set of priorities that need to be done by a person who is mature enough to stay positive when things don’t go their way and passionate enough to never settle for anything less than their personal best every day.