Strategic Planning | Coaching Churches

Category Archive: Strategic Planning

5 Habits Of Truly Disruptive Leaders

Posted by on November 11, 2015

Stability of the process was an extremely valued outcome in the 1980’s when I started my corporate career. The idea of disruption was clearly perceived as a threat to be avoided at all cost. With todays changing global marketplace that is a luxury we no longer have. Fast Company challenges the status quo again:

On its face, leadership’s goals don’t seem to line up with dictionary definitions of disruption. Here’s Merriam-Webster‘s:

disrupt: (verb dis·rupt \dis-ˈrəpt\) to cause (something) to be unable to continue in the normal way; to interrupt the normal progress or activity of (something)

Surely leaders should do the reverse, providing a steady hand on the tiller and guiding their teams to consistent and predictable victories—right? That’s been the formula for organizational success for decades, at any rate.

Categories: Career Development Leadership Development Leading Change | Comments Off on 5 Habits Of Truly Disruptive Leaders

4 Critical Team Dynamics for Leading Change

Posted by on November 4, 2015

How many teams have we put together over the years to help us lead the change process only to realize several months later that nothing happened that was sustainable? In John Kotter’s excellent book on Leading Change he gives four key characteristics that must be in place for the team to be successful.

Position power: Are enough key players on board, especially the main line managers, so that those left out cannot easily block progress?
Expertise: Are the various points of view- in terms of discipline, work experience etc.- relevant to the task at hand adequately represented so that informed, intelligent decisions will be made?
Credibility: Does the group have enough people with good reputations in the firm so that its pronouncements will be taken seriously by other employees?
Leadership: Does the group include enough proven leaders to be able to drive the change process?

When I have been responsible for leading major change initiatives all of these types of people must be involved. The other important dynamic is that you must avoid people who will try to take over the group and lead by positional power and the other extreme of individuals who will not engage and confront the brutal facts with their active participation.

Categories: Leading Change Teamwork | Comments Off on 4 Critical Team Dynamics for Leading Change

God’s Passion For The Cities

Posted by on July 19, 2015

We know from reading scripture that God cares about every person on the planet and there is not a people group that is outside of His global plan of redemption. However, we cannot miss as we read the Bible that God has always had a heart for the cities where the masses are living.

God’s passion comes out for the large cities in the book of Jonah in an incredible way. He is moved by the multitudes that do not know Him and declares, “should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left.”

Even a nation like Babylon that was wicked in the sight of God to the degree that He promised to totally destroy its evil culture, God through Jeremiah tells His people who are living in captivity there, “And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”

Throughout the book of Acts and the birth of the missions movement as we know it today we see God consistently sending his missionaries to the largest cities of that day to reach out to the greatest number of people possible with the message of the gospel. We read many stories of individuals coming to Christ but when God was reassuring Paul about pending persecution He reminded him, “for I am with you , and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”

The grand plan of worldwide redemption starts in a garden goes through a cross and ends in a city. Yes God cares about the one individual that lives in remote Montana or Malawi but He also knows that the largest number of people in 1^st or 21^st century will always be found in the cities of the world.

How can we too not have compassion and prioritize reaching the millions that live there who still to this day cannot discern between their right hand and their left.

Categories: Church Scattered Contextualization Missional Living Pastoral Leadership | Comments Off on God’s Passion For The Cities

Excellence Is A Choice

Posted by on November 7, 2014

There is a major difference between seeking excellence compared to wanting perfection. Perfection has no tolerance for risk that might lead to failure while excellence demands risk for the sake of improvement. Excellence has no tolerance either for average but it does not create a culture of fear and intimidation. Character driven leaders cannot settle for anything less than their best and Scott Williams has some great insights:

“Often times Excellence is viewed as this moving, high-level target that only a select group of fortuitous individuals can achieve. Excellence is simply a choice, it’s choice to: study more, practice longer, take that extra step in customer service,

Categories: Core Values Leadership Development Organizational Culture | Comments Off on Excellence Is A Choice

When It's Not A Good Time To Lead Change

Posted by on July 11, 2014

I learned a long time ago one critical leadership principle that has lasted all these years. You must find out the right thing that needs to be done and you must do it in the right way. There is one more critical piece to the formula, it must also be done at the right time or everything blows up.

Ron Edmondson nails this one on when not to lead change: “I’ve never been a proponent of the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Sometimes you need a change and nothing is “broke”.

Categories: Leading Change | Comments Off on When It's Not A Good Time To Lead Change

Leaders Don't Change These Things

Posted by on May 9, 2014

We live in a time of constant change and the ability to leverage change may be the single most important responsibility of a leader. However, there are some things that should never change and you must guard them at all cost. Mark Miller reminds us of some of those non negotiable items:

“Last week, I wrote a post asserting that leaders must create change. I stand by that. If you and I can’t create positive change, we won’t be allowed to lead for long. However, there’s another facet of our role. We are also the guardians for what should not change.”

Categories: Leadership Development Leading Change | Comments Off on Leaders Don't Change These Things

5 Stages Of Organizational Development

Posted by on January 14, 2014

Every organization either within a corporate context or a church context goes through sometimes difficult transition stages that can be clearly defined. Some stages may last longer than others and quite frankly many times that depends upon leadership. Ron Edmondson has an excellent post on this subject:

“Every organization goes through life cycles. This includes the church. These cycles can be natural or forced, but part of leadership is recognizing them and adapting leadership to them for continued health and growth. Each stage has overlap, but understanding this can help a leader decide how best to lead…which is different in each cycle.”

Categories: Leading Change Organizational Culture Strategic Planning | Comments Off on 5 Stages Of Organizational Development

A Call For A "New" Faith And Work Movement

Posted by on December 23, 2013

Far too many Christians live segmented lives where their faith only impacts one part of their lives. We are called to represent Christ in every area of our lives especially at work. This may be the only opportunity that most people have to see the gospel lived out in the real world. This is a great video and organization that equips people to represent Christ in the marketplace:

David H. Kim presents the necessity of an integrated faith & work movement that takes seriously the sovereignty of Christ, remembers the renewing work of the Spirit and emphasizes the importance of a narrative comprehensive enough to drive forward the challenge of humanizing work.

Watch Video …

Categories: Church Scattered Contextualization Life Plan Missional Living Work Life Integration | Comments Off on A Call For A "New" Faith And Work Movement

How To Use Social Media

Posted by on November 22, 2013

One of the great questions facing leaders today: Is the use of social media a waste of time and manpower or should it be a critical piece of todays marketing platform? The truth can lie somewhere in the middle and Carey Nieuwhof has some helpful guidelines for any organization:

Social media has changed the leadership landscape radically in the last few years.

The question is how do you use it optimally as a leader?

In my experience, social media is both about what you do on social media as well as how you do it. The what is your content. The how is your tone.

Both are critical.

Categories: Leadership Development Storytelling | Comments Off on How To Use Social Media

Vision More Than Words

Posted by on November 6, 2013

In the end everyone is watching to make sure our walk equals our talk. Any good leader can give a great speech but the payoff is are they living out what they say is important. Mark Miller challenges us to look beyond what we say to what we do as leaders:

One of the never-ending responsibilities of a leader is to remind people what we’re trying to accomplish and why it matters. This is the essence of vision casting. Unfortunately, most leaders under communicate their preferred picture of the future.

If the leader is sold out to the accomplishment of the vision, why would he or she under-communicate it? There are probably several contributing factors to this phenomena.