Mind Dump 06-09-08

Powerful quote I found on Brother Scott’s blog…

One of the most empowering moments in The Orchard’s journey of transition & change occurred a few years ago when someone said to us:

"Until you get your focus OFF of the people who are disgruntled, unhappy, unsupportive, and resistant to the direction God has called you to go, and ONTO those who are excited, supportive and on board, you will NEVER gain momentum and see a new culture created in your church."

That statement set us free.

Decision Matrix, I like the sound of that…

In my years at NorthWood of being on exec staff, I have realized there aren’t that many types of decisions. In fact, there are only four. Type 1. HARD DECISIONS that are EASY TO IMPLEMENT These are decision you aren’t totally convinced are the right decision and the answers don’t completely jump of the page at you. There seem to be several good options available which can cloud decisiveness. Often you feel like you seek God and sort of jump off the cliff adapting during the fall. Once the decision is made, communicating it and getting people on board will not be that difficult.

Book review of Divide or Conquer…

These days relationships are recognized as business lifeblood and everyone works to improve them, so Diana McLain Smith’s Divide or Conquer: How Great Teams Turn Conflict into Strength is right on the money.

Smith says that all teams “rise or fall on the strength of their relationships,” but instead of the typical discussion of team relationships, strengths, etc., she draws on her 25 years of experience and analyzes a number of high profile relationships to graphically illustrate her points.

She shows us why our belief that the problem is the other guy’s attitude/action and focusing on getting him to change boomerangs convincing the team that the source of the problem is actually us.

Smith says that what must change is how we interact, i.e., change the old patterns and create new ones, explaining how to build work relationships that are flexible and strong—the kind that can survive the tough challenges found in today’s global economy.

Are you willing to pay the price for excellence?

Most of those participating in the Olympics this summer will walk away from the games without grabbing a single medal. Those with real mettle will get back into training again. That’s what truly separates elite performers from ordinary high achievers. It takes supreme, almost unimaginable grit and courage to get back into the ring and fight to the bitter end. That’s what the Olympic athlete does. If you want to be an elite performer in business, that’s what you need to do, too.

Are you a leader or a manager?

If one looks at management development literature, it is only over the last 15 - and particularly the last 10 - years that leadership is mentioned at all. Prior to that, leadership was mostly only assigned to historical political figures such as Napoleon, Churchill, Kennedy and so on. These were people who earned the title leader. Leader was never assigned to organisational supremos. Nor was it given to any manager. It seems that some writers, keen to establish what makes a great manager great, settled on the term leadership as a distinguishing factor. Then they tried to define it. Then we tried to measure it. Some of us even tried to teach it! And there our troubles began…… My contention is that one becomes a manager when one signs on for the job, be it head of the country, firm, school, department or first-line supervisor. One only becomes a leader when other people say so….. This definition of leadership, rather than focusing on the inputs, such as personal skills, characteristics, competencies, traits etc, focuses on the outputs. Managers are judged on their status as a leader in the eyes of their followers and stakeholders by what they do and achieve

Mind Dump 04-17-08

• Bro. Higginbotham reviews the project planning process…My project reviews, derived from a good friend, Rob, can be accomplished during a single meeting, usually an hour in duration. Every team member, along with other leaders and teams that were involved with the project, should attend. Have a large whiteboard or writing pad available, along with plenty of whiteboard pens. Designate a recorder - someone who has nice handwriting - to record notes during the meeting. The recorder, or another attendee, should be given the task of typing in the notes and distributing them after the meeting is complete (don’t type them up during the meeting, as that will be too distracting). (via agile ministry)
• Are you an interactive preacher? Since the New Media alters traditional models of mass communication, we must radically review the ways we interact and communicate with others.  The Church, as a primary vehicle for communicating the Good News, stands to amplify it’s voice by using the interactive attributes found in the new media. (via leadership network)
• Master Drucker on leadership…Successful leaders don’t start out asking, “What do I want to do?” They ask, “What needs to be done?” Then they ask, “Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me?” They don’t tackle things they aren’t good at. They make sure other necessities get done, but not by them. Successful leaders make sure that they succeed! They are not afraid of strength in others. Andrew Carnegie wanted to put on his gravestone, “Here lies a man who knew how to put into his service more able men than he was himself.” (via forbes)
• Amen brother…It happened again the other day! The conversation was going so well. I was actually kind of surprised when the person I was talking to (who I was meeting for the first time) just had to go there. Now, there was no way this guy could have known that the pastor he was about to slander was a pretty good friend of mine. So I think it threw him for a loop when I stopped him mid-sentence and served notice:
  “I really don’t want to continue this conversation. The pastor you’re speaking against is a great man of God. You don’t even know him, I know him and care for him a whole lot. So I think it would be beneficial to both of us for you to stop maligning his character right now. I don’t want to hear it.” (via steven furtick)

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Mind Dump 03-17-08

• I firmly believe that the Internet was not created for the benefit of pornographers and Youtube, they have just been the ones who up to this put have taken the most advantage of it. Praise God that is changing…Not that long ago, the idea of providing a live video stream on the Internet of an event (say, for instance, a Billy Graham crusade) was a very costly and very ambitious endeavor. I know, because I worked on a few crusade webcasts for The Man (most notably the 2000 Nashville Crusade that started it all). We’ve come a long way, baby!  (via leadership network)
• What type of leader are you, a CEO or a Catalyst? Why is this question important?  Because according to the authors innovative technology has shifted the way that organizations and companies do business and operate in the world.  The authors lay out a pretty good case study for the power of a decentralized network, and lean upon examples such as Wikipedia, eBay, Skype, Amazon, craigslist, etc.  According to the authors more and more organizations are being driven by the users, and user content and participation is crucial.  Without this participation from people, a network does not usually thrive, and centralized organizations on the other hand have little room for user control and participation.  The key words in this new movement are collaboration, and it’s not so new as you will read about important examples of these decentralized networks in groups such as the Apache Indians. (books @ leadership network)
• Interesting concept that true innovation comes from people with a fresh pair of eyes…In his classic 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn argued that the people who achieve “fundamental inventions of a new paradigm have either been very young or very new to the field whose paradigm they change.”(1). In other words, when it comes to innovation, organisations can be disabled by experience and specialisation. (via fastcompany)
• We all know this right? In case you didn’t know it by now, let me just say, followership is the crucible of leadership. There is no better way to learn leadership than by being under someone else—leading from the second chair. As ironic as that may sound, it’s true. Learning to lead under someone else provides you with the opportunity (the necessity) to learn to lead without coercion. You learn to let your leadership speak for itself—authentically. (via leading blog)
• What can we learn from Mr. Spitzer? Ms. Spitzer was meant to follow her husband, as Mr. Spitzer was meant to follow his wife.  Leadership flows both ways in a marriage.  For example, Mr. Sptizer asked his wife to follow him as he rose through the ranks of New York politics.  I imagine (can’t know for sure) she did because she trusted him and the words that fell from his mouth.  When a leader violates trust, tragedy is not far behind. (via epic living)

 

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Mind Dump 02-25-08

• Are you a super leader? “A super leader has to see things before they happen. Long before I ministered to thousands of kids I saw it. Long before I had a national ministry I saw it. I don’t pastor the ministry I have, I pastor the ministry I want to have.” (via jim wideman)
• Effective leaders create an environment where those they serve with them find it easy to develope their God given gifts… “Peter only developed as a leader by spending time with Christ. We cannot expect our next-generation leaders to grow without providing an environment of love from which to grow in their relationship with Him. We can only do this by becoming a volunteer-centered leader who builds up leaders and prepares them to build others.” (via agile ministry)
• I quickly found out that the best thing I can do for the people I serve is keep my heart right, by that I mean stay face to face with the Lord and walk before Him as a barefoot priest…”As leaders, we often believe it is our experience, our knowledge, or our skills that are the most important component of our leadership. Not so. In admonishing his son, Solomon says that the heart above all is the most important. It should be our first priority. Why? Because it is “the wellspring of life.” Everything else flows out of it.” (via from where i sit)
• So what exactly is a servant leader…”So a “Servant Leader” is someone who is in a leadership position but their main desire, their mission, is to be in service to the people they are leading. Their ego is removed from the equation. It’s not about how they look or their personal and professional accomplishments or achievements. It’s all about doing things to benefit and enhance the team or group of people who have agreed to follow them.” (via the advantage of leadership)
• How can you spot a person with leadership potential? “The capacity to create or catch vision. “When I talk to people about the future, I want their eyes to light up. I want them to ask the right questions about what I’m talking about…… A person who doesn’t feel the thrill of challenge is not a potential leader.” (via the practice of leadership)

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Matthew 22:37-39“Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) NIV. All Rights Reserved.

 

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Mind Dump 02-07-08

• I’ve come to the point that I have decided that if you can’t win gracefully it’s now worth winning and as the dark lord of college basketball calls it quit lets reflect on whatever lessons we can learn from a bully…”I think the saddest part of Knight’s legacy is that so many of the boys who played under him will become the men who manager their business teams as he managed them believing that that’s the way to win. Not all, but too many.” (via leadershipturn)
• One of the buzz words going around is passion, but do we really know what it means? “A passionate person is someone who suffers and a compassionate person is someone who suffers with, and shares the suffering of, others—and wants to take action to alleviate this condition. Nearly every act of leadership requires suffering—and often for the leader a choice between one’s personal success and safety and the greater welfare of others. We’re asking you to understand that nothing great comes without costs.” (read more)
• Can you do this? “Some young leaders exhibit a conceptual ability to rise above the details, to see a broader context than their peers, and to place themselves and their immediate accomplishments within that broader context.” (read more)
• I keep a pocket Moleskine into which I lovingly place all the hopes and dreams God has placed into my heart and at moments of testing and trails I’ll pull it out to remind me who God says I am…”Do you have a book of dreams?  I’m talking about the book that holds all the dreams you’ve seen become reality.  I think you should have one.” (read more)
• Do you believe the lid law? “Leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness. The lower an individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid of his or her potential. The higher the leadership, the greater the effectiveness.  To give you an example, if your leadership rates at an 8, then your effectiveness can never be greater than a 7. If your leadership is only a 4, then your effectiveness will be no higher than a 3. You leadership ability, for better or for worse, always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact of your organization” (read more)

 

Technorati Tags: leadership,church leadership,moleskine