The Deeply Formed Life: Five Transformation Values to Root us In The Way of Jesus (WaterBrook, 2020)
Here is a quote from page xiv of this new book by Rich Villodas. This book was listed as Christianity Today’s book of the year 2020. The author has been on a personal journey of spiritual formation for nearly 30 years of his life. This book is insightful and will be a blessing to your spiritual formation.
The Harvard Business School says that a team is a small number of people with complimentary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, an approach for which they hold each other mutually accountable.
What a leader does not inspect, the team member will not respect!
For a group of people to come together as a team to accomplish their goal, they need to move from great potential to great performance. High performance expectations are constantly the best indicators of successful teams – Clay Carr
3 Reasons why people do not do what they are supposed to do•TRAINING – We have not adequately trained our Team••CAPACITY – They do not have the ability To Perform At This Level••ATTITUDE – A company is known by the company they keep
Shepherds Advantage provides Servant Leadership that helps people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Shepherds Advantage closes that gap by providing Leadership Development, Keynote Speaking, and Executive Coaching.
Connecting The WHAT and the WHY
This is what the company does – CORPORTATE Picture
This is what you do – PERSONAL Picture
This is what we do together – TEAM Picture
This is why we do it – BIG Picture
Help the Team Know Why What They Do Is Important
Tell Them Company Stories So They Can See The Big Picture
Give Them Exposure So They Can See The Big Picture
Connect Them With Results So They Can See The Big Picture
Express To Them Gratefulness So They Can See The Big Picture
Let your Team know that you value them until you know that they know you value them!
Shepherds Advantage provides Servant Leadership that helps people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Shepherds Advantage closes that gap by providing Leadership Development, Keynote Speaking, and Executive Coaching.
We all deal with the impact of expectations in 3 dimensions:
•Expectations that we have for ourselves
•Expectations we have of others
•Expectations that others have of us
Have an understanding so that you do not have a misunderstanding! – Charles Blair
The 2 words, information and communication are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things! – Sydney Harris
INFORMATION is getting out
COMMUNICATION is getting through
Clarify Your Expectations NOW!
Shepherds Advantage provides Servant Leadership that helps people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Shepherds Advantage closes that gap by providing Leadership Development, Keynote Speaking, and Executive Coaching.
Explicitly name the fundamental assumptions you had about your industry, geography, customers, partners, funding sources, and your team one year ago, and contrast them with new ones. Use these questions as a prompt:
Modify your expectations! If you were anticipating 3-6 months, plan for 9 months to one year. Perhaps you need to decrease your budget more than anticipated. New hires may be postponed. New construction will be delayed. Answering these types of questions about the next year of operations and physical gatherings you are arriving at design insights that you will now incorporate even if your situation proves to be a minimal interruption. As you clarify your assumptions and move them to design and implementation consider the following.
You need both divergence and convergence when it comes to developing new ideas in your organization. Too much divergence creates and endless stream of ideas that make it hard to prioritize and to understand what is most important or urgent. Too much convergence eliminates ideas with an authoritarian approach. This does not give the team members an opportunity to show their possibility.
Do not go it alone! I would encourage communication between the funders, stakeholders and shareholders all of whom have reason they have chosen to partner with you in the first place. COMMUNICATE! COMMUNICATE! COMMUNICATE!
Do I Understand What It Takes To Be A Team?
•Tolerance of each other’s weaknesses (We all have them)
•Encouragement toward each other’s success (We all need it
)•Acknowledgement that each of us have something to offer
•Mindfulness that we need each other•
Tolerance, Encouragement, Acknowledgement, and Mindfulness all require MATURITY!
Teamwork is not a performance; It is a REQUIREMENT!
The true measure of a successful Leader is not getting people to work!
The true measure of a successful Leader is not getting people to work hard!
The true measure of a successful Leader is getting people to work hard together!
Shepherds Advantage provides Servant Leadership that helps people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Shepherds Advantage closes that gap by providing Leadership Development, Keynote Speaking, and Executive Coaching.
How agile is your team? How fast is your team? Blizzard Leadership conditions reveals the ability to pivot to new innovations and adapt to rapid changing conditions. As a leader scramble the assignments and teammates to optimize around prototype workflows. Base these changes on passion over position and do not assume that rank correlates to authority. If your team is committed and understands your situation.
Even in a willing and high-functioning team, this kind of redeployment will create stress. Your most important steps to manage this stress are to:
Understand that blizzard leadership conditions are a great time to assess your team buy using a chosen tool such as DISC or Enneagram. Your team has been thrust into a war-like environment and it is important to know the skills of your team such as “self-initiative.” Raise up the most agile of your team members during this time.
In the midst of such rapid innovation and re-organizing, don’t forget to take the time to ask your team how that you can pray and serve them. In addition, you can lead your team in prayers of lament. The truth of the matter is that you and your team have lost something that was familiar but has changed and does not exist any long. That is cause for lament. What you have lost is control! Prayers of lament is not only remembering what is lost, but it is also about moving forward and embracing innovation.
Shepherds Advantage provides Servant Leadership that helps people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Shepherds Advantage closes that gap by providing Leadership Development, Keynote Speaking, and Executive Coaching.
Shepherds Advantage provides Servant Leadership that helps people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Shepherds Advantage closes that gap by providing Leadership Development, Keynote Speaking, and Executive Coaching.
If you can manage cash well enough to maintain a strong team, and you can learn at a faster rate than ever, you are likely to “find the new business” that will advance your mission and serve your stakeholders for the long term – Andy Crouch Praxis Journal
Pause for just a moment and consider the things that you did quickly to cope with the Blizzard that we all have been thrust into. Do you remember those changes from March 2020? Those innovations have a short shelf life. The Blizzard conditions taught us to be socially distant, sanitize our hands more than ever, quarantine ourselves, and wear masks. Beyond the political debate, just pause for a moment and consider how these new concepts have thrust us into new ways of acting, thinking, and behaving. We look at our most trusted friendships differently now, almost with suspicion. Here is a key thought, what you are doing now as a leader for your organization in order to engage each other and remain socially distant will be short-lived in the big scheme of life. However, your missional purpose is what lives on well beyond your life span, that is what you protect.
Since you have been thrust into this season uninvited, what can you reinvent and innovate that will allow you to excel past previous victories? Prototype everything – programs, services, goods, delivery methods, structures, and messages. Your organization is much more forgiving at the present. That will not last forever, you will need to demonstrate innovation and methods that makes the most sense in your community context. Organization ABC that copies Organization XYZ on the other side of the country will not make sense any longer. This blizzard has awakened people’s sense of awareness of their immediate world – Does anyone care about me? In isolation people are more aware of their true friendships versus acquaintances. Understanding this aspect of the blizzard will cause innovation to emerge to demonstrate authentic love and genuine care for God’s creation. This will give way to lasting innovation that will become strategy at a later date.Situations are changing more rapidly than previous years of leadership experience. This is why that innovation should look at 10-14-day trends instead strategic ideas that are 90-120-day trends.
Shepherds Advantage provides Servant Leadership that helps people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Shepherds Advantage closes that gap by providing Leadership Development, Keynote Speaking, and Executive Coaching.
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One of the HUGE AH-HA moments of 2020 was facing the reality that our COVID shut-down caused everyone to become a “Start-Up”, even if it was momentary. We were jolted by the prospect of doing business in a cultural environment that did not exist any longer. Simply to use the word SHOCKING is a true understatement. As we begin the journey into a new reality and a new year 2021 consider the following 3 definitions and 4 key insights that should be part of your leadership experience right now.
Key Definitions•Blizzard – You can’t go out; zero visibility and hostile conditions. You need to shelter.•Winter – You can go out but not for long. Wear protective clothing and check the weather forecast for storms. A need for survival!•Ice Age – Things do not grow in the way they used to grow. Discover new ways to live and thrive. Need to adapt and rebuild.
4 Key Insights
•If you have not come to grips with this reality you are behind the learning curve – COVID-19 should be treated as a Cultural Blizzard, winter, and beginning of a little ice-age. What we are experiencing is a once in a lifetime event. This is going to impact your organization for years to come. Everything you do, plan, and dream will be measured from this moment not what we had. COVID is the new ground zero of metrics. The natural tendency is to attempt any pathway that can get us back to where we were. This, however, ignores the sobering reality of change to such an extent that it will not allow a return to old norms. Simply stated, we have lost control and we are not calling the shots any longer! This once in a life-time event forces us to forge new methods, message, budgets, missional purposes, and systems.
•In mid-March of 2020, all churches and non-profit enterprises were effectively out of business in that the under-lying assumptions for their existence is no longer true. Understand that growth can become blinding in that you strategize and align resources to perpetuate your success trajectory. We have equated success and God’s blessing on doing the right things. Understand this is true in part but not the whole. To bring this fact into focus answer this question; “What was your founding purpose?” “Are you still on that trajectory of purpose today?” The prioritization of your founding purpose began with a call to a community. Use this disruption as a time to evaluate your function and footprint in the community you were called to reach. From that you can move toward to the uttermost part of the world. Your community is your foundational landing pad in times of uncertainity.
•It is time for a new “playbook” that honors your missional purpose and the community you serve. Make the most of your organization’s assets – namely the personnel, financial capital, social capital, to develop strategies that lean more on relationships and trust instead of programs for attractional value. The Kingdom of God is being faced with 3 keys questions of its leaders; Do you know me? Can you help me? Can I trust you? The foundation of questions is that people are looking for genuine community in which people actually know my name.•Currently the creative potential for hope is unparalleled. We are being given an amazing gift of a clean slate to start over. Paradoxically, we cannot achieve the full force of this new potential until we are given a chance for lament. We need to grieve over what we have lost – because it is real, and we all are attempting to find our way right now. Once lament has been engaged, leadership requires personal assurance and guidance that where we go one, we go all!
Shepherds Advantage provides Servant Leadership that helps people close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Shepherds Advantage closes that gap by providing Leadership Development, Keynote Speaking, and Executive Coaching.